Quickie

Hi Cindy,

I should be headed off to bed but I haven't written yet this month and there is only 40 minutes left in it so I thought I'd post a few pictures.

We got new cell phones a couple of weeks ago. Mine is a pretty blue one that I want to protect so I made a couple of cozies. Guess which one is mine.
Two weeks ago DH went backpacking in Aravaipa Canyon with a couple of his buddies, one from Seattle and one from Dallas. It was the first trip they've done together in 14 years. Aravaipa Canyon is SE of Phoenix. I drove them down to the east end which is near Safford and picked them up two days later on the west end. Before I could pick them up though I had to call AAA for a jump, the truck battery had died.

Aravaipa is a perennial stream so they didn't need to carry water. There were plenty of frogs and fat squirrels to keep them company. They didn't see any rattlesnakes so it must have been a bit early for them.
The main part of the canyon is a Bureau of Land Management Wilderness area. You have to get a permit to hike there and they only let a limited number of people in each day. The Nature Conservacy has purchased ranches at both ends to help preserve the area.

This is my favorite picture. DH took it in one of the side canyons they hiked up to. Notice the columnar jointing in the canyon walls. Looks like a volcanic tuff to me. And notice how the smooth erosion of the walls is almost exactly the same height as the boulder in the distance. Imagine the force of the flash flood to move that!

I'll close this off and head to bed. DH is dropping me at the airport on his way to work. My flight leaves shortly after 10 and I should be to MKE by 3:30. I'll see you on Friday and may give you a call beforehand. Looking forward to seeing you! A

A Quickie

Hi Cindy!

Now that it's been over a month since I last posted I thought I'd throw up some pictures and then write something later. Here goes. First up, Salmon Carpacio plied.
Next: Roasted Red Pepper Soup


Here are two pictures of the wet-felted bag I did the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Not perfect but I like the flowing, organic nature of it.


A cowl I knit for Shinkai: The neck portion is the Birthday Cowl and the bottom portion is from Poinsettia (Knitty Winter 2008). It is from Malabrigo Worsted and the color is Red Pearl.

Finally a simple Ribbed Beanie for Sokai, Cascade 128 Tweed. Love it!

Merry Christmas if I don't write beforehand! A

October Surprise!

Surprise Cindy!

I'm actually writing a blog entry! Little did I know how prophetic the title of my last entry would be. In the last month I've become such a slacker in writing. Having my cousin stay with us for two weeks put me in a weird funk and even though he's been gone for about a month I haven't had the motivation to write.


I finally finished DH's sweater a couple of weeks ago. It took me seven months to finish it and I got it done about a month after the UFOlympics close up. I'm really happy with it. The yarn is heavier than called for in the pattern so I knit my gauge swatch and used that to calculate how many stitches I'd need for various parts of it. My only problem was that I didn't get the wrap stitch right on the purled short rows so I have a series of small holes where the wraps occur. I'll probably go back with some matching yarn and stitch those up so they don't show. There's 6 of them I believe so it's not too bad, and they're all on the right-had side.

Here is a charming wrist warmer pattern called Del Mar I found on Ravelry. The yarn is a lovely alpaca-silk blend that I got a Tuesday Morning earlier this summer. I call my version Foggy Morning as it looks like waves on a beach on a foggy day. I'm not sure if I'll keep them or if they'll be a Christmas present for either my mom or my MIL.

My final picture tonight is my version of the scarf on Ravelry called "October is For Spinners". It has a large spider knit in the center bottom. Her you can see four of the legs and the start of the body. Right now I have two strands of yarn held together but farther up I'll drop one of them and then start working on progressively larger needles to give it a drapey, cob-webby look about it. I'm excited about it.
I signed up a couple of weeks ago to do a Mystery Spin-along at Tempe Yarn. I haven't gotten the fiber yet but should in about a week or so. The actual spinning starts on November 8. We'll have 3 clues a week and will finish up the first week in December. A Meal is the theme for the spin-along since the store owners' daughter just finished culinary school. I'll try to post pictures as it progresses. At the end we will have a show-and-tell get together at the store to see what everyone has spun.

Part of the reason I've been slacking on posting the last month or so is that I've gotten caught up in the election. Each evening once DH has gone to bed I sit up and watch Countdown on MSNBC.com. I've gotten really addicted to it. I've also been reading a lot of Huffington Post and watching Daily Show and Colbert Report. Sometimes the fake-news shows are better than the real news. I am knitting a shawl out of Patons SWS in a blue and tan colorway that I hope to have done in time to wear on election day. If not, I will have it ready to wear on inauguration day.

We were up to visit DH's parents this weekend. They are doing okay although his dad has gotten pretty frail the last couple of months. He has PD and rheumatoid arthritis so he's been having more trouble getting around. He is only 73 and still has a very sharp mind but the body has lost it's vitality. DH's grandmother will be 96 at the beginning of March. She went through a bad spell for a while, was on hospice care for 15 months, but has recently started eating more and is getting a bit better. She was taken off hospice care last month and now her care-givers think she could hang on for a lot longer.

My parents have been doing pretty good. Last time I talked to them Dad thought he might retire at the end of the year. He will be 65 in March and still hasn't really got back all his energy after his surgeries this past spring. He is more than ready to quit working and take it easy. Mom will probably work another year until her 65th birthday. They would like to do the snowbird thing between down here and their lake place. It would be nice to have them down here some.

I guess I should finish this off and head to bed. More soon, take care, A

A Knifty project

Hi Alene, how's it going? Here's a little scarf I made for the charity projects my LYS is collecting. I used a Knifty Knitter which is very similar to a gadget we had when I was a kid that I remember making scarves on. I still find it relaxing to wind the yarn around the pegs :) It's neat how many different ways there are to make knitting.

My congregation has started a shawl ministry to make comfort items for members who are in need. There is no production pressure, just opportunities for mindfulness, fellowship, and connection. I'm keen to participate.

Fall is here in earnest despite the hot & cold flipping of the weather. The colors are gorgeous. We had our first frost about 10 days ago. Have the temps in AZ mellowed yet? Ciao, Cindy

Slacker, Extraoridnaire

Hi Cindy!

Thanks for posting while I've been slacking. Work has been busy the last two weeks with lots of permits coming back for re-analysis at lower pumping rates. I haven't really felt like posting in the evening and haven't done much knitting in that time either, just a few little projects with quick gratification.


I did not finish DH's Cobblestone during the UFOlympics as I had hoped. I did get the arms attached and about an inch of the yoke completed before the olympic torch went out. I've got almost another 4 inches done in the interim and I'm almost to the second decrease round. I'm to the quicker part of the yoke and once I start back on it in the next few days I should be able to finish it fairly quickly.


The next project that I started, actually the one I worked on once the sleeves were done on the sweater but the body needed work, was a beret. I used about 1.8 balls of Lion Brand Landscapes in the Deep Sea colorway. I'm pretty happy with it although it may be come a christmas gift to either my mom or my MIL. I got 3 balls a few months back for $1.50 each at Big Lots. I'm considering either a narrow scarf or wrist warmers to match out of the remaining 1+ ball.


And finally, I made a pair of wrist warmers in the Del Mar pattern. The yarn is a lovely alpaca-silk blend called Llama Set in a light gray color. I called my interpretation Foggy Morning. I finished the knitting yesterday morning and wove in the ends although I have not crocheted around the thumb hole. I've only done a miniscule amout of crochet and I'm not sure if I'm up to it on this one. I've only got a few yards left and I'm not sure if there's enough for both.


Yesterday I started a pair of Dashing for DH to match the earflap hat I knit him earlier this summer. It is out of the SWTC Karaoke, a yarn that I'm really liking right now. I have about 3 more rounds before the first cable row, although there are only a total of 6 cables on each glove so I think I can handle it. I've done a cabled headband before so this isn't the very first.

I talked to my parents yesterday. They are doing well, getting stuff done at both their house and the cottage. Dad has been in to meet with Social Security. If he retires this month at 64.5 he'll make a modest amount but if he waits 6 months until his 65th birthday he'll get a couple of hundred more. I figured when he told me the difference, plus COL adjustment at the start of the year, that he'd wait it out. Nope, his target date for retirement is December 26, halfway between the two. It sounds like the deciding factor is his health. He's still not fully back on the breathing and it makes him tired quicker. He now has his 5 years in at Generac so that helps out his pension from them. If there's a retirement party for him in December or January I think that we will try to make it back there. DH wants to take Amtrack back there, he thinks its a romantic idea. Of course we have to get to Flagstaff to do it, it's more expensive, takes longer and could take extra long if it's snowy. I'll keep you posted as I hear.

I'd better close this but I promise I'll write more soon. Maybe I'll write about the camping trip although you've probably looked at the pictures already. Take Care, A

2 FOs and a challenge?

Hi Alene, (I have no idea why my text is underlined so I am choosing to ignore it) here are 2 recent FOs: a baby blanket for my niece (goddaughter #2 is expecting her first in Feb.) and a pair of fingerless mitts form spindle-spun Corriedale.

The baby blanket (whew away went the underlining) I made on my Bond machine as a big piece of stockinette and then the textured stitches are hand-manipulated (off the machine in this case). I learned about this particular technique on Ravelry, and although it looks a little wonky to me, DH says it's nice and agrees it'll be a good size for an infant car seat.

The fingerless mitts are made with the same "pattern" that I use in my Spin and Knit Fingerless Mitts class. It's not much of a pattern, garter stitch worked sideways mostly. Easy and fun. I had a 2 inch piece of yarn left when I finished!

Now for the challenge: do you want to spin a little for Spin-Off's next Your Yarn feature? It's for spindle-spun yarn. We'd need to do a 5-yard piece and get it to them sometime in Dec., I think. Will need to look up the details. What do you think?
:) Cindy

DS's DS case

Hi Alene, when DS learned to knit 2 years ago, he first made a cute little Xmas ornament. Then he picked out his own yarn (for the record, green Cascade 220 superwash) and decided to make a scarf. Even with me giving him yarn to make stripes, that was a bit too much project for someone his age. So when he finally had enough dough to buy his Nintendo DS, I suggested his "scarf" was long enough to fold up & sew into a bag for it. He loved this idea and here it is! He did most of the knitting, helped make a twisted cord, and picked out the button. I put in a lining. Yay!!!
Thanks for picking up the slack; more entries in the works. C

(UFO)lympic Training

Hi Cindy!

I was going through pictures earlier today looking for some from the Chiricahua Mountains. We've taken 3 trips down there over the years and are planning another camping trip in about a month. It is the 17th Anniversary of the first backpack trip DH and I took together. I had no luck finding any pictures but I did have a good time looking through the rest and came across this picture of a younger you when you visited and we went to the Grand Canyon. What a fun trip! Hopefully your family can come out to visit someday and we can take a similar trip. How about Zion or Bryce? The picture was only about 3 weeks after the aforementioned backpack trip.


I have decided that I will compete in the UFOlympics on Ravelry. Saturday is the last day to join the group and the last day to declare your chosen competition is next week Saturday. Training is allowed until that last day of declaration. I am going to work on the Cobblestone Sweater for DH. I started it several months ago and have worked on it occassionally since. I picked it up again this afternoon to do a little training and in the few hours I worked it tonight I finished another inch or two. I have about 8 inches done on the body with another 10 inches to go before it is time to start the sleeves. If I can get a good portion of the chest done before the rest period I stand a good chance of finishing. This is about the biggest item I've attempted. Wish me luck!

To finish off, here are two recent FO's. The first is a hair-drying hat I finished recently. You may recognize the yarn; it is the white cotton you sent for my birthday the first year I started knitting. I tripled the yarn and really love the texture of the hat. I need to add an additional button on the flap so I can tighten it so it will stay. I added the loop for hanging so it dries quickly when I'm done with it.

The second is a snood I made. It is in dark grey cotton ease (Lion Brand) using the same stitch pattern I've been stuck on for the last two months; YO-K2TOG one round, knit the next. It gives a great, simple lacy affect. CG at work thinks it looks a lot like crochet. What do you think?

Guess I'd better close this and head off to bed. Take care, more soon, A

Fireworks & FO's

Hi Cindy!

Happy Belated 4th! It was hot, Hot, HOT here!

How goes the Tour d'Fleece? I thought about doing it but still am unhappy with the last couple of Tour d'Frances and am not ready to commit to something associated with it. I am, however, considering the Summer Knitting Olympics or perhaps the UFOlympics. I will probably do the latter and push to finish DH's sweater.

Here are a few pictures of the fireworks display in downtown Tempe. We sat on the median on Rio Salado Drive, just east of Mill Ave, so these pictures are 90 degrees from what we saw. The median was hot and uncomfortable but at least we could sit through them, not have to stand the entire time. The display started about 20 minutes late but ran for about 45 minutes and was quite a show.
(above & below: looking east along Tempe Town Lake)

Here is my MIL in the poncho I knit her for her birthday. The yarn was a merino-acrylic blend that I got at Tuesday Morning. It took around 3 full balls although I had to use parts of 4 balls. The first two had a regular transition between colors but the second two balls had a different color sequence so I had to piece the colors in. I have enough left over that I'm making her a neckwarmer that will button using the stitch pattern from Yarn Harlot's Simple 1 row scarf.

At my old position at the other state agency I didn't have to wear my ID badge or even carry it all the time. At my new place I don't have to really wear it but I do have an access card that gets me to my floor and I need to carry it all the time. I'd been ruminating on making a small bag to carry it in for quite a while rather than wearing the plastic holder all the time. Here is my creation. It is another yarn that I picked up at Tuesday Morning. It is basically the same pattern as the Soap Sock I've made a couple of times recently. I added the flap and I-cord neck strap to make it a little more useful. The only problem is that the yarn is actually pretty scratchy. It is a linen-acrylic-cotton blend. I added the small padded section to keep the scratchiness away from my neck. I used the green bead as a closure and then added the second bead for decoration. I've started another id bag in a ribbon yarn, although that may go to DH's co-worker.

More pictures soon of DH's hat and other FO's (I hope)

A

March pictures during April showers

Hi Alene, what a difference a few weeks makes. [oops, weird formatting again] These pictures are from March and are in order :) DH's vest came out great and is a good and warm just the way it is. He opted to have me skip the "timbers" that were a big part of the original design (sorry, Philosopher's Wool) so now I have a bunch of skeins of black yarn to make something else! Darn;)

I'll be trying to catch up on my blogging too after some slacking due to getting some lessons ready for RE, having lots happening at home, school, & work, and the start of soccer, farmer's markets, and gardening! Yay! All good things except the water in one part of the basement; yes, now we are having lots of rain and need a new gutter on the front of the house.

I've been keeping your family in my thoughts and hope your dad is doing OK. I'm thinking ahead to Earth Day, so "see" you then. Love, Cindy

Stash Airing

Hi Cindy!

I love the snowy pictures. They almost make me miss it until I realize just how cold it is there. Then I remember why I live here where it is sunny (most of the time) and warm (too much of the time). This week has been an exception to both of those. Sunday it rained all day, we had probably over an inch at our house and parts of the valley saw over 2 inches.

A lot of that rain is directed into the normally dry Indian Bend Wash in Scottsdaly and heads down stream to the Tempe Town Lake and on down the Salt River. Good for (naturally) recharging the aquifer. Unfortunately for some people roads go through Indian Bend Wash. Inattentive people have a tendancy to drive around barricades blocking it, thinking the water isn't that deep and they can get through. A flooded car is not uncommon and we see them every time it rains.

DH had another zazenkai this last Saturday so I had the whole day to my self. I spent it going through my stash, photographing most of it, and picking out the worst of the acrylic to send off for charity knitting at Tempe Yarn and Fiber. I ended up taking in two paper bags worth. It gave my stash a little breathing room. Over the next few weeks you'll see the pictures of the stash remains making their way onto my Ravelry page. Actually a few already have along with a couple of projects I also knit up over the weekend.


I love big bulky yarn for little projects like baby hats. This one is a version of the umbilical hat although I didn't knit the umbilical long and knot it. The yarn is just a little too bulky for that. Instead I just looped it back and stitched it down. It is pretty cute. The yarn is Big Baby by Muench Yarns. I've used this yarn before, in fact my friend Ash and I used it to knit our first project. For a baby shower gift for another friend we each knit squares (10 each) and then I joined them into a blanket. That was just over 2 years ago.

I also had two balls of the yarn in another color way and decided to knit them up into a small security blanket. I have to work in the ends yet on both pieces but they'll be all finished off in the next week or so. The baby shower is just 10 days off so it's time to make sure everything is done. I've started a pair of booties and finished the first one already. It's another stash project and I'll have pictures of it soon. It feels great to be working through the stash although I could knit just from it for a long time and not have to buy new yarn.

I'll have another post soon about the two interesting fibers I picked up the other day when I dropped off the charity yarn. I had gift checks to spend and they finally burned a hole in my wallet!

Take care, Stay warm and dry! Love, A

What I've Been Up To

Hi Cindy,

I saw the bad weather that blew through there yesterday. Yikes! Thunderstorms and tornadoes in January, what's up with that? We had a goodly amount of rain yesterday, around half an inch, and today is back to sunny. Did you see the bus accident in Utah? It was headed from Telluride back to Phoenix and most of the people were from around town. Three of the kids that died were from one high school. How sad.

Here is my latest completed item. It took me just over an hour to complete. It is a single mini-mitten. Since we don't have much use for mittens here I thought I'd try a mini one to see how it went. It passes the Margi chew test, fits in her mouth just perfectly. Actually it is the perfect size for my thumb drive to fit in for carrying back and forth between work.

As you probably figured out I got my Ravelry invite on Saturday, just before we were due to leave for Ben's surprise 60th birthday. I ended up spending much of Sunday on it and have started to catalog my stash although I'm sure that will take weeks.

Here is a picture of Ben with his birthday cake. He played college football for Michigan State (hence the green football helmet) and then one year for the Washington Redskins, the year that Lomabardi coached them. Unfortunately for him he was drafted into the Marines that year and ended up in Viet Nam. He was wounded pretty badly there and has full disability because of it. He was one of my good bosses at MI and there were only 2 of them in the 14 years I was there.

I start my yoga class tonight. It is a Yoga Basics class which is good since it's been about 9 years since I took a formal class and did yoga regularly. I'll let you know tomorrow how sore I am from it.

Take care, stay warm and dry! A

Happy Christmas!

Hope all is well there. Without further ado, a FO! The modified Cactus Blossom as a cardigan made top down, by hand & machine, with 3/4 sleeves . . . er, make that 5/8 sleeves (they came out a bit shorter than planned but work well for at home as you can see). Photo by DS.

We went to my family's party yesterday at my younger sister's. Her baby is 10 mos. old now and adorable! We had a good time and came home in yet another storm , this time blowing snow being most of the difficulty. It's been quite a month for storms with more ice than we've had for a long time. While at the party I cut my finger slicing rolls; not serious but very annoying and will put me off spinning for a few days.

We finally got to see the HP OoTP movie! I really liked it although several sets were quite different than I imagined. I'm looking forward to seeing the special features on the DVD soon.

I had been trying to spin some Finnsheep wool but was having difficulty. I believe it was in excellent shape when I got it in 2002 (!) but seemed a bit dry or matted or something now. I wasn't sure. I decided to use it for a dyeing experiment and use up the last of my tie-dye stuff from this summer. I was careful not to let the dyepot boil (I've only tried dyeing roving once before and I felted part of it). I must have used too much dye because the pot never exhausted. Alll that leftover dye meant lots of rinsing and somewhere along the way the inevitable happened . . . I have a gorgeous blue-green soft thick rope of felt. Hmm. Methinks I'll leave the dyeing of roving to the professionals and stick to dyeing yarn (I've had good luck with that so far). I thought I had a picture of it but I can't find it.

More soon on my crafty plans for 2008 and on how I became a low stasher. Oh, and did I mention I'm on Ravelry now? Love, Cindy

It's beginning to look a lot like . . .

. . . the North Pole! More snow today, making 3 substantial snowfalls this month! Two had mixed precip so some difficulties with ice. That's DD near the garage.

During the 1st snow/ice storm, I made the Elf Cap from Handknit Holidays out of some of the experimental yarn I made earlier this year. It's kind of a riot of color and could be a teensy bit snugger (same old knitting hat story for me:) but I've been wearing and enjoying it regularly. It knit up really fast cuz it's on size 15 needles.


The last photo is of the lovely silk top you sent me. The small whitish ball is some of it, the threadlike parts, plied with undyed silk from silk hankies. The center pull ball is 2-ply yarn, not particularly even, spun worsted from the dyed top with lots of predrafting. I love silk even though it's not so easy. Thanks for choosing such a pretty color. As you can see I still have lots of undyed hankies to work with.


Are you loving your wheel? I love mine and my spindles too. I'm glad I didn't give them up when I got my wheel. Gotta go for now, C

A Couple of FO's and Pink Knitting

Hi Cindy!

The weather that has brought all the fires to Southern CA has brought us some lovely weather. Yesterday reached a high of about 80, maybe even a degree or two lower, and lots of wind. And just in time I finished off a hat. Actually it was a really quick knit. I used about half of the one ball I bought while visiting you in April and knit it up on 15's. I don't have any dpn's that size but I do have 2 circs. I'm pretty happy with it. This is actually the first hat I've made for myself, all the others have been gifts.

The color for much of my upcoming knitting is Pink! My friend L found out last week that she's having a girl so I dug out my stash box of pink and red related yarns. I'm definitely thinking of a sweater made out of a mix of items from this box although I haven't hunted down a pattern yet. The cotton yarns have also come out and it is likely that a M-D kimono will come out of those. Or maybe a hooded bath towel. I have 5 balls of a white-yellow-blue mix that I'm thinking about over-dying with a pink to give a more girly color pattern to.

Last spring I bought a ball of cotton in this pretty pink variegated mix. I had intended to make a few dishcloths out of it for my friend J's birthday but got enough others done that I hadn't cracked this one open yet. It is brighter than your typical baby-pink but I think L will like it. Her favorite color is red and the dark parts of this head that way. As you can see I've finished the M-D bib and am working on a matching burp cloth. We're all having lunch this Saturday so I'd like to have it all done by then. I still need to get a cute button to finish off the bib. I'm debating a cute flower or a bit of bling with a giant rhinestone. Maybe I'll go by Joanne Fabrics tomorrow night to see what I can find.

Here are a few of my current reading items. I could no longer resist and had to buy Crazy Aunt Purl's book last week. The two books in the back I got on our last trip to Bookman's a couple of weeks ago. Occasionally I drop by Stitchy McYarnpants blog. It's always good for a chuckle and the book is no different. It's amazing what passed for knitting fashion. And what still does. I went through knitting magazines over the weekend and have picked out a whole pile to take to Bookman's next time we go. In that scrounging I also found the Knitting for Babies booklet that I bought when my other friends were expecting last year. I'm sure I'll pick something out of it.

Guess it's time to head off to bed. I stayed home sick to day so no telecommuting this week. More soon, maybe even a mandolin pattern!

Take Care, A