More finished objects!

My Liesl cowl is finished! In fact, it's been finished since mid-October, but as noted, I'm not the greatest at photographing things. Plus, the Liesl Cowl went straight into my rotation of cozy things to wear out in the world. And with that lovely polar vortex we had a few weeks ago, it has seen a lot of use. The Liesl cowl, if you'll recall started out as a lovely pile of 5 skeins of Quince & Co.'s lark yarn in the marsh colorway:

I then learned how to cast on provisionally, and spent a while memorizing a cable chart, trying to create some sort of nemonic device to remember which slash meant cable front and which meant cable back. I failed at that, but I did learn to "read" my knitting, and could quickly and easily braid my cables without a pattern, which felt like quite the accomplishment!

I started knitting it in late winter/early spring, but did not finish before summer hit. I took it on a trip to Duluth in June - I wish I had taken a picture of me knitting it there, but alas, I did not. I finished it in late September/early October, but it was the end of October before I got around to blocking it. Blocking it did squash my cables some (they are popping back out a little but oops). It felt like it took forever to dry, but mostly I was impatient, because I had worn it a few times before blocking and just wanted it back already.

It has a nice, thick, squashy feel, and drapes well, but also still stands up against the wind and my coat collar. In fact, it has turned out so well that my granmom has asked me to knit one for her - which I have just recently cast on, in the lark-peacock colorway.

Here I am wearing my cowl with my aunt who is an award-winning chocolatier in Portland, OR. Her shop is called Alma and she makes the most delicious (and beautiful) chocolates. The Habanero Caramel Bonbon is divine. 

And if you look back to this post, I am wearing the Liesl with my not-quite-cousin L. 

Fingerless Mittens, Take One

Of all the things I knit, I keep coming back to fingerless mittens. (Fingerless gloves? Whatever. You know what I mean.) Until my two most recent projects, I've always followed some pattern. These ones, though, I just sort of started knitting without much plan. I had some stash to use up - who doesn't?! - and didn't even pay attention to weight of yarn, which was maybe not my brightest decision ever. (Scroll to the bottom for a basic pattern).

So. Remember those? I started working on them last January (aka a YEAR ago), and actually finished them in October, and just haven't gotten 'round to taking blog photos. (See my resolutions from last post!) For once, finished even meant blocked and everything, but alas, I am a bad blogger.

So this is the finished product. There are a few things that I would do differently, but all in all, I am pretty durn pleased with them. They were designed with a man's hands in mind, but it turned out they were a sweater-curse-project, and he was out-of-picture by the time I finished the first one. I cast on 36 stitches, which was probably somewhere between 4-6 stitches too many, and then when I bound off the thumb, I (for reasons I no longer remember) added 3 stitches, for a final stitch count of 39. That was a bad decision; I don't recommend it. I also ended up frogging and re-knitting the second mitt at least 3 times to get it to match the first. That was a huge bummer. 

I love the stripes. I worked really hard to do jog-less strips, and although the jog-less stripe point is not visible here, it actually worked really well. Because I didn't know yarn weights, I ended up doing 3 rows of green for 2 rows of grey; I think the grey is a bulky while the green is an aran. Embarrassingly,  I do not remember purchasing the yarn, and really truly don't know who made them. The green MAY be a Rowan yarn of some kind, but I just have a kind of feeling that's the case.

You can download a .pdf of the pattern here. I have edited the pattern to reflect what I learned while knitting these up! Please post any pattern questions, comments, problems in the comments of this post.

New Year; New Resolutions?

This year, I resolve to be better at posting regularly! See below for the stack of knitting I have yet to post about; there are two finished and unblocked pieces not included, as well as my current knitting project. Whoops.

It's been a kinda tough year (again). My dad's mom died in early November of a stroke. I saw her in late August/early September for my cousin's wedding, and we (almost the entire family - cousins, spouses, aunts, uncles, great-grands) all had a pretty grand time in West Texas celebrating the couple. The whole family got together again in November, which despite the circumstances, was lovely. I got to meet my new first-cousin-once-removed S, and spent a lot of time with L, the older sib - a big girl of 3. 

L and me, reading my new favorite picture book Journey

So I am ready for this new year. I've brushed off last year's resolutions and am re-using some of them. I am making some new resolutions. In no particular order, they are:

• post regularly here
• floss my teeth
• be outside and active more
• eat more vegetables
• try new recipes
• keeping in better touch with friends
• be more social; don't feel guilty about being introverted

Happy new year to you! Best of luck in it!

(PS. You can see me wearing one of my knitting projects in the photo of L and me!)

Life Changes

So I promised a post about life changes, because I've had a lot of those recently. Most obvious is the move from my parent's house to my(our) own apartment. That has been amazing and wonderful.

The most important life change was actually that in July I quit my job. It just wasn't working out for me; I was pretty miserable. I spent part of July, August, and September unemployed, and thinking really hard about options and also relaxing. To jump to the end of the story, I am currently employed two days a week as a nanny to year-old twins who are wonderful. I love working as a nanny. I do need to figure out another part-time job, but for the first time in two years, I don't dread my morning commute, so this feels like the right thing for me at the moment.

I took a road trip to New Mexico with my sister, which was wonderful. We took two and a half days to drive to New Mexico together, including stops in Badlands National Park, Custer State Park, and Wind Cave National Park - which I'd never heard of before. In the photo below, we were pulled over to view the land, and she was checking the grille for the bird we thought we might have hit. There was no bird in the grille of trusty Elvira (my Subaru), so all was well!

Our final destination was Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, where my sister and I joined my parents on their camping trip. We took several hikes, but also took in some hot springs, and the Tesuque Flea Market (also known as the Santa Fe Flea Market). It was a great almost-family vacation (we were shy my brother, who was working.) On my last full day, we had an amazing storm system roll through, and you can see some of the drama of the lighting in the photo below. We watched the storm roll in over the mesas, and thought it would miss us, but that night, it just poured and poured. The storm was right over us, with thunder and lightening and wind. It was super cozy in my tent, listening to the rain pound down. It was a great end to the trip!

Of course, I still had the drive home, which I actually did solo. I love solo road trips almost as much as I love road trips with a buddy or two. I took a circuitous route home, hitting the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, and Wind Cave National Park and Custer State Park in South Dakota. I opted not to visit Badlands a second time because it was late at night, the campground was full, and I needed to press onward. But I did visit Pipestone National Monument in Minnesota, and drive back to the cities via back roads. 

The trip was exactly what I needed. I got to spend time with my family, but also by myself. Plus, visiting the Ranch was really important to me. I've been going there since I was a babe-in-arms, and have missed it as I've moved away from family vacations. This trip reminded me that I am certainly capable of heading out there myself! (Oh, and for all of you who are wondering about this, yes, I did bring my knitting, and yes, I did knit - with mohair! - in New Mexico in July).

(look for a part 2 on this coming up soon!)

After Photos

As promised: after pictures! I realized once I had uploaded these that it really would have been a good idea to look at what photos I had included last time and try to mimic them. I think just use your imaginations and you'll be fine!

My room, now purple, with Moxie on the bed.

Dining room, with art, and the avocado green table I made Britt move from UT to MN.

This is the heater that heats the whole apartment. We call it the fire breathing dragon.

View into the dining room. My desk to the right.

Britt's room, now blue, viewed from the shared closet.

view down the hall into the kitchen.

kitchen!

Kitchen, plus the new tea cabinet between the window and the door.

Bathroom, now blue and white (with purple trim on the door). 

Before Photos

Well it's been a while! I've not got really good excuses, except that I moved to a new apartment with Britt and we had a fair amount of cleaning and painting to do. We have finished (finally!) and are loving our new place. We're just outside downtown, and are having fun exploring the area. We have good freeway access, and easy access to other fun parts of the city. We do miss having grocery stores nearby (our last apartment, it was 4 blocks to the nearest grocery), although I should admit that Whole Paycheck is within a half mile. It's just not really useful for us!

Plus as I mentioned in my last post, months and months ago, I was working on some awesome life changes, which I will totally dedicate another post to, along with an "after" photos shoot of out apartment, since it now looks friendly and welcoming and like us.

Here's our before pictures:

Entry way, view straight through to the kitchen

My room - the first thing to go was the blanket/curtain.

Dining room view through to kitchen

Our friendly black wall - we think to cover graffiti?

Kitchen sink, with our water heater to the left

GAS STOVE. And a pot rack made of a footboard.

Bathroom painted in U of Minn colors, including the ceiling

Kitchen entry, with Britt's door open

Britt's room. Black with white trim, it was actually the best looking room.

Summer break?

On accident, maybe.

It is hard to knit anything, but especially wool, when it is in the 90's with 80% or more humidity. So knitting takes a back-burner in the summer. I garden. I road-trip. I camp. I bike. I run 5ks (omg, who even am I?)

Sometimes, though, it's August 4, and it never gets much above 76. Those days, it's a great day to pull out your knitting and pick up an old WIP - or maybe start a new one.

Granmom, knitting the afternoon away.

This is my granmom. (Yes, I know I missed the "d". That's how I know I'm talking about my mom's mom, not my dad's mom). She's a knitter from way back - she knit all the family Christmas stockings. She doesn't knit those anymore. I think that job has so far fallen to my cousin, but may come 'round my way soon. Granmom just bought that spindle-toy for color work, and is working on a pretty sweet shawl from StevenBee, a local yarn store. 

Trying to figure out where the missing place marker goes. Fittingly, I did the figuring on top of the puzzle.

One of the cool things about knitting with Granmom is the exchange of information. These days, it tends to flow from me to her, but I certainly have learned lots from her! Probably the most common thing I do for her is decipher patterns - turn the knitting language into plain English, and then teach her the newest stitch, or increase. In fact, I just finished "translating" a pattern for her, so that she can have every single row written out, double-spaced, in a bigger font. 

Rechecking the pattern. The page is too small!

Knitting is kind of a community thing in my house. When I started taking photo's today, she'd stepped into the kitchen to make tea (remember, mid 70s in August), but Britt was knitting with us too. She's working on a hat, using a viscose and linen yarn. It's working up lovely, but complaints about needle size - too tiny! - are flying fast and furious. 

The hat, abandoned for tea making. 

And, of course, we are currently a household of 5 cats. All of whom want to be in the room with us as we work. Very helpful, I can assure you!

A fuzzy photo of Monster, the youngest. I've just pulled my yarn out of her mouth and she is NOT happy about it. 

I have some pretty cool life changes that have happened/are happening/will happen, but I'll save those for another post, so I actually have incentive to post again this month!