Green Dilly Beans

Baby Booty

I did it! I knit something out of my color comfort zone.  I really do like colors beyond R, O, and V of ROYGBIV, but I've been knitting pretty exclusively from the former.  Really there's no escaping my red routine.  Do I lose points for photographing against a red background?  No matter anyway, for now I'm going back to my glut of red and orange UFOs. 

These Saartje's Baby Booties were knit from cotton stash remnants held together on size 4 needles.  It looks like I'll even have enough to knit a second pair for another baby girl in the pipeline.   

In the realm of gift knitting, I was foolish enough to think that a collection of pictures would conceal the gifts within.  Two of the photos were gifts for my sister.  She laughed to realize I thought she wouldn't notice, that she'd be blinded by the coordinating whole and ignore the treasures earmarked for her.  Hmph, I've never been very good at keeping knitting secrets from her anyway, I just get too excited. 

Change of Strategery

I've changed my plan of attack to organize this week's yarn acquisition.  My mom helpfully pointed out that the yarn was packed to maximize space, not for effective fiber organization.  My plan to go box by box didn't seem so smart anymore.  Instead, I cleared off my table, put in the extra leaf, and set out ALL the yarn. 

There were a lot of layers stacked up in those boxes!  It's actually kind of a relief to see it all together at once.  It is a lot, but it is a finite amount.  So far I've done a preliminary sorting by fiber content and sub-sorting by color.  I've also got a fair sized section of unidentified mystery yarn.  Does anyone know of yarn test methods that would provide clues to determine its fiber content?

To be fair, not all the boxes I pictured earlier in the week contained yarn.  They also contained some familiar faces that Nanna, my grandma, made for The Onion.

Pre-Disney Pooh and friends, a la AA Milne.   Tigger is on the way.  I'll deliver them to Duluth later this week. 

Seeing Red

This is a sampling of projects recently completed or currently underway.

Minimalist Cardigan                   Chevron Mitts                           EZ's BSJ

      

Stulpen Mitts                            Clementine Beret             February Baby Sweater

      

Herringbone Mitts                             Seaweed                           Clapotis 

   

Notice a trend here?  Yep, I thought so.  Looking at my collective Ravelry projects, I immediately cast on for something to get me out of my reddish-orangey-purple rut.  Saartjes baby booties for The Onion (yes, she has a name now, but this shall be her blog name) in a blue-purple cotton. 

Yeah, yeah.  Baby booties are barely big enough to count as a new direction in my palette spectrum.  But I've gotta ease into this.  Baby steps you know, both literally and figuratively. 

The Deluge

In general, it sucks when your husband lives 1200 miles away.  Until yesterday it would have been hard for me to think of a real advantage to living away from B. 

I'm genuinely glad he was not here to see this unloaded from the UPS truck.

It's yarn, all yarn.  I told him it was coming, but nothing I said would have prepared him for the shock and awe that occurs when 70 pounds of fiber is delivered to your house.  B, sorry if I didn't accurately describe the yarn supply, but say hello our new tenants, stacked several layers deep in the photo boxes below.

Over the holidays, my parents helped my grandmother clear out some of her fiber stash.  I agreed to be its lucky recipient.  Despite numerous conversations with several family members about the quantities of yarn to be sent, nothing could have prepared me for the magnitude of what was to come. 

I'm really excited about the possibilities that lie in these boxes.  At the same time, I'm also a little overwhelmed by all the possibilities that lie in these boxes. 

It is clear that I need a new strategy for my latest stash addition.  Following the first mini delivery on Thursday, I stuck a few cones in my bag before heading to the food co-op.  I used the digital scales there to weigh my yarn, alternating with other customers weighing their bulk purchases of quinoa and carob chips. Somehow I don't see schlepping all of this to the grocery store as a viable way to weigh this much yarn. 

My new approach sets a goal of cataloging one box per week in my Ravelry stash.  At that rate, I should be done by the end of February, although early March might be a more realistic goal. I'll also be checking with the Weavers Guild to see if I can borrow  a digital scale. 

Does anyone have any suggestions or resources to help me in this endeavor?  The yarn is in various states of labeling; some of it is a complete mystery to me.  I've got the Knitters Book of Yarn, which is a start, but other ideas are welcome.  Once I get organized I can actually start using it!

Reknitting What Was Lost

My chevron mitts are back in action.  Not the originals mind you, I've accepted that they are gone for good.  This is such a great pattern, I'm just glad to have some again.  Minor mods are detailed on Ravelry.

As I was knitting this second pair, I found some handy (oops, another unintentional pun) solutions for the lost mitten challenged among us.

A Sign of Things to Come

Hooray for living in a place where packages can be left on the back door stoop!

There's more on the way.

Fear of Finishing

After nearly a month languishing in pieces, my Minimalist Cardigan is done.

The seed stitch pattern itself was rather soothing, it was seaming the seed stitch that made me seethe.  There's really nothing more to say besides it was not fun. 

The process also brought on a minor revelation about my overall feelings about finishing.  I've come to think about it as a knitterly day of reckoning. 

It's easy to imagine the perfect sweater when its disparate parts lie strewn about in sleeve, side panel, and back shapes.  In pieces, a sweater still holds its full potential.  I can imagine it to be perfection personified (or sweaterified?)  However, once the seaming starts, I face a persistent "what if?" refrain that introduces images of a sweater that is too big or too small, with lumpy seams and a saggy loss of shape.  It doesn't matter how much I've planned, swatched, or prepared, this fear settles in at the end of every project.  Finishing introduces the possibility that the reality won't live up to the fantasy. 

Thankfully the minimalist cardi turned out well.  The ribbing at the sleeve cuffs is a little baggy, but nothing I can't live with.  More photos and details are up on Ravelry.  For now, I'm free of my fear of finishing.  At least until I get to seaming my next sweater!

Pattern APB

I once saw a pattern for a knit panel to button onto a peacoat to keep mom and baby warm as baby rides in a sling or front pack.  I seem to remember it being on Knitty or Magknits, but haven't had any luck finding it.  Part of the problem is that my search terms are less than ideal (knit peacoat baby closer thingy?) and knitting pattern names don't always describe the item itself (why is a knit beret called Gretel?). 

Does anyone know what I'm talking about?  If you can help me identify the pattern, I'd be eternally grateful. 

Lost

I've written before about my tendency to misplace things.  This weekend my losing streak veered into knitting territory, once again in record time. 

I finished Tiny Sushi's wonderful Chevron Mitt pattern on Saturday, weaving in the ends from the Q train on my way to Cassie's.  My fellow knitters oohed and ahhhed accordingly over the chevron cable pattern running up the back of the hands.  They are were really lovely. 

Yes, I'm afraid you'll have to take my word (and theirs) that these mittens ever existed.  By Sunday afternoon they were gone.  The leftover yarn bits are all I have as proof of their origin.  As far as I can tell, they went MIA somewhere between Park Slope and Union Square.  If you happen to see them roaming the streets of NY, please let me know.  At the very least, I hope they're on the hands of someone who appreciates them. 

After a brief period of mourning, I picked myself up this morning and got yarn to make a second, identical pair.  I don't do repeat knits very often, but this is a special exception, and the pattern is really fun to knit.  A little part of me is still hoping that they'll turn up, so I'll be casting on for some gift knitting Stulpen mitts to tide me over. 

My pattern details, minus any finished photos, are up on Ravelry.

Do You Hear What I Hear?

My last paper is due tomorrow.  I made it into bed last night at 1:42 AM, tired, but pleased with the amount of work I had completed.  As I pulled back the covers and got into bed, my upstairs neighbors started running the vacuum.  At 1:42 AM. 

The vacuum cleaner stopped.   Then the Christmas Carols began.  Their song of choice?  Do You Hear What I Hear - the Vanessa Williams version.  The irony of their musical selection was hard to bear, but I was too cold to get out of bed to complain.  You're damn right I hear what you hear.  Bah humbug.