Staying in

Oh, goodness.  There is a warning on my phone about the heat index.  Heat index near 110 degrees this afternoon.  Black flag conditions.  There will be no running outside for me today.  This is the hardest part of being a northerner temporarily transplanted to the south.  Summer up north means temperatures of around 80, and maybe a few days of 90s in August.  Summer up north is so short and fleeting that you were supposed to be outside as much as possible, soaking it in and taking advantage of it all.  The summer heat down here just flattens me.  Although I am much more acclimated than I was a few years ago (a few months ago, I was wearing long pants at 80 degrees), nothing-- and I mean nothing-- will ever get me used to a heat index of 110.  I don't think I'm the only one, though.  The streets are relatively quiet in our neighborhood today, despite the fact that kids are home from school.

So what am I doing to keep myself busy inside?  Aside from drinking buckets of iced tea (oh, Republic of Tea Blackberry Sage, you are delicious), I have finally started working on the Midsummer Morning sampler by Alicia Paulson.  I prepped the floss for this back in May, but only got around to starting it this past week.  It is lovely, but it is stitched on black linen.  The going is rather slow.  I don't think I'll be making anything else on black linen any time soon.

This looks grey, but it is really black.

I'm also working on two pair of socks, both of which were supposed to be gifts.  One pair, I think, is going to stay with me.  Not because I love it too much, but rather the opposite.  Although it will end up being fine, it certainly will not be gift-worthy.  The other pair will get to the recipient, rather later than I had hoped.  I'm losing my sock knitting mojo, though, and am really itching to start a bigger project.  But 110 degrees makes me feel like it will never be cool enough for wool, ever again.  Ever.  I guess I'll just work on some cotton pants for Camden.

Everything of Camden's has dogs on it, if at all possible.

Another check in the box

Birthday gift finished, washed, and sent--check!  I suppose it doesn't really matter that said birthday was in October and the recipient has already seen the (mostly) completed item.  It is a gift!  Be glad!  [I say this with tongue in cheek.  The giftee loves these, loves me, and doesn't mind that they are late.]

These are the Hedgerow Mitts (Rav link).  The pattern is really easy to figure out and memorize, and looks really complicated, but isn't.

From a distance it almost looks like a cable pattern, but there isn't any cabling involved.

It is really just moving the knit and purl stitches around.  Which, if you think about it, is what most of knitting is about.  Just figuring out a new or fun or interesting way to do two different stitches.  Manipulating them until we like the effect.

I made them rather long.  They come up about two-thirds of the way to my elbow.  I'm from the UP, so I know from cold.  Gloves were never long enough.  Between your gloves and your coat there was always a little bit of skin exposed to the cold, especially when you reached for something.  There are few things colder than wind on the inside of your wrist.  However, I would probably wear them like this:

Gotta scrunch them down a bit.  But, like I mentioned, these were a gift, and they have been sent away to their recipient.  Down here, it was in the 80s today.  Up there, they got about eight inches of snow.  I think she'll wear these now, for a few weeks anyway.

It feels really good to get these off the Knitting To Do list.  These have been finished for a while now, and have only been needing a bath.  I kind of forgot about them for a bit, and then found them under a pile in my craft room.  That can happen.  I wish I wasn't like this--and trust me, I'm working on it-- but I am the type of knitter that starts off with my needles on fire with a new project, only to get to the final lap.  Then I lose steam.  My Tiny Tea Leaves sat for almost three months without sleeves.  Sleeves!  The easiest part of that pattern!  Must. Finish.  The.  Knits.

Last weekend we went to the Savannah Quilt Show.  I didn't take my camera, so all my pictures are on Mike's phone (which I think has a better camera [at least pixel-wise] than my point-and-shoot).  As soon as I figure out how to make that transfer happen, I'll post a few here.  Just gorgeous.

Of course, there was a Marketplace.  I've been wanting those lovely Ghana bolga baskets for a long time, and there was a vendor at the quilt show.

Did you know there was a baby basket?  I didn't!  I almost didn't get it, and now I think I should have bought at least two more.  I'm not sure if the big one is going to be yarn storage or the farmer's market basket (this thing is huge!), but the little one is perfect for a sock in progress.

How cute, right?  Oh my gosh, I'm loving that cute little basket!

I still think I need more baby baskets.  Right now I have four socks-in-progress.  So at lease three more baskets, right?  Can you imagine them all lined up on the table next to the davenport?  I would love it!

Tiny Tosh Tea Leaves

I've graduated from the Baby Tea Leave and made it into the Tiny Tea Leaves.  And oh, is it so sweet.  The color is Molly Ringwald by MadelineTosh.  I just love this yarn, and the color is so sweet and perfect for a darling five year old girl.

Of course, no photo shoot would be complete without a little assistance.

My fault, really, for trying to put something on the floor.  If it is on the floor, it is fair game for a snouting.  And while I was taking these pictures, something else was happening on the floor behind me.

Oh, Frosty.  He's never very far from Camden.  He's been very protective right from the beginning.  Frosty is our first fluff, and he's getting old.  He's a little guy, so he hopefully has a bunch more years left in him, but we notice him getting slower.  He doesn't always go upstairs with us until he is pretty sure we are staying up there.  He sleeps a lot more now.  He's on some medicine (which we call "Frosty's Little Blue Pills"; no sense in not having a sense of humor about it).  Our F-er.  We love our sweet Doodlebug.  He loves Camden.  All is good.

Unexpected Free Moment

Mike had to go back to work for something tonight, so I have an unexpected evening to myself.  I'm watching Moonstruck on cable and knitting Terra.  And stopping in here to say hello.

Things have been pretty hectic this spring.  Without thinking too much about it, I enrolled in three classes.  None of these classes alone are too bad, but together I'm a bit overwhelmed.  If everything went nice and smooth, it would be no problem, but there are all these little hiccups that threaten my equilibrium.  Every assignment finished is a check in the box, though, and I'm slowly getting to the end.  There is a light at the end of this tunnel.

There has been knitting.  When I was looking for a picture of the Shelter yarn I am using for my current project (Terra shawl, Rav link), I found this picture of new yarn:

A LYS in Savannah was going out of business this last month, so all this was purchased on sale.  I have plans for some (the cadet blue Spud and Chloe Sweater is going to be a toddler sweater for Camden) and some was just too pretty to pass up (the burgundy Anzula in the bottom left).  Even though I only visited the store about three times before they announced their closing, I'm really going to miss them.  I had high hopes that they would become my favorite LYS.  (The first time I was there, the manager was telling me about their knit night.  "We have wine!" she said.  How could I not love them?)

But that isn't really knitting.  Some more non-knitting.  This:

is now this:

That is the Garter Stitch Kimono (Rav link).  I started this the day we got our pack-up at this house, in August.  I raced through the body, but it became really clear that I wouldn't have enough yarn for two long sleeves.  Since a cap sleeve baby kimono didn't interest me, it sat and sat.  Now it's frogged and no longer an unfinished sweater.  Now it is back to be potential.  Now I can ponder it and figure out what it really wants to be.  I'm thinking a little vest type thing, or possibly a striped cardigan.  Both for Camden, obviously, since one skein with even the most generous yardage would not make a garment to cover this body.  What color would stripe well with that blue-green?  Cream?  Orange?

But that is still not knitting to show.  It seems that most of my knitting progress photos have been taken with my phone and are on my Instagram account.

So how about cute baby pictures instead?

Look at that hair!  Yikes!  I'm not cutting it, though.  Not yet.  Maybe after his first birthday.  I'm sure that third picture down will be familiar to anyone with a pet (especially little fluffy dogs).  As soon as I get on the floor, the dogs think it is playtime.  There is a snout in the face, in the camera, in Camden's face.  Good thing we all love dogs here!  Camden laughs at them and has started to try and grab wagging tails.  So far he's slow and the dogs are quick.  They love him, and usually give him a few kisses to make up for it.

I've also been knitting!

In addition to hanging out with the little duck, moving, and studying, I have been knitting.  I have a sweater started for Camden (and yarn for a couple more), but I had to put that on hold for a bit while I did some deadline knitting.  The chick I drove back and forth with the school all of last year is pregnant and her shower was this past weekend.  Since I couldn't be there, not only did I have to finish this, but finish it early since it needed to be mailed.  Nothing like putting a little pressure on myself when I have 478 pieces of household goods to find a place for.

Of course, among those 478 pieces of household goods are probably 78 boxes of yarn.  Maybe more, maybe less.  Could I find what I wanted?  No.  So I had to order online from Eat, Sleep, Knit.  And of course, I threw in a little extra.  Since I was, you know, paying for shipping and all.

The yarn on the left, the purple, became a Baby Tea Leaves (Rav link).  The other two are for Camden.  I'm thinking that the red might be a charming little sweater vest, but I'm not sure.  It is all Madelinetosh and it is all lovely.

I had to wind the yarn for the Baby Tea Leaves the old fashioned way, between two chairs.

Because my craft room looks like this, and I can't find my ball winder and swift:

It wound up nicely into a roly poly little ball.

Which eventually became this:

That is after a blocking.  I made the smallest size, which I think is listed as "0-6 months."  It is so wee and adorable.  The next time I make it, though, I need to bind of the button band a bit more loosely.  As you can see, I wasn't able to properly straighten it out along the bottom edge.

But really, who is going to be looking at that when this is on an adorable little baby!  And the mother, being a non-knitter, probably won't even know it shouldn't really be like that, if she even notices.

The color in the last picture is off.  I wanted to take a final picture before I packaged it up and the day was overcast.  The color is much more clear and vibrant, and the previous pictures are actually pretty true, color-wise.  The pattern was great, too.  Clear instructions, easy to follow.  I'm already planning two more, one in the same size and another to fit a five year old.  Partly I just love working with this yarn!

Finally, some time!

Oh my goodness, have I been busy!  Not that we all aren't, but man oh man, this last few weeks has just flattened me.  We have almost finished Summer I session.  Rumor had it that the summer sessions were easy, especially compared to the past two semesters.  I don't know where this information came from, or who started those awful rumors, but they were completely untrue.  We had a researched clinical encounter paper due, a reflection journal, three days of clincals, and one day of class every week.  And wow! those clincal encounter papers were no joke.  They were each over ten pages.  I couldn't face the computer after writing those every week.

But enough complaining.  I learned so much.  This was our community health rotation, and I was at the health department, a uninsured clinic (the MERCI Clinic), and the soup kitchen.  It was truly amazing.  I found it really inspiring and gratifying to working with underserved populations.  I hope to work in a hospital after I'm licensed, but after being at the MERCI Clinic I know that I want to volunteer time with something like that.

So I haven't had much time to knit lately.  I've worked on a few things, so hopefully I can get those on here soon.  My Little Oak cardigan is about halfway through the yoke.

I'm loving the way the leaves are starting to pop off the yoke.  The variations of brown in the yarn are just enough to give the sweater some interest without getting in the way of the detail on the yoke.  I've decided to add some ribbon backing to the button band (once I knit it).  I want something to give the buttons a little more stability, especially since I'm giving this to a non-knitter.  I don't want it to seem "too delicate" for every day use.

The monkeys are a printed satin ribbon.  Perfect for a little fun cardigan.  I can't wait to finish this.

In other news, I've been trying to play in the yard a bit.  I was turning the compost bin and sifting through the almost-dirt to see what I can pull out.  (I throw a lot of stuff in the compost bin "just to see" what will happen.  I don't use the compost on any flowers or vegetables, or I would be a bit more concerned about proper balance of nitrogen and green vs. brown compost.  Mainly, I'm trying to keep organic, compostable things out of a landfill.  I compost things like pizza boxes and movie popcorn bags.  I tossed the hepa filter from the vacuum in there, just in case the filter was paper, but it wasn't and I pulled it out six months later--looking exactly the same.)

But my point here is that sometimes I find interesting things in the barrel.  Like the plastic liners of to go cups and ice cream containers that some people don't even realize are there.  And this:

This is a pile of hems and elastics from a bunch of clothing that I tossed in the compost barrel a few months ago.  Clothing that was too worn out to go to a charity shop, or not really appropriate for a charity shop (boxer shorts, underwear), or clothing that I had cut up to use as dust towels around the house that had finally become too worn to use even as dust cloths.  I love this.  I really, truly get excited about seeing this.  The pile of clothing this came from would probably have filled a small trash bin.  Now it fits in two hands.  That is, really, very very cool.

And, to end, a cute dog picture of Charlie.

A Dog's Life

I've started a new little project.  Little Oak (Rav link) by Alana Dakos of Never Not Knitting.  I'm making it in a hand dyed chocolately brown color that looks amazing in person, but is really hard to photograph.  I tried to get a good picture on the coffee table.

But the picture didn't show off the subtle variations of chocolate brown that really give the yarn some depth.  (And really, make it the reason for knitting with a brown yarn.  I can't think of any reason I would want to knit with plain, solid brown.  Especially on something where stitches must be picked up.  My eyes, while not poor, are not up to that particular challenge.)

So I moved to a table near a window with more sunlight.

Much better picture.  At least here you can see the depth of color.  But, as is wont to happen 'round these parts, a dog got a whiff of something new on the table.

So Fred popped up to investigate the yarn.  This is a really bad picture of Fred, because he is all white and the sunlight was directly on him.  But really, what he wanted wasn't the yarn.

Fred was really trying to get to the window.  Things outside must be investigated at regular intervals.  And of course, when one tires of looking out the window, the seat becomes a bed.

Yup, the dogs have a window seat.  The dogs were constantly on the end table to look out the window, so rather than try to change the dogs' behavior, I developed an alternate solution.  Take two little side tables, cover them with blankets--enough that the dog using the seat can still see out when said dog is lying down--and voila! no more dogs on the end table!  Or rather, one dog on the window seat and one dog on the end table, looking over the head of the dog on the window seat.

I think it is noteworthy, too, that in order to take this picture I had to scoot back into the corner of the room--and onto a dog bed on the floor.  These dogs are not in need of places to sleep.  There is a dog bed in every room, including the kitchen.  When Mike asked why we needed so many dog beds, I asked him if he had a place to sit in every room.  It seemed very logical to me.

This is to say that out house is extremely dog friendly.  We have baskets of dog toys, and hooks for dog things, half a closet devoted to dog stuff, and the dogs pretty much are allowed anywhere we go.  They can be trying, and they bark at things and sometimes have accidents when we are gone too long, but it sure is nice to come home to all that fluffy love.

And in a related story, I've finished my Baktus.

Details and better pictures to come.

Working through the To Do List

In an effort to plow through another item on my Spring Break To Do List (list item: start Hedgerow Mitts), I had to locate a pair of US 1 needles.  Since I couldn't find any (which doesn't mean that I don't have any US 1s free; it just means I can't find them [see list item: organize the stash {which was supposed to encompass the stash closet, and thus the needles}]) (Really, Karen?  Three different types of parantheticals?) I had to dig out the unfinished socks, which was actually a good thing, since another list item involved the UFOs.

And I found my favorite US 1 needles on the green socks.

The needles are the really nice Blue Sky Alpaca wooden needles.  I have a set of nine, because I broke one needle so I bought a complete new set.  I like to knit socks with five needles, so four wouldn't cut it for me.  And actually, I really like having the extra needles.  It makes picking up gusset stitches really easy.  I've started using the extra needles to pick up the stitches on both sides before I start knitting the round, since picking up stitches is almost my least favorite thing to do in knitting.  As of tonight, the second sock here is actually knit up to the beginning of the heel flap.  So progress. 

But I have US 1 needles on another pair, too.

These needles are metal, and longer than the Blue Sky.  I think the Blue Sky needles are five inches, and these are six.  This morning I was working on these socks (morning light means good time to work on dark blue yarn) and the needles felt almost too long.  The metal was really slippery, too, after using the nice grippy wood.  I think these are Hiya Hiya stainless steel needles, and really slick.  I got used to them right quick, but there was a momentary learning curve.  This sock is almost down the the heel flap.  

The purple and blue striped pair are on US 0 needles.

As you can see, there are two types of needles on this sock.  I started this sock on the Lantern Moon US 0 bamboo needles and snapped one needle right in half.  Jimmy Beans Wool replaced the one needle (quickly, too, and without question; great customer service!) but I found some metal Susan Bates one needles in the stash.  I still haven't worked on it since the new needle arrived, though.

The last pair is on US 1s, but on two circulars.

I'm through the heel flap on this one, which means that I am ready to turn the heel.  After that, we all know, comes the picking up of the stitches.  As much as I don't like picking up stitches, I really don't like picking up stitches for the gusset with a circular needle.  It is really fiddly and involves a lot of moving about stitches, and I just don't like it.  So these have been sitting at this point for over a year.

And yes, that is Deborah Norville yarn I'm using.  Glad you noticed.

I honestly didn't notice this until I started to photograph these socks.  But too funny.  I guess Vanna White shouldn't have all the fun!  (I bought this yarn from Hancock Fabrics about a year and a half ago, but I don't know anything else about this line.  I've never seen it anywhere else that I know of.)

Despite not finding some free needles to start the Hedgerow Mitts, I did get something accomplished on them.  I wound the yarn.

I consider that to be a start.  So at least I get to check that item off my list!  

It is so hard to capture the subtleties of hand painted yarn in a photo.  This is MadelineTosh sock in Pop Rocks, and it is about sixteen different shades of pink.  I can't wait to see this knit up.  I need something bright and cheerful to work on, and I think this fits the bill.  Hopefully the socks hogging my needles will be finished soon, and I get working on this happy color.

Now I'm off to watch Nashville and knit on my dark and stormy blue socks.  (Sort of fits with Nashville, don't you think?  Does anyone else watch this show?  I love it.  And I'm not a "country" music fan.  I do love, though, singer/songwriters with an interesting, folk-type style.  And I adore Scarlett on the show.  I'm hooked.)

Rainy Day Woman

It has been raining since before I woke up.  The kind of rain that can last for hours.  (The Snufflepuffs do not like this kind of rain, however.  It means that eventually I will have to put on wellies and take them for a walk.  Given their druthers, they would sit under the covered area of the deck and watch the rain.  Or not even go out in it at all, like Frosty.  Despite Frosty's love of walks, he has been known to turn right around once he feels a raindrop.  Bit of a prima donna, that one.)

Spring rain is one of the things I really like about North Carolina.  Spring rain often lasts all day, unlike the summer rain.  The summer rain comes in hard, lasts an hour, and makes the already humid air even more heavy and close.  We haven't hid humid weather yet, so this rain isn't going choke me.

Rain is one of the things I really missed when I lived out in San Diego.  The weather in San Diego is very much the same most days.  San Diego is almost the absence of weather.  The joke is that it is 75 and sunny, every day.  And it pretty much is.  I once asked a co-worker about his vacation to the midwest, and the first thing he mentioned was that he heard a thunderstorm for the first time in years.  I don't think it thunderstormed the entire time I lived out there.

So when we get days rainy days like this here, I celebrate it.  I make up for all the rain I missed.  I light candles in the day time, listen to mellow music, and drink buckets of hot tea while knitting and reading.  (Unfortunately not at the same time.  I wish I could be one of those people who can knit and read, but I can't.  Not yet anyway.)

Two new yarns, wound into cakes for two new projects.  The pink (MadelineTosh Tosh Sock in Pop Rocks) is for a pair of Hedgerow Mitts (Rav link).  The brown is Dream in Color Smooshy for a Little Oak (Rav link).  Behind the yarn is a pile of new library books.

I'm currently mining the Young Adult section of the base library for books.  Gregor the Overlander is the first book in a series by Suzanne Collins.  She wrote this series before she wrote the Hunger Games trilogy.  Stoneheart begins a trilogy about statues in London that come to life.  Really, how could I leave that on the shelf?  The Iron Throne is about magic and witchcraft set in a Victorian-ish America.  (I didn't know that the steampunk movement influenced YA fiction, but I guess I'm not surprised.)  I thought it was a stand-alone novel, but when I linked up to Amazon it seems that it is a trilogy.  Another thing I'm not really surprised by, as many YA novels are series novels.  I didn't quite mean to start three different series simultaneously, though.  Whoops.

I'm off to load up the CD player with some Bob Dylan, Mumford & Sons, and Nick Drake and start knitting.