Can you believe it's February already?!

Woosh...that's the last two months gone by. Things have been busy busy busy and I've not felt much like getting on the computer and putting down thoughts. I do have much to talk about, though, so here's a bit of what I've been up to.

 

The holidays were lovely, as always. Having both Christmas and New Years over weekends made for leisurely relaxing holidays.

I treated myself to the iPod I've been craving. I saved for a year and was able to get the 32 GB iPod Touch generation 4. I debated for the longest time if I wanted to spend the extra scratch for the 32 gb over the 8 and I am so glad I did. Not that I've come anywhere close to filling it...yet. But I am able to load up every single podcast I want to and the inevitable backlog of unlistened to episodes all fit nicely. I'm able to watch video podcasts on it so I'm able to stay more caught up with Round the Twist and the Knit Girllls.

I mainly wanted it for apps and I've not been disappointed. My favorite knitting app is Knit Counter. I use it for every knitting project that requires counting. I love that you can link counters. It makes it super easy to track pattern rows, increases/decrease, cable turns, etc.

Games are quite fun as well with my favorites being Zombie Farm and Angry Birds. I also adore being able to watch You Tube videos and surf the net. Not to forget the Kindle app. It is fantastic. I didn't think I'd like reading on the small screen, but the text is clear and very easy to read. Plus it syncs with my Kindle so I if I find I'm away from home and have a few minutes to read when I get back to my Kindle it will advance to the furthest page read. Pretty cool.

I can't remember where I was at with knitting the last time I posted. I recently finished the Bitterroot Shawl and it is gorgeous.

I need to get a better picture but I think you can see it pretty well here when it was blocking. I had a lot of beads left over. I don't think I missed any so maybe the packs of beads had more than I thought. The shawl was knit from Knit Picks Shadow in Cattail Heather with 6/0 Toho seed beads in Olivine.

I'm working on a pair of Monkey socks in Dream in Color Everlasting.

The color is a dark foresty green which I can't seem to capture. Everlasting is similar to Wollmeise's base. Not quite as cotton like. Extremely nice to work with. I highly recommend it if you can't get a hold or Wollmeise.

The Tardis socks are finally starting to resemble the Tardis.

These socks have been a bit of a challenge for me. Stranded colorwork is probably at the bottom of my list for knitting I enjoy. In socks its especially problematic because it has very little stretch. My first attempt at the sock wouldn't go over my heel. The socks are destined for someone with smaller feet than mine, but I didn't think it was worth the risk of them not fitting. So I ripped them out and started over with a larger needle and a concerted effort to keep the floats looser. The results are much better this time. I'm down to the solid portion of the sock which should fly by.

I'm still slogging along on the Shipwreck shawl. The beads are absolutely horrible. The 8/0 beads called for are far too small for the finger weight yarn. They are so difficult to move, my fingers ache every time I have to move beads, which is pretty much every time sit down to knit. So I'm lucky if I get a row done a week. I'm seriously contemplating ordering larger beads in the same colors. I've only done a few rows with the 6s and don't think the different size beads would be too noticeable when it's all said and done. I could save the 6s for a laceweight project.

Hooray for warm socks

Our neck of the woods is frigid cold this December. It's weather like this makes makes me love my handknit socks all the more. And just in time for this cold snap, I've just finished two new pairs.

First up are a pair of plain vanilla socks in Knitter's Brewing Company's Cabernet Harvest Sock-a-holic yarn.

These were my conversation socks for the nights C and I sat out by the firepot this late summer and fall. I think the colors are gorgeous and the hand is sturdy yet soft (not scratchy).

The second pair are my very first Wollmeise socks in My Old Blue Jeans Twin. The pattern is Hermione's Everyday socks.

I loved knitting these socks and I adore this yarn base. It has an almost cotton like feel to it but with the give of wool. The yarn is on the heavier side of fingering weight. I used a US 1.5 (2.5mm) needle for a dense yet not at all stiff fabric. I can not wait to see how these wear.

Of course I've cast on a new pair of socks, another pair of plain vanilla socks this time with some of my own hand dyed yarn. 

More mitts

As a follow up to the mitts I knit for my sister, I indulged in a pair of mitts for me. These cute little mitts were on display at Yarn Love when we visited there a few weeks back and I couldn't resist the them.

The pattern is the Welted Fingerless Gloves from Churchmouse Yarns. The yarn is Silk Blend by Manos del Uruguay. These are an extremely simple and fast knit. The pattern uses a one row buttonhole for the thumb opening, the first time I've seen a thumb done this way. 

The yarn is incredibly soft and warm. In the past I've not been happy with this type of softly spun singles yarn because they tend to pill. I'm interested to see if the silk content helps to reduce this tendency. I've worn them many times these last few weeks and so far they look as good as new.

Another finished object, but this time from the sewing front. A recent Knit Picks catalog featured a cross over product from their sister-site, the quilting store Connecting Threads. KP is offering a sewing kit that includes material and patterns to make a needle case, backpack and drawstring project bags. I chose the winter variety of fabrics and made the needle case.

I would rate the pattern as intermediate, not for a beginning sewer. Were I to sew another one (and it's likely I will since I'm so happy with the case) I would change up the pockets a bit. All the edges are finished with a turned under edge, but I think a doubled over pocket would be sturdier and also look more finished. Of course, that uses more fabric so I understand their decision to finish the pockets as they did.

There are PLENTY of pockets in this case. There are enough pockets to accommodate an entire set of interchangeable tips as well as pockets for the various cables. The pockets on the right are designed for circular needles. I have far too many circs to move them into this case, but might put a few of my most frequently used needles in there. There are pockets for dpns as well, although those too are empty in my case since I rarely use them. I love this case. The only drawback is that the pockets aren't labeled with the needle sizes and KP doesn't mark the size on their needles. I think I'm going to order their needle id tags and sew them to the pockets like buttons for easier identification.

October Leaves

Although this could be a post about the glorious fall foliage display C and I observed this week in our travels, I am instead talking of the October Leaves fingerless mitts I just finished. My sister requested a pair of fingerless mitts for work. Since knitting requests from family are like kryptonite to me, I eagerly set out to find the perfect pattern. I've made several different mitts over the years and find my favorites are the ones knit with fingering weight yarn (sock yarn). They fit close to the hand so they are unobtrusive when you are trying to type or use your hands for any reason, yet they still provide plenty of warmth. I also wanted a pattern with a bit of interest. The October Leaves pattern by Abbie Tilden looked to be the perfect choice.

The color requested was grey or black and a quick search of my stash produced a gorgeous grey superwash sock yarn. I was off and running. The mitts only took 11 days to complete. The pattern calls for cables up both sides of the hand. But after a few rows in this fashion, I decided the outside cable was too much. I much preferred the single cable running up the thumb side and blooming into the leaves that frame the thumb.This pattern is super easy. I manged most of the 4 stitch cables without a cable needle. When I did need a cable needle I used a lightly sanded round toothpick since none of the cable needles I own were small enough for such fine yarn. This worked wonderfully. The only other modification I made was to knit the top (hand) ribbing on smaller needles to keep the fit snug around the knuckles. There's nothing worse on mitts than the top edge being loose and bunching up.

The only problem I had with this project was the yarn. The yarn was a gorgeous mottled grey handdyed sock yarn. It is delightfully soft and a pleasure to knit with. However, I washed the mitts and then laid them outside to dry. When I went back to check on them a few hours later, I discovered the side facing up had turned green!I've never had a yarn change color on me. It was so weird. After checking the yarn label, I found the dyer DID say to dry them out of direct sunlight, so it is entirely my fault. The green was an interesting color and had I been able to get the second side to fade the same way they might have been usable. However, the request was not for green mitts so I took to my dye pot and overdyed them. Two dyebaths later, the mitts emerged a fabulous charcoal grey.

They are on my hands now as I type and I adore them. Sis, I do hope you love them too. It's a wrench parting with them but it makes me feel good knowing you'll have warm (and I must say, smartly dressed) hands thanks to me.

Sherlock

A few months ago when R first told me about the new Sherlock coming to PBS's Masterpiece Mystery,  I was dubious. The preview looked flashy and I just couldn't imagine Sherlock Holmes set in current day London. Few can match Jeremy Brett's portrayal of the sleuth in my book. Thus I tucked it away in the back of my mind and more or less forgot about it. While browsing the channel guide last night I discovered the show had started so I decided to give it a watch. Wow. I mean, WOW. Benedict Cumberbatch is amazing as Holmes. He plays the fast talking detective to a T. The character observes everything and processes his observations lightening fast. Martin Freeman's Watson is an excellent foil to the genius. I love the way the show uses text cues to help the viewer get the clues. My one and only disappointment was the scene where they tracked the GPS location of the victim's cell phone and were stymied by it's apparent location. Given other clues in the scene, specifically Mrs. Hudson's announcement, it was pretty obvious where the phone was and who the killer was. But everyone was standing around scratching their heads. Sherlock does, of course, figure it out, and maybe it was just a dramatic pause to show his thought process. Other than that one minor complaint, I give the show highest marks.

Favorite line "Dear god, what is it like in your funny little brains? It must be so boring."

Sherlock is available on DVD as well as on demand at PBS.org (I assume this will only be for a while though).

Good stuff

My Future Primitive order arrived this week and as expected, this soap rocks.The soaps are all wrapped in pretty glassine paper with cigar band labels. They smell phenomenal (although you can not smell them through the wrapper, I opened up the ends to smell them.) In addition to the 3 soaps I ordered, Tiggy sent a sample of her White Witch soap which immediately found a home by the bathroom sink. I've been using it all week and it is simply divine. I know, I'm gushing, but really, this soap is quite possibly the best I've ever tried. Not only does it look glorious, but it is also darn good soap. The bars are nice and hard and work into a creamy highly scented lather. The scent is long lasting on my skin. The ultimate test is face washing. I can use this on my face with out even a hint dryness. I will definitely be buying more soaps from her.

Next good thing this week is applesauce. With local apples being dirt cheap and my co-worker extolling the virtues of homemade applesauce, I decided to give it a try. I washed and cut up enough apples to fill my 6 quart dutch oven (peels, cores and all go in the pot). I used a variety of apples...Rome, Macintosh, Stayman, and Yellow Delicious and just about an inch of water. Cover and cook on high until the water boils. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the apples are super soft. I let it cool slightly then ran the cooked apples through my food mill. From about 5 quarts of apples, I ended up with 3 pints of applesauce.
So so yummy and incredibly easy. 2 pints went into the freezer and the other jar will disappear in no time, I'm sure. I will definitely be buying more apples this week to make a big batch for the freezer.

I finished reading Knit One, Kill Two by Maggie Sefton this week. It is the first in a knitting themed cozy mystery series. This was an enjoyable, light read. It is obvious it is meant to be a series as there were tons of characters introduced and a lot of story lines that didn't seem to have resolutions. The characters were all very likable and the setting a dream come true for a knitter (the knit shop is set side by side with a coffee shop/cafe in an old farmhouse, sigh). It was refreshing to read a cozy where the main character didn't end up at death's doorstep through their stupid heroics. I'm sure I'll be reading more from this series.

Now I'm trying to settle on my next book and having difficulty finding something to fit my mood. I've started several books this week and nothing seems the right fit. Instead, I'm watching season 4 of Corner Gas. Hilarious!

Scary Gary

I've been meaning to post about this comic for ages.

 Scary Gary follows the "life" of vampire Gary. Gary is reformed and doesn't hunt people. He lives with his henchman, Leopold, a goblin-type creature who is most definitely NOT reformed. The strip is hilarious and smart. Do check it out if you want a good laugh.

Soap p*rn

Everyone knows, I've got a weird obsession with soap (the stuff that gets you clean, not that crap on afternoon TV). My obsession with soap led me to start soaping a few years back. I've made a good number of batches of soap, some good, few unusable, most just average. Soap making is easy. Soap artistry, on the other hand, is something I have yet to achieve. I'm not giving up soaping. But I have allowed myself the luxury and shear pleasure of browsing (and buying) soaps from some mighty talented soapers. Here I'm highlighting the ones I ordered from recently. (pictures captured from each vendor).

I picked up a few melt and pour type soaps from Solstice Scents a month or so ago.

Monster Mash

Harvest Moon

Monster Mash and Harvest Moon.  These smell great and are quiet pretty to look at. She uses a good glycerin soap base that isn't at all drying to the skin. They leave a light scent on your skin as well. If you like M and P soaps, these would be great to try.

But what really makes my heart sing is fabulous cold process soap. And boy-howdy have I found some FANTASTIC examples.

The Morbid the Merrier has become my number one favorite indy perfumer. Her Sleepy Hollow scents are fabulous. And her general collection Absinthe and Cocoa Absinthe are my new favorite day to day scents. She released a few soaps related to the Sleepy Hollow series and I snatched them both up...

Baltus

Brom

Sadly, there are no companion perfumes, but I can content myself with soaps. These are generous 4-5 oz bars wrapped with a paper band adorned with Lysa's sideshow-esque labels. There's a sort of plastic half wrap that keeps the tops and bottoms of the soaps clean while sitting on the shelf but still allows you to smell the delicious scents. I haven't tried them yet but am storing them in my chest of drawers where they keep my tee shirts smelling yummy.

Next up I picked up some soaps form English Major Soaps. These soaps all have a literary theme. They come wrapped in pages from an old book. (For the life of me I can't get pictures to load so you'll have to click the links to see the soaps.) The 3 I chose are Cask of Amontillado, Beowulf and Dante's Inferno. The imbed in Cask is supposed to resemble the bars of a cell, awesome, and the scent is definitely wine like. Beowulf is scented with dragonsblood. Dante had the least amount of scent so I put that one to use right away. The soap lathers well and is gentle on the skin.

When I saw Future Primitive on someone's blog (might have been TMTM) I about fell off my seat. Now THESE are some rockin' soaps.

No. 11

One Ring

Lagoon

Her scents lean more towards nature (lavender, geranium, patchouli, etc). I pretty much want every scent she offers. She's in England and shipping can add up  fast so I limited myself to 2 bars and a sample. One Ring, Lagoon and No 11. I'm waiting for my order to arrive but I am sure they won't disappoint.

Beads!

I've spent a few nights this week working on stringing the beads for my Shipwreck shawl. As I said last time, the pattern calls for 5000 beads. I've strung about 1000 beads using a dental floss threader. It was slow going at first since the threader is rather flimsy and I wasn't able to just skim it through the jar of beads and pick them up. I was picking up a few beads between my fingers and more or less feeding them onto the threader. Very tedious. I've since discovered I can put a small pile of beads in the palm of my hand and pick them up with the threader pretty easily (note to self, get a big eye needle!) This has greatly speeded up the process, not to mention saved the fatigue on my fingers. The pattern calls for 8/0 seed beads, which is what I bought. I tested a few I had on hand before placing my order and thought they would work fine. Now that I have many strung, they seem a bit small. They fit rather snugly on the yarn. I guess that's good, they won't shift around when the are placed in the shawl. And with the number of beads needed, using 6/0 would add quite a bit of weight. I finished the Madeira pattern this morning. A few more knit rows then the stitch count doubles and I start the net. I'm excited to start beading. The shawl has been fun so far. The net is going to be tedious. 590 stitches per round. All yo/k2tog. For a jillion rows. For some people, this time flies, for others it's mind numbingly boring. I don't know which camp I'll land in, hopefully the first!!

Knitting roundup

Finally, a finished object.

These are the Purl When Ready socks from The Big Book of Socks knit in Liberty's Yarn Bluetopia Tea Party. The color defies photography, they are much prettier in person. The yarn is a light fingering with a tight twist. Knit on US 0 needles it produced a dense yet still drape-able fabric. The socks are very comfortable and I hope the combination of tight twist yarn knit at a firm gauge will result in a long lasting pair of socks. I am not a fan of knitting socks at this gauge because they seem to take forever. My current sock projects are the Hermione's Everyday sock in Wollmeise Twin and a plain vanilla sock in Knitter's Brewing Company Sockaholic. Both of are true to heavy fingering weight, much more pleasurable to knit.

Most of my knitting time the last week has been devoted to my new obsession, the Shipwreck Shawl. I have no idea what triggered this wild hare, but I am smitten. Shipwreck is a circular shawl knit in fingering weight yarn. The center is a lace medallion made of 3 separate designs. The rest of the shawl is a randomly beaded net pattern. I'm knitting mine as the pattern calls for in Knit Picks Bare Gloss yarn. After the shawl is complete you dye it. I intend to dye mine similar to the original, a stormy blue/gray.

This picture was taken a few days ago having finished the center strawberry pattern, bleeding hearts pattern and just beginning the final motif, Madeira. I am now 2/3 done with Madeira. The charts are pretty easy to follow, 10 stitch repeats. There is some trickiness with some of the rows where you have to move your starting row marker. This was confusing to me at first, especially the rows where you move the marker to the right. I've had 2 rows with mistakes that I had to tink back (un-knit each stitch, one by one) entire rows. This is very frustrating and time consuming, but in lace you just can't fudge over mistakes. It is pretty easy to spot mistakes on the next row, though, so I've not had to tink back more than one row. I hope to start the beaded net by midweek. I purchased my beads from Artbeads (love them). I couldn't find a bead mix anywhere that floated my boat, so I made my own using 10 different shades of blue and black.

They are all Toho rounds size 8/0. Colors include: Amethyst Gunmetal, Navy Iris, Rainbow Black Diamond, Rainbow Moss Green, Iris Gray, Matte Gunmetal, Metallic Hematite, Matte Metallic Navy Iris, Silver-lined Sapphire, Deep Plum-lined Aqua. I think the mix is beautiful and am anxious to see how it looks on the shawl. The pattern calls for 5000 beads. Most of the tips and hints I've read advise not to string them all at once. I'll probably work on stringing later today so I'm ready to go when I reach the net.