Now Norma Knits

Oops

Oops, I never did get to making the celery soup yesterday.  Instead I:

1. Did another practice LSAT test. (The result was disappointing.)

2. Made a gallon of homemade yogurt in the crock pot. (The result was NOT disappointing.) (In fact, it was awesome.) (I've got a bee in my bonnet about all the [plain and Greek] yogurt we eat and all the 1-quart plastic containers we throw away. Oh, all right, "send to the recycling center." But still, what most people don't know is that sending all that stuff to the recycling center should not leave one with a completely clear conscience. It's better than the landfill -- or is it? Does everything that we think we are recycling get recycled? Is there an outlet for all the recycleables? Is there a market for them? Is it economically sound to recycle them? The answer, more often than we wish, is no. I'm told by my recycling center reps that there is a huge glut of recycled stuff -- or more accurately, stuff that is returned by well meaning individuals who think it is really going to be recycled -- and nowhere to send it.) (Sorry for all the parentheticals.) (I won't do it again.) (I promise.) (Probably.) Plus, making yogurt was easy and fun, I didn't have to buy anything except a gallon of milk (I used 1%) and a box of nonfat powdered milk, and it will save (lots of) money. (Oops.)

3. Knitted on my red scarf. At last measure it was 45". (I'm thrilled to see the enthusiasm with which the blog community is taking on the Red Scarf challenge. If you don't already know, the Knitspot Ravelry group is having a knitalong -- with prizes!)  Erika has instituted a six-inches-a-day plan. I'm not touching that one with a ten-foot pole. (Oops.)

4. Went to the gym and had a hell of a good and varied workout, using the Tabata protocol, and taught the protocol to Abigail. She's a fan. 

5. Followed the workout with a light dinner of leftover broccoli-mushroom-cheddar soup and a huge salad, and grapefruit.

Life is good. Well, all except for that LSAT. Oops.

The Anti-Joiner Has Joined

I've gone and joined this.

As a warm-up exercise, I made this hat:

 

It's just wee, for a baby. I used Cascade Eco-Wool and I've put it in the Dulaan box.  The poor Dulaan and Red Scarf Project boxes have suffered some recent debits.  I withdrew the rainbow hat-and-scarf set and the fleece-lined hat and the Rummy Scarf from those boxes in order to bring them to the knit drive for COTS (Committee on Temporary Shelter) at Kaleidoscope.  I have time to make replacements for my other favorite causes before their respective deadlines, and the Kyarns deadline is coming to a close on December 20th.  So I made the executive decision to make the withdrawals and bring in the items today, since I was in the neighborhood, having a wonderful lunch with Margot and Rob.  I'm banking (what's with all the banking lingo in this post?) on the fact that my hoped-for soon-to-be new work schedule will have lots and lots of glorious knitting time (glorious! knitting! time!) built into it, and filling up the Dulaan box will be a piece of cake.  (I just know that by hoping for this and by saying it out loud so often, I'm probably totally screwing myself.  Erk.)

Anyhoo, for the knitalong (which has Sandy-style knitalong rules I can't turn down -- e.g., "finish...or not...") I will knit the Frostrosen mittens if it kills me (they have been ripped out in anticipation of working a bit closer to perfection now that I've sort of got the hang of it.  SORT of.), and I will knit Eunny's Anemoi Mittens if THAT kills me, as well. I already have the materials assembled (from the stash, no less!)

The fawn color on the left in the photo is quite true, but the rose on the right looks a lot more bright pink than it really is.  It's a lovely burnished (warm) rose.  After I get going, I might change it to hunter green or eggplant, each of which I have in the stash (I'm just not positive I have quite enough of those - only one skein each, damnit). Or I might change the colors altogether.  It's my prerogative, ya know.

The page count is 200 pp. less, but somehow that doesn't feel significant.  Still plugging along, still exhausted beyond reason.  *sigh*

Knitalong-Pitiful* (tm)

*button, anyone?  (sing it with me, to the tune of "Beauty School Dropout" -- knitalong dropout...woo-oo-ooo....)

The night before last, I suddenly remembered that I had joined Twisted Knitters.  Not that it necessarily matters, since we all know that I just join things willy-nilly and then participate quite half-assed or not at all, right? (Not one stitch on a sock for Socktoberfest.  Not.one.stitch. And I probably don't need to remind you that it's November now. I still haven't finished the 2nd Trekking sock, and that knitalong ended Labor Day.  We won't even discuss Must Have Too) 

So when I remembered TK, I sat down at the spinning wheel, grabbed some from the ample fiber stash, and spun this:

Regular-sized paper clip added for scale.  It looks like a pile of poo. Honestly, have you ever?!  It's some orangey and some brown and some I-don't-know-maybe-silver-gray Corriedale.  I had such good luck spinning Corriedale into a sock yarn last year that I thought this would be great.  It didn't take me too long to realize that I was spinning perhaps the world's ugliest yarn, and I cut my losses.  I wasn't even sentimental about it.  It's in the trash now.

It also didn't take me long to realize that I am out of practice, and wow, spinning takes practice.  I definitely can't remember how to ride that bicycle anymore.

Not to worry, though.  I've been having a ton of fun with the dyes.  I also had a bobbin-full of some wonderfully soft stuff that I spun last spring and plied it a couple of weeks ago. I threw it in the dye pot with some Jacquard periwinkle the end of last week.  It didn't come out periwinkle, but a brilliant blue-purple -- I'd call it indigo blue, really.  With some white spots where the ties were (damn). It's so soft and lovely I want to make underwear out of it. 

But I won't. 

I got inspired about an idea of Twisted Knitters cum Red Scarf Project, and I decided to dye some more yarns in reds yesterday. I dyed a small ball of My Favorite Rambouillet (a/k/a Plain Vanilla yarn) in burgundy and some Lion's Brand Fishermen's Wool (why do I keep forgetting that that yarn is so nice?....really) a russet red. 

(Colors are not spot-on accurate in this photo. The blue ball is my handspun/hand-dyed.)

The reds are drying now.  Should make a nice scarf, hm?

P.S.  Panera is reconsidering about the Red Scarf Project.  We are an awesome force!  It wouldn't hurt if a few more emails were sent, I'm thinking.....

Socktober - What?

'salmost over, October.  And I have not knit one stitch on a sock.  Not one stitch.  Nor have I done one thing like the shudder - meme - shudder for Lolly's Socktoberfest (I really don't need to link all these things tonight, do I?  I'm really tired.  So no links.  Deal?) which I joined because of fond memories that last year when I joined, it became the first knitalong I had ever completed successfully.  It may still be.  Nope, on second thought, I did some Warm Hands for Sandy last year, and I did Bitchin' Mittens for Dave this year.  But I didn't even finish my second sock for the Trekking Along that I cohosted, for cripe's sake.  That sock is next on my agenda.  I was held up on the heel because I had *ahem* temporarily misplaced the directions for Margene's short-row heel.  Turns out I had put them someplace logical so I wouldn't forget where they were.  And we all know how that turns out, don't we?

My goal for Socktoberfest this year was to complete all the mateless socks I have.  Ha.  I'll be lucky at this rate if I complete one pair.  I think I can quite easily get the Trekking sock done.  I'd even like to have them done by this weekend.  They'd be perfect to wear with my rust-colored Merrells and the green sweater.  I don't know if that is doable, but I think I'm going to try. 

The next one I dearly want to do is the mate to David's birthday socks from his LAST birthday, LAST November 21st.  Geesh.  They're heavyweight socks, too.  Shouldn't take but a minute to do.  But still, they're not done.  Then I've got the luscious tangerine Koigu that Julie sent me.  Feather & Fan sock, the second one is 1/4 done.  I don't know why it's not done yet.  I wanted to make the delicious experience last longer.  Yeah.....that's it.  Then....let's see.  What else?  I doubt that's it for one-sock wonders, but it's all I can think of right now. 

Sorry no pictures.  I'm still trying to get all my work done before my real vacation starts. 

Details about the green sweater and modeled shots to come, after it dries. 

Bitchin' is in the Eye of the Bitch Beholder

Top 10 reasons these fingerless mitts are bitchin', even though they might look quite boring.

10.  They'll warm me this fall and winter.

9.   They're very soft.

8.   I made 'em, and I bet Dave and the whole Bitchin' Mittens crowd thought I had bailed on the project, right?

7.   They're the color of sunflowers.

6.   They've got half thumbs. 

5.   I finished them even though I had absolutely positively no time to knit. (magical!)

4.   They both came out the same size. (after I ripped out and completely reknit the second one. Ahem.)

3.   They are made from stash yarn. (bitchin'!)
 

2.   Even better, they are made from my very first Kool-Aid (and food-coloring) hand-dyed yarn.

1.   And Even Better Still:  They are made from some of my first handspun, as well.  Handspun stash.  Does it get any better or more bitchin'?  I think not.

Here's the backstory:

One day recently I looked down from where I was sitting, looked at some balls of yarn that had been sitting near my computer chair, untouched for over a year, and suddenly something in my wee brain clicked.  It was a color-click, not a project click at all. 

I saw the ball of too-bright yellow-gold that was my very first (successful) wheel-spun yarn.  It is Corriedale, from an "autumn sampler" I bought on eBay, and through beginner's luck it turned out really nice.  Even being humble, as you all know I am, it was almost (heh) hard to tell this yarn from Koigu. I started socks with it once, long ago, but found the colors just wrong together, and just too bright.  It has sat there all this time.  I had no idea what to do with it.  It's fingering weight, and I really did not feel inclined to do charity knitting with it.  There isn't very much of it, either. 

Also sitting there were the balls of the lambswool sportweight superwash wool that were the subject of my very first Kool-Aid dyeing.  They were nice balls of wool that I had bought on eBay, but the original color was an awful shade of beige that even I, an equal-opportunity beige-lover, could not love.  So that prompted me to use it for my first Kool-Aid experimentation.  It came out okay, somewhat mottled, and small balls, all different colors, and again -- sportweight.  What to do with it?  It's been sitting there for at least a year and a half.  The gold was my favorite color, but there wasn't much of it.

In my moment of inspiration, I suddenly saw the two of them together, the colors complementing each other, toning down and brightening up each other respectively, and adding a lot of depth and character to the knitting.  I held the two yarns together and twisted them a bit to see how they would meld.  Beautiful! 

Now I had to come up with something that they could be knitted into.  I went to bed that night with a notepad and pencil, and before I went to sleep, I had designed a lace-embellished neckwarmer that I thought would be great.  I used the leaf lace pattern that I used a couple of years ago in the beaded scarf I did. 

The next day, we wanted to watch a rented movie.  Perfect, I thought, for knitting the neckwarmer, so I cast on.  And I indeed knitted the entire thing during the movie.  And I loved the knitting.  I loved the fabric it was creating -- the two strands held together created a lovely effect, and amazingly it was impossible to discern that it was two strands held together.  I marveled that that could be the case -- that two strands that were so different from each other could marry into such a pretty single-strand-looking marled yarn and fabric. 

But when I cast off and looked at the finished neckwarmer, I did not like it.  I did not like the lace, and did not like the way the neckwarmer fit. The two strands held together approximate, I'd say, an aran weight yarn, and it was too heavy for the lace and too heavy to wear on the neck, especially given the craziness of the large holes created by the lace.  On the one hand, you've got a bulky, super-warm wool neckwarmer for severe weather.  On the other, you've got big honkin' holes in it.  It was a bit too large for my neck, and I really didn't think the lace looked right on it. 

I should have photographed it, but I ripped it out without doing so.  When I ripped it out, I balled it up together, and got what I showed you the other week on WTF Wednesday:     Pretty, hm?  (even for the gold- and yellow-averse?)

Then I had another idea: 

Now, ain't that just bitchin'?
Many thanks to my husband, who was such a good sport in helping to take the photos.

Mnemonics, Swaps, Knitalongs

The mnemonics are a HOOT!!!  I will give you a little teaser that Abigail has already chosen a favorite and said she spent six hours soaking up the air conditioning at a Starbucks yesterday, memorizing it, and she says it's AWESOME.  It's one of the shorter ones, and it's the one she felt clicked with her immediately and it works for her.  She loves it.

But you still have time to make an entry into the "thanks for playing" category, which will be randomly chosen, and she will also choose the one she feels is the funniest.  Contest closes 6 p.m. Friday.  Leave your entries in the comments to that Wednesday, August 2 post.

I'll announce the winners Saturday.   Be sure to check back.  I'll email the winners, too.   

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Margene and Blogless Karen announced yesterday that they are planning a spin-dye-knitalong that sounds like great fun.  Go check it out here.

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And then later in the day Scout announced the Funky Scarf Swap.  If you haven't already, go check it out.  Sounds like fun.

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I am one of the world's worst knitalong and swap participants, so I won't be signing up for anything new for a while.  I've managed to participate quite fully in the Trek-Along, but I've done abysmally in the Bitchin' Mittens. ::hangs head::

I'm still the cohost of the Must Have Too knitalong which has laid dormant for many months now. I do intend to get back to that sweater, starting in August or September.  I really DO want that sweater, and I love the yarn I'm using.  I would like to breathe life back into that knitalong.  Hey, Nathania?!

I'm just bad at these things.  I expect to do Soctoberfest again this October.  It was my first-ever successful knitalong, and it's easy and low-stress, so I figure I can do that again.  My goal for that is to do some socks from the Icelandic sock kit I bought at Rhinebeck last year.  And we'll just see what other things may strike my fancy along the way, if anything. 

In the meantime, please meet Hank D. Gnome, brother of Harold, who resides at Sandy's house.  Hank came bearing gifts of yummy yarn and yummy soap and various and sundry other little pleasures.  Vincent growled at him at first.  But he has since come to accept him with a look that says, "Oh. You again." whenever he walks by him.  The interaction (I guess that wouldn't be considered "interaction," but...) is quite adorable, if I do say so.    I love Hank, and I might just take up with him since Jack is nowhere around this summer.  Tough noogies for you, Jack! If you cared, you'd be here on Wednesday nights (or any night).  Look, I've got wine.   (Thanks Silvia! It's delicious!  Well, I mean it was delicious.  Jack didn't fucking show up the other night, so I drank the whole bottle by myself.) I've got new halter tops. Your loss, Jack. 

Stupid-ass ABC.  You suck. 

We Trekked Stowe -- A Story In Pictures

Turns out it was really good that I carbo-loaded on my birthday cake.  I had a lot of rock to move so Judy and a flatlander from .... I don't know.  Somewhere flat and citified.....  who attempted to do this hike with full-on hair and makeup, black tight capris, and white mules, could have a comfy hike. I'm a little too tired for words, so I'll just give you pictures with captions.

Healthy picnic at the not-quite-summit, shared with an extra friend:

He likes salmon-carrot salad. A lot.

You got yer smiling knitters here.

Sandy candy.

Cool stickers.  "Take a hike!" I especially liked.  Just for us Trek-Alongers.

Pretty.

My attempt at being artsy-fartsy. The gondola poles.

Pretty, but Judy and I could not stop worrying about the dying trees. Don't get us started.

Socks cum lichen

Thank you, Judy, for sharing a beautiful day with me on Mt. Mansfield.

The Weather Is Too Beautiful to Waste

I'll tell you all about it tomorrow. 

P.S.  You people are wonderful -- wonderful, I tells ya! Thank you for the splendiferous birthday greetings. It made me feel like a queen.  Excellent job on the fawning! I had an extra piece of cake for you, and it was delicious -- worth every calorie. 

P.P.S. ABC TV is on my shit list!  No LOST reruns last night!  Because of another stupid-ass pick-another-star show.  And we give two hoots about this genre WHY?????  Iggh.  Don't deny the hormonal woman her LOST, people.  Just don't.

We Give Up! or We Tried, But We Still Did Not Find That Special Something

The sock and I took another trek onto the hill looking for That Special Something that people keep telling us about. By this point, since I feel like I've covered the whole hill at least twice over, I have started to think that the first person who told me about The Special Something was maybe having me on a bit. But you remember the last time I went up there, with Abigail and Vincent, and I mentioned that we ran into someone Abigail knew? Well, later that evening, that person IM'ed Ab and said, "So, did you see (blankety-blank)*?"  And she said, "What do you mean?"  He then proceeded to talk about That Special Something.  She said, "No! We were looking for it but didn't find it." 

He said what everyone else has said: "It's off the beaten path." 

Well, freaking hell.  I went about as far off the beaten path as I thought I could, but this little bump is really a bit bigger than I think it is, I guess. However, apparently everyone but us can find it. What's up with that, huh? Given the descriptions by people, I don't think it's something I could just miss or fail to see if I were walking past it.

Saturday afternoon, I ended up spending three hours trying to find more "off the beaten paths," and I guess I haven't covered everything yet. I'm not really giving up. I'm telling you, though, this had better be worth it, because after a morning of heavy lifting in the garden and heavy trekking on a hillside, on and off trail, I came back thoroughly worn out.

Meanwhile, I saw lots of old stone walls, hidden in the forest. Quintessential New England.
It boggles my mind to think that this area was once all cleared (hence, the old stone fences). Vermont, before it became dairy country, was sheep country. Sheep farming requires clearing of the land. Vermont is now about 80% forested. At the turn of the last century, it was 80% cleared. I simply can't imagine it.

~~~~I remember when I was walking around the fells of the Lake District in England, I said to my friends, "Isn't it amazing to think that this was once all forest?"  They looked at me as if I were green (ha), shrugged their shoulders and said, "I never thought of it."  I'm not sure it ever was, but in my imagination it must have been. You know, enchanted forests and all that.~~~~

After a while, the sock and I gave up for the day. The sock needed a little rest first.

As you can see, the first one is finished. There really is not any wonkiness in the ankle and heel -- it's just the way it's lying on the rock. 

I cast on the second one Sunday. I love the short-row heel (my first!). And Trekking yarn?  I love it so much, I want to make a sweater out of it. At least a baby sweater.  It would make a SWEET baby sweater.

*I don't want to ruin the surprise, in case I ever do find it.

Oh, P.S.  The sock is a 3X1 ribbed sock, the Trekking Color is 100.

Mosquito-Along

During a break in today's deposition, someone told me about something very much worth searching for in one of my favorite hiking locations. The timing, I thought, couldn't be better -- coinciding with me desperately needing some exercise and with the start of the Trek-Along. He said it was on one of the many less-used trails off of the main circular trails I almost always use, but he said he wasn't sure if he could even find it again if he had to.  But the entire hill isn't really that big, and it's not a place in which one can seriously get lost, so I thought I'd have no trouble finding the special thing.  When I got home, I found a couple of beings very willing to accompany me, so I put on my hiking clothes and boots, packed a small pack with the Trekking sock I cast on last night and the camera, and off we went.

Oops.

We forgot bug spray.

Holy cow, it was muddy, mucky, humid and buggy up there. 

One of the "willing beings" to accompany me was, of course, Vincent. Let's think about this a little bit in math terms:

[Muddy and mucky] + [One Bichon Frise] = [One Big Mess] + [One Very Unhappy Little Dog]

We wandered a bit (for almost two hours). I had to break a branch off a walnut tree to use as a mosquito-swatter.  Poor Vincent - it was so bad that when we got back, he begged me to give him a bath. 

We never found the special thing, and The Sock never saw the light of day. (I was afraid it would be carried off by mosquitoes.) At one point, just for the sake of the blog, I entreated Abigail to stop and "let's take the sock out and put it on this lovely moss-covered boulder, together with Muddy Vincent, and photograph it."   

It was at that moment that two people, one of whom Abigail knew, came over the ridge with two ginormous dogs. 

(Where do other people and other dogs get off using my trails, anyway?  The noive. Gah!)

And we could not wait. The bugs were carrying us off. We grabbed Very Muddy Vincent and ran out of there, frantically swatting off the mosquitoes and blackflies all the way.

So, let's review, shall we?  I got:

Some exercise. (At least there's that.)

Lots of bug bites.

Hot and sweaty. 

No picture.

No knitting done.

No sighting of The Special Thing.

A Very Muddy and Unhappy Dog.

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Stay tuned.