Half Baked

Baring my Guts

2008-07-17T08:54:00.000-07:00

Or my Mitten's Guts anyhow. I love how floats look, don't you? Nice neat floats on fair isle projects always make me happy.

Interested in finding out more? The mittens are done, and all the details are over yonder on the Finished Objects blog.

Harloted!

2008-07-15T22:25:00.002-07:00

The much more famous Stephanie, aka the Yarn Harlot is currently working her way through her fiber stash for the Tour de Fleece...she's apparently up to stash acquired in 2006 or so, since that is when I had the pleasure of meeting her for the first time ever at a book signing. Given the number of knitters this woman has met in her various tours, I was amazed to discover at TNNA that she recalled who I was.

Anyhow - her spinning is gorgeous. From a 2 ounce batt, she managed to generate 200 yards of lovely 2-ply laceweight. Clearly it must be a sign that I should go spend more time with my own wheel!

In knitting news, the mittens are finished, i just need to get some time to write about them...stay tuned :)

And here is why Row Gauge Matters...

2008-07-10T07:25:00.005-07:00

Well, I'm not yet done with my mittens...but I could have been!

Aren't they looking lovely? The fern motif shaped up nicely - the little color additions on the stem are little bits of yarn from other mittens in the mitten-along. I think it makes them even more special :)

So the question is...are you noticing anything slightly odd by any chance? All I have to say to explain myself is that I was just having a lovely time knitting along, following the chart, while listening to/watching TV (anyone else get sucked into Wipeout?) Next thing I knew it, the mittens were getting kinda tangled each time I flipped em over to knit the other side. Hmm... that's odd - that usually happens when I work on knitting sleeves...or long socks...

uh, yeah. it is fair to say we have a problem. No amount of blocking or felting is going to shorten these babys up. I noticed that my Vs are rather upright and long...rather than being short and squat. I think this is what is to blame for my ridiculous mitten length...or that's as far as my brain can figure it out.

If we look at the interesting side of the mittens, you can see approximately where my index finger ends. I'm trying now to figure out what the best path forward is - seeing as it's not quite at the beginning of that part of the motif, I wasn't sure if I should rip that entire "frond" back or how best to proceed. As it is, if I rip it completely out, I think I'm going to have to drop back some stitches (and pick them back up again) to adjust the colorwork on the 2 lower fronds...either that or I'm going to be doomed to rip clear all the way back to just above the snails. If that happens, I think I might cry. Then again, I've been really enjoying the knitting, so knitting it twice may not be that bad ;) This would be one of the downfalls of knitting your mittens (or socks or sleeves both at the same time ;) ) The good thing with the shetland wool is I don' t think it's going to be too traumatic to rip back - the wool is rather grippy, so I would expect that it will leave the happy little active stitches sticking straight up waiting to slide back onto the needles!

We have Snails.

2008-07-08T07:20:00.001-07:00

I've cruised on past the snails on the mittens and am working my way up the fern motif. Things are going relatively speedily and I'm still working on making my gauge behave when it comes to carrying the yarn across long stretches and then having to knit with it on the first or second stitch on the other side of the mitten (we'll see how successful I am when I'm finished). When looking at the palm of the mitten it appears I have fairly even gauge/tension between hands (I make this statement because both colors appear to show up fairly evenly on the 1x1 stripes). Tonight, I curl up with the mittens while watching the Hell's Kitchen finale...or whatever else I can find on TV...or maybe I'll watch something on the computer. Either way, I'm going to get a little knitting done :)

In other news, the Shop has several new additions - not so much of my own personal dyework and fiberwork (I'm woefully behind and the 110+ degree days aren't really conducive to thinking about blending fibers). Orders I placed during or after TNNA have started to make their appearances at my door - there's yarn and woolwash and LOTS of patterns :)

4th of July Mitten Launch (we must be crazy)

2008-07-07T14:01:00.004-07:00

For those readers in the US, I hope you all had a fantastic 4th of July weekend. I sure did - even though it was probably hot enough to braise a roast in my car, several of us decided to get together and play with wool.

It was all Steve's Idea...

here's all the lovely yarn (except for Illanna's - since she was joining us virtually from far far away) about 5 minutes before the designated start time of High Noon on the 4th of July....

I suspect a great number of folks who saw us at various establishments this weekend all thought we were crazy....ah well, I'm enjoying the knitting....and I'm discovering that my right hand is slightly dominant with Fair Isle knitting - but it's probably a lot more pronounced in large stretches of colorwork (vs plain on striping). I'll explain more about that some other time. Steve & Kiki have semi-time-lapse photos on their blog of the mitten progress over the weekend....

Unfortunately, with today being Monday, I suspect the mitten progress may be greatly slowed...but you never know :)

Bag Lady

2008-07-02T06:08:00.001-07:00

I adore bags of all varieties, though it seems of late, I prefer larger bags that I can cram a bunch of stuff (including my knitting!) into - I was really excited to receive a review copy of Simply Sublime Bags (due for release next Tuesday - though you can pre-order it now!)

The book is nicely put together, and includes 30 different projects - some requiring no sewing, others that require just some hand stitching, and others that use simple stitching on your sewing machine. Projects vary from very easy level 1 up on through "Project Runway - here I come" level 5. The stitching and levels are easily identified by small icons on each project page. While a number of the projects use materials and fabrics all found in fabric store (as I would expect in a sewing book) this one also includes some projects showing you how to recycle and re-purpose other goods and turn them into great accessories. Several of the projects use materials I would never have thought of using (like a shiny mylar bubble envelope), and I've found lots of inspiration flipping through the pages.

I should note that several of the projects make creative use out of packing and duct tape - while these may work fine in some regions of the world, I'll have to find some other options if I want to make those projects - simply because the adhesives have a tendency to melt and goo up everything down here in the land of 110+ degree days.

Seeing as there are actually days during the heat of the summer where I can't be bothered with wool, this book will be sure to keep me entertained. From little pouches, to clutches, to purses, to totes and messenger bags, this book has inspiration and instructions for it all. If you're as into crafty bags as I am, I definitely recommend a look-through!

Flashy

2008-06-27T16:14:00.000-07:00

Front side shot can be seen, along with way more information about this sweater over here on the finished objects blog.

In a nutshell: knit from the bottom up, seamless - unless you count a wee bit of grafting at the underarms and on the back. I think I really like this fine gauge knitting business :)

Smile...

2008-06-25T16:10:00.000-07:00

you're on Ravelry...

Thanks to several friends who have much sharper eyeballs than I do, I realized I can be seen amongst the "famous" knitters in photos that currently grace the front page of Ravelry! My head is down, not because I'm ignoring them all, but because I was busily flipping through a sock book :)

Now Blocking...

2008-06-23T16:11:00.000-07:00

little tiny snippets of my koigu sweater...which, I am happy to say, enjoyed a nice bath in some Aquae SOAK before being spun dry and laid out flat to block. Clockwise from the top: the v-neck with applied i-cord trim, notch on the back of one of the cuffs (I have 1/2 length sleeves on this sweater and the notch accomodates my elbow quite nicely) and finally, a closeup of the applied i-cord over the epaulet.

Now I need to pick back up my Venezia and hope I haven't changed gauge drastically or I might be facing some serious issues with the knitting!

Happy Summer Solstice!

2008-06-20T16:03:00.003-07:00

Summer is officially here, and with temperatures soaring here in the desert (so far something like 8 days in 2008 over 110 F!), I think it is fair to say summer has been here for a while.

But I still play with wool anyway. 3rd time is the charm right? I sure hope so - I reknit the hem, and sewed it up on my koigu sweater, only to discover that it still wanted to flip upwards. I don't know if it's because I didn't knit it long enough (that's what I suspect) - but I picked it out last night and I'm switching to 1x1 rib. Now I just need to figure out what to do to edge the sleeves....

I find it slightly humorous that on a day when temperatures are 111 F and still climbing, I am doing a drawing to give away a knitted hat book...ah well, the projects are small, and perfect for knitting during the summer months to prepare for the cooler seasons!

I fired up the Random Number Generator

And it picked Angela/Oiyi as the 15th person to comment. Angela has a beautiful daughter to knit for - she's got a great blog for those of you who haven't discovered it yet. In her most recent post she shows off her sewing and baking skills with some awesome animal cookie cutters. Thank you all so much for stopping by and playing :)

Patience is a Virtue

2008-06-18T12:19:00.005-07:00

Seriously. Because it might save you from having to do what I did...

...which would be picking out the hem of a sweater by snipping one stitch and unraveling it, stitch by stitch in order to get access to live stitches (as in a provisional cast on) to add length to the body. Above in the photo you can see that I have just finished liberating the hem :)

I measured and measured, and still it seems it wasn't quite long enough (I really should have kept on knitting instead of splitting for the v-neck and going after the yoke) - I don't know if it was because when I measured it, I was stretching the fabric a little bit or perhaps I failed to accomodate my not so bountiful bustline - all I know is where it was, it was hitting me at about belly-button level.

I'm glad to say the picking out of stitches and adding length has gone quite well - I'm half way through binding off all the hem stitches so I can whip stitch it up in place (I opted to do this instead of binding off to the purl bumps in an attempt to prevent the hem from kinda flipping outwards). Once I have the hem in place, I'll have one skein of koigu left to finish the edging on the neckline (I'll be opting for applied i-cord) and the finishing of the sleeves. It's looking like this will be a short sleeved sweater :) Unless I order in another skein or so of this colorway and dyelot.

Don't forget, there are a few more days left before I fire up yon Random Number Generator to pick a winner in the contest!

Shear Coincidence

2008-06-16T17:38:00.002-07:00

Quick! Rewind back to TNNA...I was ensconced in my hotel room, channel surfing and winding down, trying to get myself ready for my first day of TNNA...flipping, flipping, flipping (drat! No Food Network!) and finally settled on the Science Channel (because I'm nerdy that way).

Imagine my surprise when the show I was watching (How It's Made) decided to demystify the process of how wool yarns are commercially spun! Sadly, I have hunted high and low to see if I can find a link to the clip to share with you all, but alas, it appears it may have been a previous season's episode.

Anyhow, I was surprised to learn that blending of wool in a commercial mill is done by air - imagine all these happy little locks/staples of wool and other fiber blown into a gigantic room and floating about like popcorn in gigantic air popper (speaking of popcorn, have you tried the Trader Joe's Kettle Corn? Delicious. and Addictive). The fluffy fiber is then carded by some gigantic huge machine into a web (not a batt!) - the web is actually rather thin - as the fiber is removed from the carding machine, it's divided into thin strips and rolled into rovings - but not rovings as I think of them (which, apparently are technically slivers) - but pencil rovings. The rovings are then spun into yarn and coned! If you want a whole whack more detail, I recommend reading this from the Fingerlakes Woolen Mill. I daresay, I envy them their skeiner!

One of these days I really need to get myself into a working yarn mill - just to actually see the process in person.

Knitting on the Koigu Saddle Shoulder Sweater is nearing the home stretches...stay tuned for photos and a progress report!

Knits for Kids

2008-06-12T10:28:00.004-07:00

Well, I wasn't sure if I would post a review on this book, but this is uh...my 6-hundred-and-66th post. So I thought, in my own sick and twisted manner: my goodness. How fitting, to blog about knitted critters :)

Now then, if you've ever wanted to deck out your child (or someone else's child - or perhaps even someone who is *not* a child (by age anyway)) but didn't know how to go about it, this is a nice book for inspiration and basic instruction.

As clearly stated on the cover, there are 40 animal-themed accessories in the book for you to shake your sticks and yarn at. The patterns are broken into three categories: Beginner, Easy and Intermediate, and as you can imagine, the book is loaded full of smiling children sporting these pieces of work. Each section begins with the photos, and are followed with the patterns. My personal favorite is Rory, the Lion (found in the easy section).

As I mention above, the book is good for inspiration and basic instruction - I highly recommend checking size, gauge and adapting as required - most of the hats definitely appeared to be too small and/or not deep enough to stay on a child's head (or they simply didn't pull the hats all the way down in the photos - as many are just grazing the tops of the kids' ears). In my (admittedly) very limited experience, the deeper the better when it comes to kids hats - otherwise they seem to sproing right off!

Anyhow, seeing as I don't happen to have any children to be knitting for, I'd be happy to send my review copy onto someone else who might find better use for it. If you'd like to be included, please leave me a comment (and be sure to let me know how to contact you should you win!) and I'll use the trusty random number generator to fire it off. I'll leave this open for oh a week or so (closing June 20th) to accumulate names. Don't forget to tell your friends :D

Trippy.

2008-06-10T14:13:00.007-07:00

Well, I'm back from TNNA, and what an experience it was - 2.5 days of networking and yarn - my brain was about ready to explode on Sunday when I left, and the market still had another full day to go!

First, lets have a look at the traveling sock, shall we? I opted to cast on for Pure Cricosaura, a lovely pattern by my blogless friend Erika (originally designed for a Yarntini Sock Club).

Here you can catch the detailed shot of the stitches - it's working up very nicely. Of course, it's one of my own yarns (Sidhe, limited edition colorway, if you are wondering) on US1s. At this point, I have this much sock done, and I'm about ready to head into the gussets :) Not bad for a few days of knitting.

Anyhow, back to the trip report, right? Things started out fairly normally on Friday, which was pretty much a networking and planning day - I met Kris and Jessica and several other retailers at the retailers luncheon where we got to listen to a wonderful talk by Stephanie. During my "down" time, I also had a chance to eyeball new yarns and other new products that were planned to debut at the show. After wandering around a bit, and meeting up with my roomie for the weekend, Anne, things quickly spiraled into a surreal experience.

While awaiting the evening's festivities, it seems I manged to stumble into the knitterati, and they appeared to tolerate me as a token Plebian in their midst ;). There was the Ravelry 3: Jess, Casey, and Mary-Heather, the Knitty 2: Amy and Jillian, Annie Modesitt, the already mentioned Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, Amanda from Lorna's Laces, Franklin, Janel Laidman (she has a new sock book out!), Abby Franquemont (spinner extraordinaire), and I even met Norah Gaughan! As the evening progressed more and more knitters took over the lounge space of the Hyatt - I had a chance to talk knitting late into the night with knitting folks from all over the country. It's a wonder my brain didn't explode just with all that stimulation!

Saturday was the first day of the Market, and I am pleased to say I managed to walk the entire floor, and still have enough brain power to properly socialize throughout the day and well into the night - of course, I didn't have a camera, but there were a lot of photos being taken - If you happen to spot any that have a woman in a Spritely Goods shirt on in them, that would be me. Honestly, between the yarn and the "famous" knitters all around, my brain was having a hard time processing by the next day! Luckily, all I had to do was place an order or two, while saving the rest for figuring out once I'm home.

While I can certainly say there is some nice yarn due to come in, I'm still making decisions on yet more yarn and the possibility of bringing in some needles and/or other accessories. I even picked up some needles so I could do some proper evaluation before ordering for the shop - see?

Having been to various tradeshows before, I had a feeling I'd be a bit overwhelmed with product - but its fair to say I completely underestimated the people and networking aspect of this particular tradeshow. Maybe I was just lucky, but everyone was very welcoming and friendly. It was great to put faces to names/blogs/ravatars/companies. It was fantastic to be able to talk knitting and yarn and not have people looking at the group funnily (well, there were a few, but they were in the minority, since the knitters had taken over the place for the weekend!) It was exciting. It was amazing. It was tremendously energizing. I relished every moment and hope to do it again next year...Now then, if I could just do something about this day job ;)

Photoless & Melting.

2008-06-05T18:37:00.002-07:00

Greetings from Columbus, Ohio - and TNNA! I of course managed to forget my camera - at first I figured it was no big deal because cameras aren't allowed on the show floor - but there are knitters all over the place, and I even spotted Jess and Casey and Mary-Heather! Not only that, but I know I will be spying a famous Stephanie...and I'm sharing my room with none other than Anne Hanson of Knitspot designs!!

Not too much to report for today, other than I'm melting from the heat and humidity combination. I didn't finish the Koigu sweater, it's still at home awaiting the yoke and sleeves....and a possible lengthening. I made a walk over to North Market to find something for dinner...and now I'm making lists of things to try not to buy ;) Stay tuned...LOL!

Fresh Yarn and Fiber :)

2008-06-02T10:08:00.000-07:00

Well, May flew right on by with barely a shop update. I've made up for it this month. Over 20 pounds of fresh yarn and fibers have hit the shop. Most of the new yarn is limited edition colorways. I hope to develop some new colorways as I decide which of the "regulars" to tag for discontinuing.

The latter portion of this week, I will be at TNNA :) Not to show, but to hunt down some new lines and products to add. I'm still undecided as to whether the computer will be making the trip with me, and also trying to figure out what knitting project to bring.

This weekend I made good progress on the Koigu sweater - so much so, that I might have it to wear to TNNA. We'll see. It is, after all, fine gauge knitting, and it can be deceiving how much is left to go - photos soon :D

Weekend Getaway

2008-05-27T13:50:00.003-07:00

Egads. 1 week+ since posting. Things have been a little busy round here - and look like they might be staying that way for just a little longer. Fear not, a long awaited shop update will be in the works soon (I finally took the photos of the "new" bits that are due to go up) - and TNNA is just around the corner. If you've any particular requests, let me know, and I'll keep my eyes open :)

This weekend was spent doing very little in the way of work - I actually had a chance to get out and explore! While the northern and higher elevations of Arizona actually received snow (!), we got some much needed rain in the lower elevations. After the front cleared out, with backpacks packed, we headed out for an exploration of the Blue River in the eastern edges of the state.

Saw some evidence of really cool wildlife (that would be a 5-6" diameter paw print - relatively fresh, seeing as it didn't appear to have rain speckles on itand the sand was still damp from the prior rains...yes, I do think it's a bear print). The season seemed to be still too early (or perhaps a smidge cool) for snakes - and surprisingly, the few lizards I saw were fairly large. The Blue River area also happens to be the location of Mexican Wolf reintroduction (didn't see any, I'm afraid). The area, like many riparian regions, has lots and lots of birds of all sorts of varieties - unfortunately for me, I don't know my birds anywhere near as well as my plants - and I also don't carry a telephoto lens, so getting photos to aid me in my learning quest can be quite the trick! While out hiking, we also saw plenty of bunnies, hares, a couple squirrels, and some deer in addition to the already mentioned lizards. The most amazing animal we saw on the trip was seen from our car - a mature mountain lion. It was calmly walking down the road, looking for dinner (rabbits or perhaps deer) no doubt. I've lived and hiked in the area for about 11 years now, and this was the first time I've ever seen one of these elusive big cats - it was magnificent.

After finishing with the backpacking trip, we checked out a small canyon on our way home - the slot was a pleasant surprise, especially as it carved from conglomerate rock.

On the way home, I managed to finish off the first of my balls of Koigu on my saddle shoulder sweater...luckily I had brought a spare skein to carry on :) Stay tuned, perhaps we'll have a Sweater In Progress photo soon!

Size Matters!

2008-05-19T18:19:00.000-07:00

Look at the difference in the way the yarn behaves with 2 different needle sizes! I think it's pretty neat myself - and it's a great illustration that you can indeed "control" or manipulate a yarn if you are afraid of pooling or flashing.

That there is a swatch for a Seamless Saddle Shoulder Sweater (I'm way behind - rumor has it that Erika "won" the KAL and finished her sweater this weekend - Illanna was not far behind with only the underarms to sew up as of yesterday...and Kiki has recently frogged the yoke of her sweater to redo it due to an excess of fabric at the underarms. Rumor is the best version of the "pattern" to follow is out of Elizabeth Zimmermann's The Opinionated Knitter (and not Knitting Workshop - which is what I am currently knitting out of....). Ah well, I've got miles of knitting to go before I get there - and tempted as I am to just knit one ball of koigu after the next, I will be juggling and mixing the balls of yarn, just in case the colors don't quite match.

By the way, I opted to go with US2s if you were wondering. But only because the math was easier ;)

Aluminum & Tin...

2008-05-16T12:14:00.002-07:00

are the traditional gifts of a ten year anniversary!

Look what I got! This is the first All-Clad cookware I've ever owned (or used!)...yes, I know, All-Clad is stainless steel, not aluminum - but these happen to be aluminum all on the outside, lined with stainless - makes em lighter than the classic stainless line, I think. Anyhow, most of the pots and pans in the kitchen were either inherited or were picked up way back when I was still in school. I think a lot of it is Revereware, and Scanpan with a couple of Le Creuset pieces and of course a regular old Lodge cast iron pan thrown in. I'm looking for cooking with these in the years to come :)

mmm....Cookies!

2008-05-14T14:18:00.003-07:00

I always love a good cookie - sometimes I prefer fancier cookies, sometimes I just want the quick convenience of a drop cookie - especially if I can make up a whole batch, portion out the dough and freeze them for fresh baking at a later date :) I always appreciate a cookie fresh from the oven, chased down with a nice cup of coffee or a cold cup of milk. Yum.

Of course, with my fixation on cookbooks, it is fair to admit that I have a whole shelf dedicated to cookbooks that focus primarily on desserts - cookies, pastries, cakes and ice cream - if its for dessert, its probably safe to say I can likely find a recipe for it in my cookbook collection - if not for the exact item, probably for something that can be adapted to suit.

Not long ago, I received a review copy of Martha Stewart's Cookies: The Very Best Treats to Bake and to Share - now, I have to admit that I don't subscribe to any of the myriad of Martha's publications, nor do I frequent the Martha Stewart website (I seem to prefer Food Network, Cooking Light or America's Test Kitchen) - with that said, several other individuals have pointed out that if you are a big fan of Martha's, this book may not have a whole lot of new recipes to offer you.

For me, the book was a pleasure to look at - 175 recipes, broken down by texture. The table of contents was unique in that it shows a small full color image of the finished cookie to aid the browsing :) Each recipe also includes a large beautifully photographed image of the finished cookie, so you know what you're aiming for when you start. While several of the recipes appear to be old favorites (meringues, snickerdoodles, macaroons, cocoa crackles, chocolate chip, classic shortbread, thumbprints, rugelach, and peanut butter, to name a few) there are still plenty to investigate and bake. My sister-in-law actually baked me up a bunch of the Lime Meltaways for Christmas last year - and I have to admit they disappeared quickly!

In addition to the wonderful recipes and photographs, the book also has a small section at the end that focuses on tools and techniques - providing tips on making, portioning, shaping and decorating the cookies...and finally, there is a great section on packaging your freshly baked treats for gifting. Once the weather cools down again, I'll hopefully start baking again :) (with temps starting to head into the upper 90s and with the 100+ temps to come, I can't bear thinking about turning on the oven!) Maybe I need to learn more about solar baking ;)

Anyhow, if you're looking for a good, well rounded cookie book, this one looks to be a good fit!

A visit up the Hill

2008-05-12T17:00:00.000-07:00

While folks out east were enjoying Maryland Sheep and Wool, I was getting a fiber fix of my own - Up at Knit 1 Bead 2 in Jerome, Arizona!

The store is arranged differently than many other knitting stores I've been to - it's actually arranged by hue - and is quite the sight to behold! Erica, the owner of the shop, is very friendly and helpful. Jerome is a lovely town to visit - best to go early to get parking - you can grab breakfast at one of several little cafes - we opted for the Red Rooster. I had a fantastic time wandering town and looking in the various galleries...

...and of course I did a wee bit of stash enhancement while I was at it. This is my first self-purchased Koigu. Erika (blogless, I'm afraid - the same one who I dyed that iceland inspired yarn for) had gifted me with some Koigu for my last birthday. This Koigu is destined for a saddle shouldered (or perhaps hybrid) sweater...it's kind of a knit along (though I am woefully behind as I have yet to ball and swatch any of it yet!) with Kiki, Erika and Illanna. Perhaps they will knit another while I get started on my first! So, what do you think, US3s or US4s? I must be crazy. Fine gauge wool sweater knitting. And not just one, but two (don't forget, I have venezia on the needles!)

Distracted.

2008-05-09T23:30:00.002-07:00

I've been a mite distracted, though have been making slow, steady process on Venezia - and she is looking lovely! It seems I am going to have to either learn how to machine reinforce my steeks or opt for hand stitching them...neither option is particularly appealing, but I figure I should be able to figure it out - how hard could it possibly be? ;) Unfortunately, even though I have been knitting for 4 years or more, I haven't a single "old swatch" laying around anywhere to test feed to ~~yon monster~~ the lovely sewing machine - looks like I might be spending some idle time with some scrap yarn to make swatches to see if the machine likes to eat handknits. Some kind folk on the Stranded board at Ravelry have suggested using tear away stabilizer to protect the knitted fabric from undue tasting on behalf of the machine - we'll see how it does with the ~~appetizers~~ sample swatches. Worst case, I resort to hand stitching the reinforcements - it can't be that bad - tedious, yes, but doable - after all, I never thought I'd handstitch in a zipper into a sweater, and yet I did that just this past winter!

In other mad adventures, it seems I've decided I like knitting fine gauge sweaters - I'm planning on joining some knitting friends on a Elizabeth Zimmermann Saddle Shoulder sweater knit along. I'll show you the yarn soon - I really need to swatch - the others are way way way ahead of me (as in approximately 1/2 sweaters worth of knitting done already!)

Precious and Purple

2008-05-07T20:20:00.000-07:00

Not from Maryland or from the trip to Jerome this weekend (yes, I did add to my stash), this lovely skein is from Cayli. It's handdyed (by Cayli) zephyr - mmmm wool and silk. Laceweight. Enough for a gorgeous shawl. I won it in her drawing by being a donor to her breast cancer 3-day fund. While her drawing is done, she still needs to raise just a bit more to reach her goal (just click the link in her sidebar).

Stranded.

2008-05-02T17:52:00.001-07:00

This is the weekend of Maryland Sheep and Wool. I really wish I was there - instead, I feel a little stranded ;) tho I will be having a little yarn fun myself this weekend - the plan is to have a little field trip up to Jerome to visit Knit1 Bead 2 and then spend the rest of the weekend up to my elbows in yarn... Those of you going, please don't forget to stop by the Cloverhill Yarn booth and pat my yarn!

In the meantime, it looks like I will finally get some steek action going at some point in the not too distant future!

I've cast on for Venezia - a fine gauge fair isle sweater. I plan on knitting it with the 3/4 length sleeves plus a v-neck modification. Of course, I didn't select the best yarn to steek with - I'm knitting this sweater from my very own Spritely Goods Fey - since the yarn itself has subtle variegations, I've decided to go with a simple bi-color version.

Since the yarn is indeed superwash, I will be using reinforced steeks. Be sure to wish me luck when the time comes ;)

I'm loving the colorwork - though I was not so happy trying to get gauge - turns out I'm a loose knitter when knitting single stranded with this yarn, so the solid portion is on US0s...and I'm a tight knitter when it comes to colorwork - so the fair isle is being knit on US4s! Once I got gauge*, things were progressing smoothly - see?

In case you are wondering how I opted to do my gauge swatch, I actually cast on for a pair of sleeves - I quickly discovered my loose knitting on the hems, but it took several changes of needles and a 2 frogging sessions to eventually get it right completely. While I would have preferred to have cast on for the body, allowing myself a bit more latitude with figuring out how much yarn I had available for the sleeves, I am knitting the sleeves first because I actually used them for my gauge swatches. Because the swatch had to be knit in the round and I didn't want to waste the limited yarn that I have for this project (8 oz / ~980 yards each color), I cast on for the sleeves to save myself some ripping. As for why I'm knitting both sleeves at the same time, it's an attempt to keep the gauge as even as possible on both sleeves - that way I don't wind up with one somehow longer than the other...it also prevents me from having second sleeve syndrome :)

No Epiphany Needed

2008-04-29T07:54:00.004-07:00

I have always been a fan of Chocolate - so imagine my delight when offered this stunning book for review!

Chocolate Epiphany most certainly does not disappoint. The book is heavy, featuring stunning photographs and wonderful recipes all featuring Chocolate. Written by Francis Payard of Payard Patisserie and Bistro, this book is gorgeous and full of wonderful things - I spent days gazing at the photos and reading through the recipes.

Chocolate Epiphany is broken down into several sections, starting out with what Chef Payard looks for in Chocolate as well as some tips on working with the wonderful stuff. The book then progresses into the recipes - broken into sections: Breads and Brunch Dishes, Cookies and Petits Fours, Candies and Chocolates, Custards, Mousses, Meringues and Ice Cream, Tarts, Cakes and Plated Desserts. Finally, it winds down and finishes with basics on handling and tempering chocolate and creating chocolate decorations.

While the subtitle to this book is Exceptional Cookies, Cakes and Confections for Everyone - I feel I should make you aware that quite a number of the items in the book are not your every day simple desserts - they will take time to prepare, and you may need to learn some new techniques - I would expect no less, given the who the author is. Also, if you are baking for someone with a nut allergy - you will want to steer clear of quite a number of recipes in this book - almonds, hazelnuts, pecans, pistachios and walnuts all make an appearance in various recipes in this book. Finally, if you have a corn allergy, or an aversion to corn syrup, you will need to make some modifications - especially to the recipes in the candies section.

While I would have loved to make a slew of these recipes, I simply have not yet had the time or the occasion - though I did take the opportunity to try my hand at one of the candy recipes. Click onward to view the experiment (as usual, I didn't follow the recipe exactly, but used it as a starting point to create something of my own).

Incidentally, with chocolate and caramel on the brain, I finally restocked the shop's stock of Caramel Mocha spinning batts :)