Wow, November is over!

I seem to have finished NaBloPoMo, with the help of my dear readers, urging me on!

I don't think I'll take up posting every day as a permanent thing. Or if I were doing it again, I wouldn't put all my hopes of blog-fodder on one garment, especially one that grows slowly on small needles!

That garment continues to grow. I have started both fronts together and have, um, about 4 rows.

Plans for December:

1. Finish the Ribwarmer -- this involves going to buy more yarn.
2. Get a start on my mom's sock-mending/reknitting. Apparently the socks I gave her this summer are too short in the foot, and since she wears them for bedsocks, it's a nuisance when they slip off!
3. Finish the Noro cardigan.
   
4. That's probably enough, but I need to get that cotton baby blanket restarted, I want some hand-knitted mittens, a denim pullover, a lace shawl...

I also want to be able to stumble through this, and the following 3 parts! Belly dancing fitness sounds like such fun, but at this point I'm very much a beginner.

No post tomorrow, folks -- I'm taking the day off!

Unless it snows...

Really, the back of the sweater

Oh, joy supreme!

This morning I looked at my sweater back, measured, and did a little dance, because I could just shape the shoulders and I was done!

I still have the two front pieces to do, and so should not celebrate too much, but it is so nice to cast something off and start something new, even if it is another piece of the same garment!

I still have one more day of NaKniSweMo, so I'll certainly try to get started on a front!

The back of the sweater

First, this morning, I wrote the title of this post. Yessirree, I thought, I will finish the back today! Only 2 weeks behind schedule!

I knit a row and measured and something else came up. I found myself walking Elaine to a friend's house, down near Romni Wools. Aha, said I, I can drop in and get the last skein of cotton for Ribwarmer II. But alas, Romni is closed on Sundays! At least I got my walk!

So I came home, got ready for tonight's street dinner party, knit a row, measured.... Elaine had another playdate, I took the girl home at 5 pm, jumped in the shower -- we're going out at 6 pm. It's 5:57.

Tomorrow, I will finish the last inch of the back, and show it to you! Really!

That will cover November 29, and November 30 will deal with the end results of NaBloPoMo and NaKniSweMo!

What I did last night

Last night I went to my friend's house and sat around and chatted, and most people did not stuff their faces with cookies. I did wonder as I put about 4 dozen cookies on a plate for 6 women...

Aside from the really nice conversation and interesting histories which we got into, it was a very fine thing to sit comfortably and just knit round and round on a sock. (I've taken up carrying the second tiger sock around with me, and progress is being made!) Must do all these things more often!

There used to be a bit of a tradition in the neighbourhood for women to get together at someone's house for what they called "Mama Sans." Sans, as I'm sure you all know, is French for without, so it was a time for moms to be without kids, without spouses, without a care in the world, and the few I attended in the golden olden days of 10 years ago were really open and inviting and friendly and super fun, but I haven't heard of one for a few years.

One neighbour and I were moaning at each other on a street corner a while back about the daily grind, and decided we needed a similar pick-me-up, and that led to this little affair last night.

Now another plan for 2011 is to revive the big Mama Sans tradition and get nights like this happening more often, with more people! I think the problem often is finding not only a moment, but also a house -- I would not really be sans if my kids were coming down to eat all the snacks and my husband was yakking with someone in the kitchen.... though that would all be fun, too!

I must say that my house has silted up terribly, and the books, knitting, toys, discarded mail (and the occasional sock that the laundress misses) are getting overwhelming. Stay tuned for boastful posts about how one can actually see the floor, and then we'll be all set for entertaining!

Oh, and this is me with my new hair. I can use "product" and make it all stand up, or I can jam my hat on my head and make it all lie flat. I think for the next few months, it'll tend towards flat!

Boy, do I look like my sisters...

Yay, it's Friday

Today I'm going to get my hair cut. Maybe not quite like Emma Watson's, but one never knows. Then I am going to do a bunch of stuff, and then, I am going to dig a supply of cookies out of the freezer and go to a Moms' Night In. I hope it will not be quite like Penny's, on the Big Bang Theory, but one never knows.

I have the ginger snaps, which are old family favourites from the Joy of Cooking; the "light brown brownies," which I think some people call Blondies; the super chocolate cookies from the new Martha Stewart magazine; plain ol' chocolate chip; and some jam thumbprint cookies from Martha, which I just made yesterday.

Martha and her cookies, I dunno. The chocolate ones are good, but I cut out a ton of chocolate from her recipe. I also made some for which I had to "finely chop" crystallized ginger, which was no picnic. They didn't even taste all that gingery when I was done, either! I didn't save them, but let the kids eat them, and I didn't spend the extra time making lemon icing for them, either. That surely would have made them more flavourful, but it didn't seem worth the fuss.

Yesterday's thumbprints were also a bit too much work for a very meh cookie. Tons of butter, sugar, an egg and flour. That's it! I put a splash of vanilla in, and I ran out of white flour so they are a tad healthy with a cup of whole wheat flour. My first big sigh was when I decided to use my electric mixer to cream the butter and sugar. I never do this; I just use a wooden spoon, or big plastic spoon that looks like a wooden spoon! I was supposed to beat for 3 or 4 minutes, according to the recipe, but after 30 seconds my beaters were all jammed up with butter (Hmm, all jammed up with butter?? You know what I mean) so I reverted to the spoon anyways! Is it possible to do this somehow without clogging things up? The butter was room temperature.

So, next step: make balls, squish them a bit to make a dip. Melt jam... When I first did this, I followed Martha's instructions and melted the jam on the stove, then carefully filled the dips in the cookies. I had two kinds of jam, and so for the second flavour, I put it in the microwave, because it seemed like a good idea. And now I know why the instructions said to do it on the stove! Exploded pineapple jam all over the microwave is not a pleasant thing! Another big sigh.

The cookies are okay... How can one go wrong with all that butter and sugar? But they have no zing.


Pretty, but not worth a second go, I'd say!

I hope there will be knitting as well as cookies tonight. One woman made a lovely sweater, and another saw it and dashed out to buy the yarn. I think is this Garter Stitch Jacket. Now this second one is almost finished, but there are little issues she needs resolved.

Oh, the exciting life I lead, trying to resolve knitting issues and eating cookies! (I took two exercise videos out of the library! It's exhausting just watching them.)

A new ball of Noro

I like to rewind the Noro from the store-bought balls into my own centre-pull balls, so that I can find any knots. In the first two balls, I had one or two knots in each, but this last one had none.

I was also really pleased to come across that turquoise again, and can't wait to knit with it!

Tis the season for silly songs

Well, that's enough of that!

Picking a random number between one and three was a challenge, but we did it, and got THREE! That means that Pigwotknits will get herself a new magazine, as soon as she sends me her snail-mail address (my e-mail address is up there in the corner).

Now, off to knit a few rows before tackling the day!

A bit of excitement

Today we had the fire department on our street. No ambulances, luckily!


One has to go gawk a bit when the trucks are on one's very own block, so I turned the soup pot down low and went to see what was going on. Smoke was gently wafting out of the house.

Apparently, someone had left a pot bubbling on the stove and gone out!

And on a happier note: don't forget to leave a comment here to "win" a cool knitting magazine!

After-dinner quickie

Accomplishments of today include (in no particular order):

1. making a nice dinner of butter chicken, rice, baby corn, green stuff (some kind of bok choy) and vino.
2. passing on my old hand-me-down sewing machine to someone who will actually use it. This means I either sew by hand or buy a brand-new machine and learn to use it properly.
3. meeting a knitter and trading magazines. Arachknit (that's her on Rav) and I have met a few times to swap stuff. I'd like to get her and a few others to a friendly knitting party here some day.
4. walking up and down the hill, to and from said meeting. This was good for my overall fitness, I believe.
5. taking Les Miserables out of the library. It is a translation, because it is many years since I could read a book like that in French. Hmm, maybe I should work that back up again. I will let you know how it goes!
6. knitting till I ran out of yarn for the second Ribwarmer. This means another trip to the yarn store. Oh, no.
7. picking up the Noro cardigan again. So pretty! Such tiny needles!
   
8. booking a flight to Castlegar to see my parents and sister in January. This was complicated by the fact that my brain and fingers didn't seem to be connected; I first booked a flight to Penticton! Lucky for me, when I phoned customer service in a bit of a flap, I got a friendly guy who changed my flight and waived the $90 fee! It will be on frequent flyer points, so it only cost me taxes and so on. I will have to rent a car.
   
9. digging the holiday lights out of the basement. I have been trying to interest the family in some sort of alternate Christmas tradition around here, but I still like the lights of a traditional Christmas. So far, we just have a few around the fireplace. We can't put the outdoor ones up till December, or some members of the family would mutiny.
   
10. managing to blog before the day is over. Pretty good, eh? Twenty-two days in a row!
    

A fine idea

Lately Alison has been offering a "Saturday giveaway" where she passes on books she no longer needs.

I think this is just a fine idea, although it is now Sunday!

Since two of my friends had the bright idea to give me the same magazine when I was in hospital, I will offer one up to you, dear readers.

It is the VK Fall 2010. (Oh, dear, it's so last season, I'm sorry!)

This is, in fact, full of delightful stuff you should be able to see here.

I can tell you right now that the yarn for the great Union Jack cardigan (Scottish Tweed 4-ply) has already been discontinued, so I hope that doesn't break anyone's heart too badly. They say you can use Felted Tweed, like this one on Ravelry. (And really, if your gauge is off and the final measurement turns out to be 65 inches instead of 68 3/4", who's going to notice!)

Leave a comment here and I'll just pick one lucky winner at random. And perhaps this tradition might continue, because I certainly have a few books I never use!

ETA: I'd better make a time limit on this... Leave your comment before midnight Tuesday, Nov 23!

Next steps

This has nothing to do with knitting. It is sort of the opposite of my sedentary knitting, in fact! I need recommendations for exercise.

I am on the lookout for middle-aged-lady-friendly tummy exercises, to get my muscles back in form. (Well, preferably better than pre-surgery!)

The other day I had on some internet radio station that was supposed to be 80s hits (argh, was there no other band in the 80s besides the Police?) and I thought I should get some power pop exercise video to dance along with... But what I really need are the horrible ab crunching exercises. Yeah, maybe I'll start with the Angela Lansbury workout rather than Jane Fonda...

She would slip if she tried to walk with her legwarmers on her feet like that.

(In my search for Jane Fonda pictures, I came upon this blog post:

Fonda attributes 30 percent of her good looks to sports and a healthy lifestyle:

"I owe 30 per cent to genes, 30 per cent to good sex, 30 per cent because of sports and healthy lifestyle and for the remaining 10 per cent, I have to thank my plastic surgeon. I'm happier, the sex is better and I understand life better. I don't want to be young again."

Since I can't count on my genes, my lifestyle is not that sporty and I don't have a plastic surgeon, I guess that just leaves one thing!)

Waiting room accomplishment

I went today to see the surgeon who did my operation five weeks ago, and he said, "How are you doing?" and I said, "Okay" and he prodded a bit and looked at my scar and then he said, "See you next year."

Really, that's about all that happened. My appointment was for 9:30, and it was almost 11 when I had that 5 minute conversation with him.

I'm sure he wasn't sitting on his butt drinking coffee, but how on earth do you get 1.5 hours behind, that early in the morning? What crises kept him from me and our little chat?

Anyways, won't complain too loudly. I learned I am totally A-OK, and I got a whack of knitting done on the second tiger sock.

(I wanted to take the ribwarmer, but I am a few short rows from joining the halves and knitting the back, and I didn't want to be sorting that out -- I should go downstairs right now and lay things out on the floor for a moment!)

Knitting with kids

I went to Elaine's school today to help teach a knitting group. This is a fun Thursday enrichment program at the school, with dozens of choices: some kids do science, some do cartooning, some do physical games, some do knitting.

One of the kids asked me how long I had been knitting, and I can't really remember learning! I don't remember making really tight, scrunched-up tangles, and I don't remember wrapping the yarn twice, or somehow putting the left-hand needle's stitch onto the right-hand needle, along with the new stitch.

One boy would do four or five fine stitches, and then end up doubling a bunch more, before he came to me for "help." For some "help" means "do this for me," and for some it seems to mean, "Tell me exactly how to make this perfect, but don't touch my needles." It doesn't often seem to mean, "I will watch closely and copy what you do, paying attention to what you say to me."

The teacher had told them to slip the last stitch of the row, and might have mentioned that they should put the yarn to the front before they do that. One girl found she had way too many stitches, and she had been making a nice little yarnover before slipping her last stitch. So, a pretty line of eyelets and a gently sloping piece of knitting! She then quickly learned k2tog and got back to her original stitch count!

I will go again next week, even though it interferes with my weekly Scrabble game! Maybe I can take pictures of their hands and knitting for you.

Those socks for 2011

Here I have four of the balls of yarn which will miraculously turn into socks next year. Most of them will likely be simple patterns.

Zebra stripes, I hope! I got this yarn when I got the "tiger" yarn, so let's hope this is more animal-like!


Wow, this I bought in Cambridge! On sale at Sew Creative... different dye lots, I think, but each ball will be on one foot, so it's unlikely to be noticed, right? Maybe with the regular stripes I could swing something like Monkeys.


I think this was an impulse buy in Romni Wools' basement one day. We could get a bit fancy-pants with this, as I think the bits of colour will be quite widely spaced. But I could be wrong. Maybe something like a cable and bar?


This yarn was given to me several years ago, when I helped some well-meaning but basically newbie grad-student knitters sew together a baby blanket. Hmm, that baby is now about 4, I think! (Yes, here's a report on this yarn, from 2006.)

All set, then! I will make the 6th bag hold one or two single 50 g balls, for kids' socks. I'm excited to think that this just might work!

Joining another knitting bandwagon

I was cruising around on Ravelry today and found a new group. It's a "self-imposed sock club" group, for those of us who wish we knit as devotedly as the Yarn Harlot. If you are unfamiliar with her self-imposed sock club, it's all explained here.

I am going to start the sock club business in January, because that is only sensible, isn't it? And I'm going to start by setting out 6 baggies for the year, instead of 12, because that, too, is sensible. AND, since I have several pairs of socks already on the go, the first baggie will contain the ... is it three? ... partially knit pairs. I have some of those embossed leaf socks, very pretty, very fun, as I recall...

and some other nice ones with eyelets (we can't call it lace, in case Arthur ends up with them, as he likely will). I bragged about how quickly this knitting was going, in January 2009. Ahem. Let's see if I can knit a pair of socks in less than two years, shall we?


Then there are some plain ones -- the tiger socks -- and I think that is it. I have knit the cuff of sock #2.

I have plenty of yarn for socks, but most of it is patterned and really needs a very simple stitch, but I will try to make up 5 more packages of yarn and patterns. I'll check into that tomorrow. I certainly can't take pictures of yarn right now, since it is both dark, and pourrrrring down rain.

Any sock pattern recommendations are welcome!

Couldn't stand it any longer

After the 4-stitch disappointment of yesterday, I have switched my allegiance to another Ribwarmer, at least for a few days.


I had to hang around at a birthday party yesterday (many 10-year-old girls bowling!) so got a decent start on it.

knitting with oregano

I could, indeed, have taken the cardigan piece, but I am still looking at it in disbelief, and thought garter stitch over 30 stitches on 6 mm needles just sounded so much more pleasant!

Hard to capture the bluey-purply colour in the fall morning gloom.

The twilight zone, right in my own house

Here's what I did:

Cast on, knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit cast off at underarm. Count.

What?

Count again, add on fingers, look carefully, count again.

There are two mistakes so far. Neither seems fatal, though neither can be explained by reason alone. Cue scary music.

Firstly, one of the columns of lace is two stitches closer to the edge than the other at the underarm, but not at the bottom. Did I really miss those final k2togs in the lace?

Hmm, it looks like I might have done that once.

The other problem is that I have 4 more stitches than I should have. Cue really scary music. Four stitches!? Four!!??

Lucky for me they are tiny and I can't see them looking obtrusive anywhere. I did all the proper cast-offs and decs at the underarm and don't want to go mucking about with that, because I have to set in the sleeves. I have to fiddle with the top of the back and shoulders anyway, because I added stitches to the width, so I will just have to fiddle a bit differently now.

Four stitches?? How did that happen?

The things I am ignoring these days

I am plugging away at this sweater, and it is kind of delightful.

Until I look around and think of all the other projects that are getting nowhere at all.

1. The cotton baby blanket. Before, this was just a fun thing for me to do, which I'd planned on giving to the Children's Aid. Now I learn that someone is having a baby in the spring, so I will give it to them. I certainly am not in a rush, but I had meant to have it finished this fall.
2. The black and grey witchy shawl. Still forming itself in my brain, really. Totally missed Halloween, but there's always next year!
3. Arthur's second tiger sock. Sigh. Actually, I have three pairs of socks on the go. Oh, and fixing the toes of my mom's socks.
   
4. I really want to make something with my pretty new laceweight yarn.
   
5. And all those other things which have been on list forever.
6. Oh, and that new yarn has to turn into a Ribwarmer.
   

Perhaps monomania is not the way to go, and I should spend a bit of time on each thing in turn. Today a sock, tomorrow a Ribwarmer, the next day, lace? Hmm.

Here's something to write about

It appears there are a MILLION people on Ravelry, as of this evening!

There is a thread in the forums about the approach to a million -- I didn't read all the 14 pages, but I did get to the post where someone suggested that if each person donated a dollar... that'd be a million dollars!

I think I will donate my dollar, then go knit another inch in celebration!

What I think of NaBloPoMo right now

You know, this every-day-blogging thing is getting tedious.

I played Scrabble today with a friend and whupped her, but that's not very excellent blog fodder. I did make FAILURE, which got me 83 points, so that's pretty darn fine, but still, I can't fill up a knitting blog with Scrabble words.

I made some Jamie Oliver beef stew (yes, I know it's a recipe for pie, but if you don't put the pastry lid on it, it's stew) and we'll have that for dinner. I actually wanted to have it around for Arthur to take for lunches (because I am, after all, Supermom) but now he tells me his school is closed for a "Reading Day" tomorrow, and then it is the weekend. So, likely there will be no stew left by Monday, and it'll be Pizza Pops in the thermos next week.

Um... well, that's it. It might just turn out that I bail on this BloPo stuff, or maybe tomorrow I'll have reached the armholes of my sweater, and I can show you some decreases. (Also, one-third of the way through the month, perhaps one-quarter of the way through the sweater. Not looking good there, either!)