Waterfalls and Magic Loop

One advantage of living in Philadelphia is that it is a mini-roadtrip away from so many good friends and cool cities. Of course, the traffic congestion does dictate when you can travel (cough Jersey Shore cough summer cough).



This weekend I helped Heather celebrate her birthday in Washington D.C. I forgot how much I love Mexican food, mango margaritas and dancing to booty music with a group of friends. (Well, as opposed to dancing in my kitchen to booty music).

We visited the Great Falls National Park which is right by Heather's house. There was also a bit of antique shopping and brunching.



We saw a baby copperhead snake (cute!) and this larger snake.



We got to climb on some rocks and have a great view of the water falls. The weather was gorgeous. We were actually getting hot while hiking. I felt bad telling my friend Coco that, who is still under a foot of snow in Montreal.



I realized one of the benefits of trying out the magic-loop method for knitting socks. You can sit on the top of a cliff, dangle your feet off, and knit a few rows without fear of dropping a double pointed needle.



Just make sure not to drop that ball of yarn. It's a long way down.

Femme Fatale Socks

I've often doubted the raves of hand-knitted socks from my friends. It's not that I don't believe them, I am just very picky when it comes to socks.

You don't realize the agony I encountered of selecting socks as a first grader. My poor mother would check my room constantly to monitor my dressing progress. I was like Goldilocks with the socks, one was too stretchy, this one too tight -- I would roll my knee socks down my legs into little tubes around my ankles. It was a constant struggle. God bless my mom.

Then I got to wear flip flops for the next 12 years until I moved to Indiana for college. So you can imagine my anxious anticipation when slipping on these hours worth of knitted socks.

Except that they were cozy, snug, stretchy and wonderful! I skated over my wood floors in pure amazement.



Of course I owe part of this to the lovely Schaefer Anne yarn. Additional thanks must go to Lisa for holding my hands during the short row heels, Misocrafty's tutorial, and Emily for teaching me the uber-stretchy EZ sewn cast-off.

Using old springboard diving skills, I maneuvered myself into prime picture taking angles. (Don't Mike's paintings make the best backdrops?)



I even made a small batch of chocolate chip cookies to celebrate.



Now I can cast on for another pair of socks, and work on my ideas for the Mid-Winter Gocco Swap. I'm in the process of transferring images in my head onto paper. Sometimes it takes a few revisions. This is very rough.



I know you're not surprised to see my multi-colored sketchbook. You know me by now, right?!


Just as my boss, Susan, was not surprised to see me rocking a lime green sports bra, acid yellow tee-shirt and red sneakers when I joined her for a workout today...

Completed: Saartje's Bootees

As promised, here are two pairs of Saartje's Bootees.

After further thinking, I don't want everyone having 11 babies. (Perhaps one or two is more reasonable.) There's enough already, and Angelina can't adopt all of them. So I will show you the finished booties, if you refrain from the overpowering maternal instinct.

The newborn size for Baby Sonny. They're not perfect, but Brooke is not picky.



A slightly larger size for Baby A. Karabella scrap yarn from a hat I made for Mike's best friend.



I went to buy buttons, blanked out and bought half the amount needed. I stitched the interior strap to the bootee, and only did one button per bootee.

Thanks for playing along with me and my baby mania. I'm just so excited for my friends, and can't wait to become an aunt to Sonny. I also have melodramatic tendencies, I've been told, on the off-chance you hadn't noticed.

The Yarn Harlot

Highlights from my past week (or so), in a disjointed, not necessarily grammatically correct format, for all you sticklers:

I made some progress on the socks. I took this picture in Mike's studio. I would tell him to replace this godawful chair, but he loves it. Plus, it's his studio, not mine!

I tagged along with Aimee at the Philly Design*Sponge Biz Meet-up. I got to meet the lovely, Grace Bonney, herself. What a wealth of information.

While visiting the Philadelphia Free Library just to return books, I got to attend a cooking demonstration by Chef Morimoto. I thought he would be stoic, like he is on the Iron Chef. Not at all, in fact, what a riot. He was also remarkably honest and appreciative of his success.

I enjoyed bonding with the SEPTA bus drivers who volunteered their time to chauffeur people around for Philadelphia Cares. Wasn't that nice? I love them! I hope those SEPTA increases give my new friends some benefits.

I'm not sure how much better the school is for the lockers I cleaned out, but I did take one for the team by cleaning up 'something' green. My friend flaked out, but she had a good excuse. And those high school boys I hung out with were super cute! (ha ha)

I started a super secret baby project with Lisa for Courtney's pending arrival. I'll show you soon, hold your horses!

Oh, yeah. I got to hold the sock!

The Yarn Harlot was speaking right over the Delaware River, and I got to go with my new friend, MB. I had the best time. We were the last people to get our books signed, and spent the time friendly heckling new acquaintances we had made while they were in line.

I'm not kidding you. We were so slap-happy and giddy towards the end, we literally hummed the Rocky Theme song when these gals finally made it to the front of the line. I said,"Do the pose!" As you can see, they were game.



I'm off to Quizzo, hoping we will win tonight so I'll get some free beer.

Double Pointed Needle Holders

The Anne transformed into this skein after a spin with the swift.



I started knitting my sock from the toe-up, using the 'magic cast-on'. Hmm...I just looked at the diagram, and realized I did it wrong. But it worked out, so I'll let it go this time.

Don't you like how the rows of color are forming? The color coming out is different than I anticipated, but I love surprises.



I couldn't knit my socks without my new double pointed needle holders! Sherry, from knitting circle, sells them on her etsy shop, Three Owls Knitting.

They're fantastic. They prevent stitches slipping and needles stabbing through my purse, and keep the needles nice and organized. The cute beads Sherry put on don't hurt either!

The sun is setting earlier, as shown...so picture taking will be getting a bit harder.

Hello, Muir!

I am officially saying goodbye to summer.

Not that the muggy weather today feels like fall, but I'm craving pumpkin bread, apple cider and velvet blazers. (I'll take a size 8 in the Welsh Purple if any anonymous rich people happen to read my blog! Just kidding.)

Now that I have finished some projects, I can finally start the Muir stole for my mom. I bought this Handmaiden Seasilk for her last year, and thought I'd want to knit while I was in the Philippines. Um, do you know how hot that country is?

Muir is going okay. Reading lace charts is not my life talent, but I'm attempting to learn. In an hour of insanity, I translated the lace chart into a written form...which is three pages long. I'm surprised that for such a visual person, it's so hard for me use a chart.

I like to know how many repeats I'm going to have to do of a stitch (I.e. *YO, K2tog* 6 times), instead of having to follow the chart every step. My eyes jump ahead and I end up skipping something. (This is probably the reason I added an additional stick of butter to the carrot cupcakes on Sunday).

Just the effort of writing it out helped to understand it more, and made the chart reading a little easier.

My side project (for knitting circle and Quizzo) are a pair of toe-up socks with this Anne. I need to go to knitting circle tonight so that Lisa or Sherry can tell me what is wrong with my socks.

Fraternal Socks - Jean Joan

We'll call these socks "Jean Joan" after my mom and her twin sister, Jean. Since they look pretty identical, but may or may not be fraternal.

I finished one sock at Rittenhouse Square last Sunday afternoon, after a scrumptious brunch at Devil's Alley with my friend, Lisa. Naturally, I had to try it on immediately, and take advantage of Lisa's photography skills. You all know it's impossible to take a decent picture of your own foot, after all.



The sock's fraternal twin was finished at home, later that afternoon. I say fraternal because the dye-lot must have been slightly off, and there were some issues with needles at one point.

I was surprised to find that I couldn't wait to cast on for new socks, after these were off the needles. I couldn't wait to finish this pair, let alone knit more. However, they are the perfect little project to take on the bus, knit at lunch, or during Quizzo games in a dimly lit bar.



Luckily, I had snagged some Koigu mill ends at a local yarn store... The one at the far right looks perfect with the left-over chocolaty-gray from my first pair of socks.

I thought I'd knit my second pair from the top down, since the first was from the top up. This way I can see which way I prefer. (Well, and mainly because I need some practice at starting from the toe up).

I also want to point out that the cute gold clutch was given to me by my cousin Razel when I visited the Philippines. It has become the perfect knitting bag for socks, and is ultra cute.



In the meantime, I've been wanting to paint and draw more. Sometimes I treat myself to a new color, then I add it to my swatch card (knitter speak, eh?) and label it. This comes in handy so that I don't buy the same colors over and over. Especially since I prefer the pricier artist's grade colors like cobalts and cadmiums.

This weekend, I finally baked a "Fudgy Banana Layer Cake" from The Weekend Baker that I've been jonesing to try. My chef and culinary goddess of a friend KJ always encourages my love of baking, and bought me this fabulous book for my birthday last year.



The cake was delicious and I felt so accomplished! And there was not one complaint from any of my friends, whom I force fed humongous slices.

Alright my friends, it's back to work for me, and then a long weekend with Mike's nephew, sister and her beau. We're taking a very cool kid around Philly and to NYC for his first time. It's going to be a lot of fun.

Take care!

Discipline: Unfinished Projects

After finally finishing my sweater, I've been attempting to complete my unfinished projects.

My travel knitting has been toe-up socks in 2 different colorways of Koigu. See below for the true colors of the charcoal and medley of pinks and golds.



One was accidentally knit in zero sized needles instead of ones, so it's a little deformed, but will fit my narrow feet fine.



I started the Clapotis last summer only to cast it aside when I took a knitting hiatus. (I went to the Philippines and it is too hot to do anything but eat ube ice cream and sit!)

The Clap is getting some love now. I've been looking forward to working with the silk noir from Great Adirondack in these warmer months. The colorway is 'Chagall' and is delightfully bright and slightly garish. I love dropping the stitches to make those gaps, it never stops being amusing.

I've been dying to finish this February Sweater by Elizabeth Zimmerman so I can give it to a new baby. Unfortunately, I lost the third ball of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky.

Do you think the yarn store has it? No. How about Ebay? "Yes!" they said...and then refunded my money when they were wrong. Do babies wear capelets? (wink)

In the meantime, I thought the new older sister of this baby would enjoy a little purse. I like to make sure the older ones get a little something too, especially jealous 2-1/2 year olds! This was a fifteen minute project using some left-over scraps of the adorable dog fabric I had from my quilt.

Only after I finish these projects, am I allowing myself to start any lace shawls from my new book, Victorian Lace Today. This book is like a geode, ugly cover on the outside, beautiful gems of projects inside. I'm serious, go look at that skirt on the cover. I'll wait here.

These pictures aren't the greatest today, but I'm no Sulu, and need to finish these projects already instead of taking more pictures!

Enjoy your long Memorial Day weekends, my American friends. I'm hoping to eat barbequed food and ice cream all weekend.

ICA Shadow Fair - Come Visit!

Spring is almost here! In fact, I even encountered a flock of seagulls (giggle) on my walk to the bus this morning. The light is back and everyone seems kind of happy.

I have been chugging along with my sweater, turned the heel on my socks, and started a spring hat for myself with some gorgeous Colinette Jitterbug merino wool in 'Bright Charcoal'.

But mainly, I've been really tired and hibernating in my home watching the food network and pretending to be on cooking shows like Nigella Feasts.



Well, the hibernation is over. In fact, I think I have more things scheduled this weekend and the past few nights than my entire hectic workweek!

Two friends, Victoria and Jenny have art openings this week.

I cooked delicious but extremely spicy Thai curry with Olivia that made me feel like I was on pain medication or something! Has that ever happened to you? It was insane.

I am going snowboarding tomorrow with Heather and Nate from D.C. We're going up to the Poconos where I am hoping to school them with my skills. (wink) Cross your fingers for no freezing rain...

And most importantly (craft wise), I will be the proud booth partner / snack-eating lackey to my lovely friend, Aimee, the proprietress of Betsy Ross Patterns this Sunday. Let me give you some details, since you will all be visiting me:



It is this Sunday, March 11th from 11a.m. to 5p.m. at the ICA at UPenn. Click here for more details. You can buy something for yourself, talk to your favorite friend Marissa and feel good about doing something cultural on a Sunday afternoon. (Free admission between 11-1p.m.)



And one more picture of the hot air balloon by our nation's first zoo in my ..since I have no crafty progress today!

Ice Blue Sparkly Things

I hope you have all been well. I found myself quite sick with the stomach flu last Thursday, and needed a few days to recuperate. I was too sick to even knit, can you believe it? I am very lucky to have a beau as sweet as Mike, who made me chicken noodle soup and bought me two gallons of Gatorade.

In fact, I was so ill that I didn't even have a chance to show off my lovely new haircut! How refreshing, I finally feel like myself again, only much sassier.



I went to American Mortals on 7th and Walnut and saw Sandi. She was fantastic and really listened to me and offered advice. I left with exactly what I had wanted, but didn't have the means to articulate. Perhaps she moonlights as a mind-reader?

They are very friendly, talented and not at all pretentious. I'm so glad that my friend, Jennifer, recommended this salon. (For someone who used to have such a phobia of the hair salon that she went to the biker barbershop with her dad--this is a very high recommendation!)

I enjoyed my stint as a "bag model" for my friend Lisa's Etsy shop, Purl Mia Loggia. Lisa is selling gorgeous hand-knitted and felted bags in all sizes.

And speaking of Etsy, I bought my first item on there. Generally, Etsy overwhelms me, but these earrings from sulu-design left me inspired. I couldn't let someone else have my blue earrings! The owner seems very sweet and I will certainly shop there again.

Since I have little knitting progress to show you, I'll share a thank you card I sent to someone who showed me how to seam a sweater.

Sitting next on the card is another bust that my mother gave me. She is wearing a racy dress and graciously holds jewelry for me.



There will be more knitting soon, as I'm feeling the urge and am eager to finish my sweater, socks and even the Clapotis. However, adorable Peyton Manning is on Letterman and there are Valentine cupcakes to frost, so I must go!

Sock Photo Shoot

In the past I have been critical of some pictures that people have taken of their hand-knitted socks being modeled on their own feet.



Kindly, let me apologize.

Taking pictures of your own feet is hard! This is the best I could get. Perhaps with better stretching techniques and some hot yoga I could have improved. Mike saw me struggling, but my pride was too much that night to ask for help with this particular photo shoot.

A close-up of some Koigu goodness. I love that it kind of looks like counted cross stitch.

The further along this sock comes, the more aware I am of my upcoming aversion to creating the second sock.

While we're discussing Koigu, can I mention my disappointment in their website? For such great products, they really should hire a web designer or something. Or perhaps their products speak for themselves... I do know that I love their yarn, but wanted to leave their site as soon as possible.

Fit for a Queen

Thank goodness I ripped out the shawl slated for this Koigu, because it is turning into some lovely socks. I was knitting them prior to donating blood for the American Red Cross, and a lady commented, "It looks like you're knitting with toothpicks!"



You can see the progress below, as well as the lovely DIY Double Point Holders, a present from Sherry! Click on the link for a tutorial. Or be nice to Sherry, and maybe you'll get lucky! They really work well, and I think she should start selling them. I'd like another pair, and she has started adding beads to some of them!



I'm knitting both socks from the toe-up, and at the same time on size zero dpns. I had a set of metal needles, and wanted to try out some bamboo ones, and see which I prefer. So far, the gauge is pretty consistent. The toes are a little wonky, because I lost the instruction sheet given to me for the Toe-Up Sock Workshop I took at Rosie's. Perhaps I can buy one if I stop by tonight...I've made about an inch of progress from the picture taken below.

I was pretty busy being a bridesmaid in Jacksonville, Florida this weekend, and ended up reading the entire flight instead of knitting. My other excuse is that I sat next to a gassy gentleman on the plane, and did not want any merino wool out that would retain the noxiousness. (Aren't you happier for knowing that!) I'll post some pictures of the wedding next week...Right after I post the pattern for the cable knit hat I promised...



Last but not least, for show and tell today, here is my treasured spare toilet paper holder in the likeness of Queen Elizabeth I. My parents picked her up in England circa 1989. I've had her out at parties before, but the Virgin Queen has not gotten the recognition she deserved until this year! She sits upon her porcelain throne so regally and helpfully, when you need a spare square.

Time for socks...

Some of you may remember the Koigu on the left. Once upon a time, it was slated to become a Star Cluster Shawl, from Rosie's Yarn Cellar.



I restarted this shawl numerous times, before I finally made some progress. Once I made enough progress to really get somewhere, I realized that I had been pulling the alternating yarns on the side of the shawl too tightly creating an unbalanced triangle. I ripped it out and called it a day.

The Star Cluster Shawl isn't even my favorite shawl pattern. For starters, I usually detest triangular shawls. (However, that is quickly changing after seeing the great results with the coveted Shetland Triangle everyone is making). Perhaps there is another shawl in my future, after all.

I was mainly knitting the shawl that I hated because knitted up, the Koigu was positively springy...and squishy and I wanted to play with this for days on end. But that's just the Koigu, not the shawl.

So I decided to make socks with the Koigu. I took a toe up sock class at Rosie's a few months ago, and was excited to work on my socks en route to the Philippines. With all the "terror alerts", I was careful to double check the TSA website, and saw that knitting needles were absolutely allowed.

Until I got in line at security. I realized that the police may not realize what double pointed needles were, as the size zeros do look like weapons. I double checked with security, they said to throw them out. They were serious. I was so bummed out, because I had finally made some progress. (Perhaps this yarn is cursed?)

I threw the newly purchased dpns out into a nearby trash receptacle. I was so disappointed, but had already checked in my bag, and really wanted to make it to the Philippines and not to jail.

Once I got to the screening area, I realized that the people taking I.D. cards were not the actual TSA people, who had caused the confusion. After some quick questions, guess who found out that my needles at the bottom of a trash can were certainly allowed?

Guess who smiled, walked over to the trash can (not very full), glanced at the curious and disgusted bystanders, removed the huge lid, and fished all five size zero dpns out of said trash receptacle?

Yes. That was in July. I have since lost the fifth of the dpns, so bought a new pair this weekend. I got a bamboo set at Sophie's Yarn Store and played with the adorable but recently orphaned kitty Purl, who I gave plenty of affection.

I feel that I have had so many complications just to knit anything with this yarn. But I'm going to try one more time to make some socks, because frankly, the Clapotis is boring the crap out of me.