New Pretties

Hi! Remember how I blogged every single day in January and siad how it was challenging but fun and I wanted to blog more often if not every day... well turns out if I don't some sort of deadline or mental challenge kicking me in the butt every day, I can get a bit... let's say "distracted."  Partially, it's just that my knitting has been really boring.  All I've really done is finished these:

I've showed them to you several times at various in-progress stages and until I finished them I was basically putting in 10-15 rows a night and not working on anything else (damn school taking all my knitting time.)  I didn't really want to show you a picture every day of my next 10 rows.  

These are Winter Twilight Mitts by Laura Rintala which is a free download through Interweave's Knitting Daily.  They are supposed to look like trees (that have lost their leaves) in twilight, but I have had several people tell me that they can't see the trees.  The lighter color is the trees and the darker color is the night sky as seen through the trees.  I think the problem is that some people are looking for the trees in the negative space.

I had a bit of a problem because the pattern assumes that you will use a very dark color for the trees (like black) and a sunset type color for the background (like reddish-purple.)  Because of this, the cart for the pattern charts the trees in black and the background in white.  Since I was using a light color for my trees and a darker color for my background I had some trouble reading the chart and inverting the color associations in my head.  Something to keep in mind if you want to make a version with light trees.

The yarn I used is Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light.  I used this yarn for the first time on my shawl from the Westknits Shawl Club Sharktooth.  I loved it and ran out and bought some for these mittens so that I would have a chance to knit with it again.  The lighter color is Antique Lace and the darker color is Clematis.  The colors are so deep and the yarn is so soft.  And it's a single-ply and I love working with single-ply yarn.  It's jockeying neck and neck with String Theory Caper Sock for the title of "Melanie's Favorite Yarn."

As promised

I got out in the sunlight today and snapped a few pictures of Arroway looking good.  Now that the knitting is further behind me and I've worn it and felt how warm and plush it is and I've seen the colors in the sunlight I'm a lot happier with it than I was at the moment of bind off.

This is the second installment from the Stephen West Westknits Shawl Club.  The yarn this time around was from Lorna's Laces in their Shepherd Sock line.  The colors are mossgatherer and newsprint (I'll let you decide which is which.)  It's definitely not as soft as the Tosh Merino Light from the last club installment but the yarn is plumper and has a more substantial feel.

I hated every minute of making these arrows.  Stranding on the wrong side is exceedingly painful and even seven rows was almost too much.  It also gives the shawl a right side and a wrong side as you can see in the first picture.  Now that its done and blocked and the arrows don't look as messy I'm much more pleased with it.  I used all but about 7 yards of the main color, so be careful using anything with less than 420 yards per skein.  The pattern and the yarn will be available to non club members in May.  Can't wait to see what February brings!  

I made it

At the beginning of the month, I made a secret resolution to blog every day for a month just to see if I could.  Well, today is January 31, and this is my 31st blog post of the year.  I'm sure they haven't all been the most exciting thing on the web, but I did a lot more showing off of my WIPs than I normally do and it motivate me to take more "in progress" photos.

My blog marathon was made easier by the fact that over winter break I had finished up a lot of projects and so had a backlog of cool things to show you.  Now that school is ramping up my knitting tim is petering out and my progress is much less impressive.  (Unless you want to see my daily fingerless-glove progress... I could show you what it looks like every 4-10 rounds.  Could be fun... right?)

Now that the month is over, I don't think I'll push myself as hard to make sure I have a post every day, but I have enjoyed having it as a regular part of my routine and hope to remain somewhat diligent.  Soon there will be good-quality picture of Arroway, I promise.  It's just that it's dark by the time I get home Monday and Tuesday.  Hopefully tomorrow I can catch some light and get some good pictures up for you.

Two good things

Good thing #1: I wore Arroway today.  To prove it, I offer up this exceedingly unflattering self portrait.

Better pics will come I promise.  At least the cat is looking cute over my shoulder.  She always sits like that... so regal.  I'll just say that it's super warm and I loved having it up around my neck all day.  It kept me nice and toasty all day.  Definitely going to be in my scarf/shawl rotation.

Good thing #2: I made split pea soup last night and now I have a whole fridge of split pea soup carefully ladled out into bowl sized portions! (If you don't like split pea soup 1: my excitement about this will not make sense to you; 2: you're crazy; 3: no need for you to read the rest of this post.)  Split pea soup is my favorite.

To say that my "recipe" is easy is to make it sound harder than it is.  If you can chop celery, you can make this.  (You do need a crock pot though.)  Here goes.

Ingredients:

• 1 bag split peas (the reasonable size bag, not the industrial size)
• 1 pound carrots--I buy the ones that come already shredded because they mash really well and I don't have to do any chopping.  If you want to do more chopping buy whatever is cheapest
• 1 bunch of celery 
• 1 giant can chicken broth--I use the 99% fat free reduced sodium kind.  I mean giant, buy the biggest can at the store
• 1 pound pork (I use pork instead of ham, I have never liked ham, I think it has a greasy texture that gives me the willies, if you like ham and can't imagine split pea soup made with mere pork substitute as you like) I've used pretty much any cut of pork from pork loin to thick-cut boneless chops to shoulder.  Hint: sometimes the supermarket will put a sticker on it that says "great for crock pot"--pick that.  

Directions:

1. Put split peas on bottom of crock pot.  They must go on bottom.  This is a cardinal rule.  Do not violate it.
2. Put pork in crock pot on top of peas.  
3. Put carrots in crock pot on top of pork (if you didn't buy shredded carrots, chop them up first.)
4. Chop celery then put it in crock pot on top of carrots.
5. Empty chicken broth into crock pot.  All of it.  Trust me.  You need it.
6. Add extra water to crock pot.  I have the big circular sized crock pot.  After all the ingredients are in, I fill it to the top with water.  If you have the giant oval crock pot I have no suggestions for how to properly measure the water you add.  Guess.  You may think the giant can of chicken broth gives you enough liquid since it covers all the ingredients.  It does not.  If you don't add the extra water you will have split pea sludge, not split pea soup.
7. Set crock pot for low and try to be patient for 16 hours.  It will start to smell good after hour 9.  This can be torturous if you are hungry.  Best to let it cook while you will be out/asleep.  
8. If pork hasn't fallen apart on its own, use a fork to shred it.  If vegetables have not disintegrated into green soupyness mash them with a potato masher, they should disintegrate into soup at the slightest pressure.

This will make 9 seriously good sized bowls.  If you use relatively lean pork you are looking at 150 calories per bowl.  That's right 150!  Delicious and healthy.  It will be a good week.

Spinning at Ryan's

I have some roving and a drop spindle that I keep at Ryan's for times when he's busy, or I'm waiting for him to finish his Starcraft game, or other down time. Here's how much I've got:

The fiber is merino/yak from Abstract Fibers. This is spinning up very slowly since I only work on it for 5 - 10 minutes at a time. I don't have any plans for the finished yarn. Just like to have something to work on around all the time. Averts the problem of me having to guess if I need to bring anything over with me.

Edit: Oops, looks like the post from my iPad did not get the photo uploaded correctly.  I think I've fixed it, hope you guys can see it now.

Finished

I finished the knitting on Arroway today.  The purl-side stranding drove me nuts as expected.  Even though there were only seven wrong-side rows it was enough to make finishing this very unpleasant.

My tension on the wrong side was totally wonky because I'm not used to stranding to the front.  I'm falling back on the belief that blocking will cure everything.  As you can see, the arrows are a bit scrubby looking right now.

Once it's blocked I'll give you all the details and a full review.  Right now I'm too sick of it to give it a fair review.  

Surgery

Earlier this month I showed you the little boo boo I made on my Dahlia Cardigan.  Basically, I attached on of the back panels 180 degrees from how I should have.

Today was the day I decided to fix it.  To create the back strips you use a provisional cast on at the center and knit out in both directions.  To fix my boo boo, I started by unpicking one of the ends from the center so that I had two sets of live stitches.  

I rotated the sides until there was no longer a mobius in the middle of my back.  Then I kitchner-ed the live stitches back together.

All in all, it took about an hour.  Not as much lost time as if I had to frog back to my original incorrect join.  I completed the right sleeve today and have just started the left.  Currently my fronts are on holders because I don't like the original shaping of the front and I'm brainstorming how to fix it.  Suggestions?