Major Knitter

Dubbelmossa

Lynn is teaching another great class at Knitting Central - so I did what any obsessed avid knitter would do:  I immediately signed up.  Never mind that my list of UFOs is large.  Never mind that I'm in the midst of a KAL.  Never mind that I should be knitting those final 2 Wonderful Wallabies for my niece and nephew for Thanksgiving.  No, I get distracted by the bright shiny object known as Meg Swansen's Dubbelmossa.  It's a super thick hat that will be perfect for my winter campouts.  

 

Purple and a variegated lilac mix.  It's the new official color of BSA.  : )

Happy Veteran's Day!

Today I had a friend thank me for my service "even though you told me that was trite" to say.  Hmmm.  I don't remember saying that, but as a Marine who has been stateside my entire career, I can say this:  It's common for those of us who have never served overseas to feel like we're not "real Marines".  It's not true, but I feel slightly inadequate, compared to, say, my nephew, who is currently serving his third tour in Iraq as an infantryman.  I feel even more inadequate when I compare myself to one of the most noble and honorable Master Gunnery Sergeants I know (he worked for me when he was a sergeant and I was a lieutenant).  He has been to Iraq time and time again (I'm sure it's more than five) - and at least two of those tours were after he was torn to pieces by an IED that should have been the end of him.  Tough son-of-a-gun wouldn't let that IED get the best of him.  These Marines, and many like them, are the ones I admire and look up to.  They are junior to me in rank, but made of tougher stuff than I could ever imagine.

I honor them, and their families (who might even be a hair tougher than these mighty Marines) on this Veteran's Day.  I remember and am eternally grateful to all who have gone before us.  

God bless and semper fidelis.  Happy 234th Birthday Marines!

BTW, I sent my nephew his favorite cookies in a care package a few weeks ago.  They arrived practically intact and he was very glad for the goodies.  So, I feel like I'm doing my part, one cookie at a time.

The Long and Winding Road

I'm 75% of the way done with these seemingly never ending cables.  

This yarn is pretty scratchy.  I'm hoping it will soften up when I wash it.  The Faery Ring is a jacket-type-sweater, so I'll be fine no matter, but everything else I touch after knitting with this feels like pure cashmere.  I was knitting while the boys were playing the new COD game last night.  Secundogeniture touched my knitting (after asking if it was a sleeve) and offered me this advice "Mom, you should sleep with it, because when I wear my new socks they're a little itchy at first, but when I wear them to bed, they feel fine in the morning."

Spoken like a true genius.

With a Tongue Like That...

You probably were wondering what Wilma's been up to these past two weeks.  She's up to her usual tricks.  Sleeping, sticking her tongue out, eating, sleeping, sticking her tongue out some more, and sleeping.   

 
  

Wilma has a very good life indeed.

I'm On a Roll

I did quite a bit of knitting on my Faery Ring KAL with Lorette on Friday and Saturday.  In fact, I'm now at 10 repeats of the cable pattern - with only ten more to go until I'm done with the first part of this sweater.  I'm trying not to think of all those sts I have to pick up for the next step.  I'm just focusing on the here and now.  

Today promises to be the perfect knitting day, so stay tuned for more intriguing cables.

The Good and Bad of New England's Leaf Peaking Season

New England is renowned for its beautiful leaf peaking season.  We have trees.  We have color.  We have vistas.  What's not to like?  That's the good part.  The bad part is this "What is up, must come down".  So today was leaf raking time.  We bagged dozens of tall leaf bags.  Last week, nearly the same amount of leaves were raked and removed.  Guess what folks, we're not done yet.  I believe I still see about a third of the leaves stuck to the trees, laughing at me, taunting me, daring me to declare that leaf raking season is over.

 

Today the Boy Scouts came over to help me rake leaves.  Now, that's not a normal practice, the Scouts raking up the Scoutmaster's leaves.  But in this case, the boys had auctioned off a Troop Clean-Up Day (Spring or Fall) at our 40th Anniversary last February and I got into a bidding war with another person, and happily won.  So today was the fall clean-up day.  It was a gorgeous November day - in fact many of us worked in t-shirts.  We spent 2 hours and raked and bagged more than 50 bags filled to the brim with New England Fall Foliage.  Not bad for just a few hours.  I rewarded the Scouts with a batch of my home baked oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.  

Maybe next year we'll be hiring out as a Troop fundraiser.  It was fun and easy and the boys did a fantastic job.

Handmade Christmas Gifts

Dear Readers:  

From November 1st to January 15th I get inundated with requests for patterns for all those cute dolls that were given or received as holiday gifts.  I have decided that this year I will be making my patterns available to you so you can share the excitement with some little girl in your life.

 

Here's the Red Checker Block Blanket for your 18" doll.

  

Here's the blanket neatly folded at the foot of the bed, just like a grown up bed.

 

Here's a close-up of the detail of the checker block pattern knit with worsted weight yarn.  

If you'd like this pattern please email me at majorknitter at yahoo dot com.  I'm still working on setting up the PayPal button.  $5 includes this knitting pattern for the red blanket above, a striped version and a throw pillow pattern.  Your doll's bed will be ready for its very own fashion shoot!

Enabling, Encabling

Doing a KAL is really all about enabling one another. Lorette and I are doing a good job of that.  What I think we're really doing with this sweater, though, is encabling.  Look at this cable.  It goes on, and on, and on.  

 

Now that I've got it memorized, it's an easy cable pattern to knit.  I'll steam and block this long cable strip before I pick up the 300+ sts on the bottom of it to form the bottom seam and then the 300+ sts on the top to begin knitting the stockinette stitch skirt of the sweater.  I might have to rent a really good mini-series on Netflix to get me through that portion of the knitting.

Little Miss Sadie

I shipped off the handknit gifts to my MIL this past week and she sent a photo  of little Miss Sadie modeling the goods:

1. Mistake Rib Scarf (my design) in Great Adirondack Yarn Co Bamboo Cotton - Tropicana color
2. Chutes and Ladder Socks designed by Danni Conway in Lorna's Laces - Woodlawn color

Don't tell Wilma.  She might get a bit jealous.

Italian Brownies

Yesterday was election day and that meant no school.  I left the boys home while I went out to run errands.  They were given instructions and the OK to make lunch and brownies.  When I came back from running errands I was met with one question:

Boys - "Is it OK to use olive oil in brownies?"

Me - "Um, no."

Fortunately, our local Stop & Shop was having a 10 for $10 sale on brownie mixes.  We threw that batch out and the boys made another batch of delicious brownies.  This time, sans olive oil.  

P.S.  OK - you learn something new every day.  Many of you use olive oil in your brownies.  It's simply not something I would do.  I like a strong flavored olive oil - which I prefer to use on everything cooked, sauteed, roasted, etc.  I go through lots of olive oil on my salads, meats, and vegetables, but not on sweets.

I Voted!

It's only 6:33 a.m. and I've already been out and voted in my local elections.  In fact, BF and I were first in line.  BF is always surprised that I don't volunteer to help out with the elections.  I will, one day, but not while I still have the boys at home with no school days.  I enjoy those days with my boys, even if it's just to drive them around and serve as short order cook.  

Enjoy your day.  Don't forget to vote.  Enjoy your time with the people you love.

The First of Many

Determined to knit a great deal on the bottom cable band of my Faery Ring sweater, I got waylaid after a mere 1/2 inch.  I looked and looked at the cable graph, dug out my cable stitch dictionary and other reference books and couldn't make sense of the graph to save my life.  I'll admit to being a bit embarrassed as I used to be a cable maverick in the day.  OK, my cable phase was twenty years ago, but I thought there was really something to that physical memory.  Which knitting teacher repeatedly tells me "The hands never forget" - well the hands and the brain forgot.

After leaving my knitting for several hours and repeatedly returning to it to see if things were any clearer, it suddenly dawned on me that there is a Faery Ring KAL group on Ravelry.  Surely they have the answer to this.  I spent a good part of the Phillies-Yankees game reading up on the chat boards about the cable issues.  Sure enough, there is an errata page.  To be fair, Mary Scott Huff's lovely pattern is free and she clearly states that it's not a final pattern.  It's so beautiful that we are willingly entering the Beta Phase of testing with her because we want to knit this sweater so badly.

 

After printing out the new graph, progress was rather quick.  Unfortunately, it was already late at night and my energy was starting to wane.  I did manage to finish two repeats of the cable.  Now I just have 18 to go.

Let the Knitting Begin!

It's Sunday, November 1st.  Do you know what that means?  It means it's time to begin my Faery Ring Sweater KAL with Lorette aka The Knitting Doctor.  I'm making the same one that Designer Mary Scott Huff made for her mother.  Check it out HERE.  Isn't it gorgeous?  All those cables.  All those interesting shapes.  All that hoody goodness.  I can't wait to get started.

Details:

• Mary Scott Huff's Faery Ring Sweater
• US Size 7 and 5 needles
• 13 skeins of Black Water Abbey Yarn - Wine 
• 9 gorgeous Faery Buttons by Minnowcreek Studio

Maybe all this leftover Halloween Candy will rev me up for faster knitting.  What do you think?  Will you be joining us for this Faery Ring KAL?

Still Alice

I'm ahead on my homework assignment.  I read November's book club selection and October's not even finished.  I don't know the last time I did that.  This one was an easy read.  It's a tough subject that hit close to home.  

Still Alice by Lisa Genova is a thoughtfully written book about a 50-year old Harvard professor struggling with the news that she has early onset Alzheimer's disease.

Lisa Genova's website is another gem.  If you have someone in your life suffering from dementia or Alzheimer's disease, I highly recommend checking out her site for support, insight, guidance, and ideas.

In our town of Westport, CT, we had a wonderful success story yesterday about a 75-year-old woman suffering from dementia who was last seen at one part of town.  Our Reverse-9-1-1- system sent out a computerized automatic phone call to every registered home and cell phone in town alerting residents of the missing person.  One alert mother coming home from her child's Halloween party at school noticed the woman wandering down by the beach about 5 miles from where she was last seen.  You can read three lovely accounts of this story here, here and here.

I love a story with a happy ending.

Finishing Friday - a Review

I managed to check off quite a few things from my To Do List this week.  

First I finished Secundogeniture's school socks

 

Then I managed to finish my Knitting Central Sock Club socks by Danni Conway - Chutes and Ladders

 

And finally, I finished a special order for some Boy Scout Vintage Sock Ornaments which is part of our great scholarship fundraiser.  Woohoo.

C'mon now, sing along with me.  I Feel Good!  Nanananananana.  I knew that I would now.

Hope your Finishing Friday goes half as well.

Chutes and Ladders - End Game

It only took me 54 weeks, but I finally finished the Chutes and Ladders socks by Danni Conway.  This pattern is for sale on Ravelry - click HERE.  It's a fun pattern that never gets boring and elicits memories of my childhood with this happy game.

 

• US Size 1 Turbo Addis
• Magic Loop method
• Toe Up
• Lorna's Laces Woodlawn colorway

There.  I have brought my WIP list down to a somewhat manageable (or ignorable) amount - twelve.  I don't start my KAL until Sunday.  There's a slight chance I could finish one more project before then.  Hmmmmm.  I'm thinking.  I'm thinking.

Just in the Nick of Time

With a bit of determination and a goal, I managed to finish a pair of socks

 

 

 

 

Wilma approves!  

Surely It's Socktober Still

We're in the final days of Socktober.  In fact, my calendar tells me it's the 27th.  Surely there's time for me to finish a pair of socks for Socktoberfest.  In fact, I'm nearly there.

 

My goal is to finish these socks in the next day or two.  They've been in my WIP pile far too long.  I started these in Portland at the Sock Summit 2009 - and they have been one of the slowest pair of Garter Rib Socks I've ever made.  Surely I can kick it into overdrive and have them ready for the weekend.  They'd be done sooner except for the fact that the recipient has very large feet.  Not much I can do about that.

Welcome to My World

Do you know what this picture means?

If you're a Boy Scout parent you do.  It's that time of year.  It's Boy Scout Popcorn Sales.  This is everything we DIDN'T sell at our show and sell promotions this fall.  I have to inventory it, do the data entry for each Scout, compare it to what each Scout sold on the Take Order forms and then figure out how much has to be returned.

Anyone want to buy some popcorn.  Seriously.  Please.  Pretty Please.  As you can see, I'm literally drowning in popcorn here.

Sundays with Wilma

Sundays are often thought of as lazy days, days of no work, days of prayer, thoughts, rest and recovery.  Wilma apparently believes all that jazz.

 

She's complete asleep on BF's lap.  Of course, he's trying to get some work done - but she doesn't care.  She's relaxing in one of her favorite places.  Life is good.

Provocative

Yesterday my Book Club met to discuss Julie Metz's memoir Perfection - a book about betrayal and renewal for author Julie Metz as she realizes the marriage she thought she had, wasn't the marriage she had at all. 

It was a disturbing book (what Book Club books aren't disturbing?) that made for some great discussions, confessions, and sharing among our members.  Additionally, one of our members emailed author Julie Metz all our questions, which she thoughtfully took the time to respond to one-by-one.  I was thrilled with our open and honest discussions about life, love, and marriage.  I am so privileged to have such a bright, talented, thoughtful group of friends.  

If you haven't read Perfection, I highly recommend it for your Book Club.  By itself, I may have just walked away being depressed about yet another marriage falling apart, but as part of a bigger discussion among friends, it was a delight to read and discuss.  

Finishing Friday - Benjamin's Red Wonderful Wallaby

Yippy Skippy!  I'm on a roll.  I've finished two-thirds of the Wonderful Wallabies for my nieces and nephews.  Just two left.  Check it out.  This is Benjamin's Washington Wallaby.

Hmmm.  What's your vote for the next one - orange or green?  Let me know.  I have two more to go.  Even I'm a little tired of red after knitting two red sweaters simultaneously.  

Remnants of a Late Summer

The leaves are starting to really show off their wonderful colors here in Southern Connecticut.  I love getting outside and basking in their glory.  But less than a month ago, I was home in Iowa, enjoying the remnants of summer in a friend's glorious garden.  Check this out.

 

 

 

 

Ah, I love the seasons.  Each is so strikingly beautiful.  Enjoy these pictures until I can get you the perfect fall foliage photos.  

Little Red Riding Hood

Mission Accomplished.  Wow.  That felt great to say.  It's been awhile since I've finished a project and I have so many WIPs in the works, that it really feels liberating to have another one off the To Do List (BTW, I think my new year's resolution might be to ban all To Do Lists).  Here you go - my finished Kyler's Kardigan.

 

Here's a close-up of the hood

Yeah!  A Finished Object.  What joy.  What bliss.  Oh.  Now I just need a zipper.  Details.  Details.

My Mission

If I choose to accept it, is to finish knitting the hood on my red Kyler's Kardigan.  I'm very, very close.  In fact, if I pop a Netflix DVD in the player right now, I could finish before lunch.

I especially liked learning how to make the Applied I-cord Edge as I knit on the hood.  Here's a close-up of that detail.

 

So, ta ta for now.  I must go sit and knit.  I think I'll watch Leonardo di Caprio's Romeo and Juliet.  That ought to do the trick.

Daily Shot of Happiness

Lolly posted a great idea about sharing Old Knits that are more than 1.5 years old. She took out some handknits and rephotographed them being worn lovingly and talked about what she liked and didn't like about them and how they've worn.  I love this idea.  It's nice to know how much you love a pattern, style, yarn, etc after you've worn it for a while.  I'm not quite ready for a fashion show, but I thought I'd share that same concept with my morning cup o' joe.   Here are some of my favorite coffee cups that make me smile in the morning.

 

Here's one of my first favorite collector's mugs.  It's from Stacey who was the best Secret Pal ever.  I think this was during Secret Pal 4.  Every time I drink my morning coffee out of this mug I think about the thought and work she put into my wonderful hand-designed knitting bag that she sewed for me.  It houses a very special WIP right now.

 

When I'm feeling girly, I grab this lovely pink mug I received as a Thank You from my friend Joanne when I taught her to knit socks as she was on bedside vigil with her mother.  It was a very special moment and I was so glad to help her.  We've become such close friends as a result of our knitting connection.  *Hugs Joanne*!

 

When I'm feeling naughty or nice, I pull out this pair of mugs from friends David and Susan.  They were given as a gift to BF and me when we first started dated.  I wonder who they thought was the Trouble Maker and who was the Innocent Bystander?  Hmmmmm.

 

I saved the best mug for last.  It's my handknit cable sweater coffee mug that BF got me for Christmas last year.  It's definitely my favorite.  Really.  Is there a better coffee cup for me?

There have been some other favorites over the years, but unfortunately, they've broken.  If only I'd taken a photograph and posted about those favorites, I could still smile and enjoy the happy memories that they bring me.  Nostalgia is a good thing.  It's fun to visit the past and think happy thoughts every now and then.  How about you?  Do you have some favorite coffee mugs or tea cups that make you smile?  C'mon.  Won't you share your pictures and memories, too?

Blue Ribbon Cook-Off

This weekend my entries for the Backpacking Cook-Off Competition won a blue ribbon.  I'm so pleased.  Truth be told, the dehydrated chili came in second place and the quick, last minute dessert came in first.

 

Remember my experimental dehydrated Turkey Chili?  Well, I added pasta and turned it into backpacking Chili Mac.  It was great.  Next time I will probably make the first batch spicier as it gets diluted when I reheat it with the water.  It was quite tasty and very fun to make.  I simply used my favorite recipe for Turkey Chili and dehydrated it.  Then I added the very small pasta pieces straight out of the box.  What a great way to have fresh homemade chili without the 101 additives.

 

Here's the backpacker's parfait: 

• crushed Teddy Grahams
• 1/4 cup dehydrated apple bits with cinnamon/sugar - rehydrated with boiling water (poured on top of the crushed Teddy Graham layer
• 1 package instant Jello vanilla pudding
• powdered milk - I prefer Nestle's Nido milk - mixed with water (It was cold enough that we didn't even need a refrigerator for it to set - but if you have one, great!)
• Pour the chilled pudding on top of the graham cracker/apple bit layers.  Decorate with Teddy Grahams and a dollop of the apple bits.  Serve.

The judges enjoyed tasting the dessert over and over again.  No surprise then that it was the big winner.  

It was great fun.  I can't wait to create some other backpacking meals.
 

Apple Picking Time

So if the dehydrated chili was a bit much for you, don't worry.  I have something else for you.  After stinking up the house with chili for a full day, I decided to make something less offensive to the olfactory glands.  

I sliced up a peck of apples and spread them on the drying sheets. Some were plain.  Some were sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon.  Some were diced for quick and easy additions to a bowl of morning oatmeal.

 

These will make very healthy snacks.  I much prefer making my own individual packs of oatmeal rather than purchasing those instant ones.  

Back to the "stink" - a dehydrator intensifies everything when drying things out.  So apples smell more delicious and things like chili get a bit more punchy.  Apparently when dehydrating onions, professionals recommend drying them outdoors or in the basement.  That's a good tip to know.  That was on my list, right after all the peppers I got from the CSA.  

My Newest Toy

I got an Excalibur food dehydrator for my birthday.  It's a peculiar choice of gifts, I know, but one that is already giving me great joy.  I wish I had owned one the whole summer.  I could have taken full advantage of all the produce from my farm CSA share.  My reason for wanting a food dehydrator is simple - I want to make my own healthy backpacking meals and snacks for campouts.

Not one to start with something easy, I first decided to make some homemade turkey chili.  After I let it boil down to a very thick chili, I spread it out in small spoonfuls on the drying sheets.

 

The sheets were placed in the dehydrator for approximately 8 hours

 

Then I removed them from the dehydrator and let them cool.

 

Strange looking, I know.  But I think it will be wonderful to have a nice hot bowl of chili on a cold campout.

 

The chili is all bagged in ziplocs ready to take on a backpacking trip.  Just add hot water!

Variations on a Theme

Yesterday while my friends came over for knitting and lunch, I managed to pick up the red Kyler's Kardigan and work on my variation.  You'll remember that I'm not following the pattern as written.  I've decided to make the pouch more like the Wallaby pouch.  For a refresher of what I did, check THIS POST.

When we last saw our intrepid Kyler's Kardigan, the front pockets had been fused to the bottom of the sweater.  There was an opening on the button band side that I promised to close when I picked up the button band.  So here goes the pic-tutorial.

When I picked up the sts for the button band (or in this case the zipper band), I used my crochet hook to ensure I went through a) the pouch and b) the body of the sweater.  

Can you see that I've now connected the body of the sweater (top of picture) to the pouch (bottom of sweater)?  It's perfectly closed.

I knit the 2 rows of garter stitch and am ready to bind off.  On the right side of the sweater I did the bind off knit-wise to give the final bump on the public side of the sweater which fit in nicely with the garter stitch rib.

Voila!  the button bands are done and the pockets are beautifully fused together.  Oh me.  Oh my.  I kinda like my Kyler's Kardigan.  

Please Try This at Home

This week I went to a wonderful outdoor luncheon by Amie Hall at Sport Hill Farm 

 

Amie specializes in healthy food that is organic and locally grown.  She teaches people how to get back to the basics and cooking real food from the farm... not the pharmacy.

 

We ate this scrumptious fall salad with greens, spelt, roasted red onions. roasted acorn squash, seaweed and a apple cider mustard dressing.  It was out of this world.

 

For dessert Amie served cacao bark sweetened with agave nectar and with dried cranberries and pumpkin seeds.  Yummy.

The farm setting was spectacular.

The chickens were adorable.

The Swiss chard was festive.

I spent the day with good friends, and made some new ones, too.  I was blessed to be inspired to eat healthy food.  So today, I had my knitting friends over and we sat, knit, and ate soup and salad.

Here's my version of the salad.  It was such a beautiful salad for fall.  I will definitely make it again.  Here's the dressing:

• 3/4 cup apple cider
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1-2 teaspoons mustard
• olive oil
• sea salt

Give it a try.  Tell me what you think.  It helped that the acorn squashes were the size of tennis balls.  They were so darned cute, who wouldn't want to eat them.

A Tale of Two Reds

I know I can be confusing.  I know it's hard to sometimes follow the random trains of thoughts in my head.  But even I am finding it hard to keep track of which sweater is which.  So if you were confused, don't worry.  It's me - not you.  I am honestly working on TWO red children's sweaters at the same time - the red Kyler's Kardigan in malabrigo and the red Wonderful Wallaby in Encore.  In fact, I'm at just about the same spot on both sweaters - the neckline and hood.

Here's the size 10 Wonderful Wallaby

Here's the size 2 Kyler's Kardigan

I'm so close to the finish line on both of these that there is an ever so slight chance I could actually finish one or both by this Finishing Friday.  Wouldn't that be swell?