I'm Still Here and I Still Knit

Thanks to Claudia L-J, I'm updating the blog. I guess blogs have become so....yesterday. Everybody's tweeting, facebooking (myself included) and commenting on each other's Flickr photo sets. But no one sits down and actually writes a blog post anymore, except the diehards whom I faithfully read. I need to honor that. I would really miss it so much if any of them stopped blogging.



And knitting -- yes I still knit. This is a hat made for my large and handsome nephew who is at college in chilly Michigan. He said it came just in time for the cooler weather. It's raveled but is made out of some Noro Kureyon and some worsted from the now-defunct Marino Lookout Farm in Natick MA (it's a different farm now but they don't do yarn).



And this little baby sweater/hat number is something I actually finished at the end of the summer but got all bummed out because the red color bled into the green when I blocked it! Wah! So unfair! The sweater is called Watermelon (no surprise there) and I knitted it out of Brown Sheep Serendipity Tweed, which is lovely yarn. But not colorfast, as I discovered! After all that, I finally gifted it to its intended owner. The parents are thrilled and don't seem to care about the bleeding color but you know what it's like. As a knitter, you don't want these things to show and "ruin" your hard work!! The parents of the little baby are artists so they appreciate handmade things. That's so nice when it means a lot.

I'm knitting a red scarf of Elann Sierra Aran (80% wool, 20% alpaca)for the Red Scarf Project. It's just hard to resist. Students who are from the foster system trying to get through college?!? Like college years aren't hard enough and somehow, you have to go it on your own? You've got to admire that. So a little warm scarf around the neck might help a bit.

I'm not getting much knitting done for me or the family. But after the scarf, I'll do some more. I started a totally cute sweater for my younger son that I found in the Twist Collective online magazine. I'll post when I can find the name of it. It's a top down pullover in Lorna's Laces Worsted.

Been cooking a lot. I just made a Spanish tortilla for a party later on today and it's one of my better efforts. The eggs and potatoes stuck together into one well formed pie and I'm sure it'll taste good. But cooking those things is an oily mess -- I know of no quick or clean way to do it. I have oil on my and all over the kitchen. It smells good, though! Been baking lots of banana bread and soups (curried pumpkin soup).

Hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving and I'll post again before 6 months have passed.

Poly-Calorimetry

Despite the blog silence, I've been pretty busy with knitting. As you can see, I've been on a Calorimetry roll. Once I figured out the short row thing, these knit up pretty quickly. I love working with the 127 Print and seeing how the color changes come out. I've already given one to my niece and one to my s-i-l. My s-i-l has short hair, so she wears it as a neck warmer. I figure I'll knock out a few more of these for Christmas (I have 3 sisters).



This hat was knitted in Noro Kureyon (can't remember what number) for my favorite jazz DJ in the world. Ron is a great guy who knows a ton about jazz, classical music, opera and is just a swell person. I made the hat a bit too big but told him how to reblock it to get it smaller.

I'm also working on a Presto Chango baby sweater for a coworker. Baby hasn't arrived yet, so I've still got time to screw up the lacework in the front panel! Not my area of expertise. It's a fun knit, though. And the Blue Sky Alpaca Cotton is so soft and wonderful to work with. Like buttah.

And, of course, I've added to the stash (sorry, no photos of that). I bought some Queensland Kathmandu Tweed to make the Logan shawl in the Winter issue of IK. I'm also making a friend some Subway Mittens by Subway Knitter from the same issue. I'm making those out of Mista Alpaca Worsted to match a scarf that I made for a fundraising auction. Her lovely husband bought her the scarf and I told her I'd make mittens to match. And how useful, as she is a subway rider!

I'm also hoping to make Red Sox socks for my 2 sons for Christmas. Think I can get this all done?? I'll have to stay up later and stop burrowing under the covers.

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!