I spent a few days chicken sitting at my sister’s house while she was out of town. Pictured above is “Barack” who is black and white and a Brahma breed. The others sharing the coop are (from left to right) “Shirley”, a Wyandotte, “Michelle” the black Austrolorp in the back, “Barack” and “Laverne”, the big Rhode Island Red in the front.
Who knew that chickens could be so beautful? I had no idea that chickens were such amazing animals until I saw them up close and personal. This experience may be enough to send me into vegatarianism for good.
This sweater is easy and should have been finished by now. I’ve been working on it for a solid two months. So what’s the hold up? Length. I couldn’t decide how long to make the body so I put the stitches on some scrap yarn, and started a sleeve. Now I can’t decide how long to make the sleeve.
Indecision. The whole sweater is in a holding pattern right now awaiting my final decision(s).
I will probably make it a little longer than pictured in the magazine. I know! I’ll just measure one of my sweaters that has the proper length. Why didn’t I think of that?
What I’m loving about the sweater is the subtle shaping at the waist. I’ve tried it on and it looks like it will fit me even though I was worried (but I’m ALWAYS worried about the fit). The buttons are already picked out so can I knock this sweater out in the next couple of days? I’m going to give it the ol’ college try!
Ok so the fruit was actually foraged from my brother’s backyard and I had to climb the trunk of the tree and reach up to the top to find any apricots that were sufficiently ripe for the tart. But it was so worth it! A few weeks ago I was inspired by a recipe I saw in the NYTimes.com and I was very eager to try it out. It’s perfect. Doesn’t it look so European? So Gourmet magazine? So Martha Stewart? I am so darned proud of myself I can’t even speak.
I already have another batch of dough in the fridge awaiting the next FFT. Alas, I may have waited too long as it’s already noon and we’re having another super hot day here so I’m loathe to turn on the oven.
You’ll just have to feast your eyes on the finished FFT below. I should explain that I used red currant PRESERVES instead of the called for red currant JELLY and that explains the little berries you see in the picture.
Before I left Portland I got these new babies courtesy of the generous folks at Close Knit. Thank you Sally, Adrienne, Nancy, Jenny and Elizabeth. I’m so grateful to you all! With the gift certificates I got the Malabrigo Sock you see above (the color is “rayon vert”) and the Malabrigo Lace in “lettuce” pictured below.
I also bought Plymouth Earth Homestead, not because it’s organic, which is nice of course, don’t get me wrong. I bought it because it was such a good deal – only $6.50 each! You know how frugal I am. I’m planning to use it for another shrug but first I think I should finish the one that’s already in progress.
It’s damn hot here right now so I’m going to cut this post short. Look where I was on this day last year and now I live here permanently. Who’d a thunk it?
I’m taking a break from knitting today and joining the rest of the blogosphere in paying tribute to Michael Jackson who died earlier. I just gotta say that nothing brings back the 70s for me like the Jackson Five. Enjoy.
It’s been a few weeks but I return with the regular Wednesday Doodle feature and it’s another one of Max’s doodles from years ago. Oh the twisted imagination of the male adolescent.
Before I forget, I have a few links I wanted to share with you. The Ministry of Cats turned me on to the Bread Art Project and maybe the Gray Hair gallery too. I can’t remember. It’s been a few weeks and I can barely remember anything from five minutes ago! Both cool sites and worth checking out.
Also another shot of the graduate Alice taken by Sean Morrison, photography instructor at Union High School. Check out the entire set at flickr if you have time. Pretty cool shots of high school students about to commence. I found them quite touching.
It’s kind of funny that Alice, voted “Best Smile” by her classmates, barely grinned in the photo.
It appears that the illustrious Yarn Harlot and I are on the same wavelength. We are both making the same blanket, albeit in different colors. I had my niece, Juliana, and nephew, Jake, model the blanket in progress yesterday at the Father’s Day German Rouladen Fest here at Oma and Opa’s house.
Astute readers may notice that this is not my first log cabin blanket. Yes yes it’s true. I’m still working on the first one, or not working on it as it were. I did try it on the bed to see if it was big enough yet. It’s looking pretty good don’t you agree. Second Obama pillow is also a work in progress and yes, his likeness sleeps alongside me at night. Tee hee.
I’ve been in California, my new home, for a week now but I haven’t done much knitting. It’s weird.
Everything looks and feels different. For one thing it’s a lot warmer and the lighting is different – it’s sunny all the time! I will probably never make another hat again. However, it’s great weather for socks.
Lately, I’ve been working on the Ribbed Ribbons sock pattern (ravelry link), another pattern from Wendy’s book, Socks from the Toe-up. I got really far on the sock, past the heel flap, but when I tried it on, it looked and felt a little short, about a half inch too short. So I ripped it back. That’s the story of my life these days. Two steps forward and one step back.
Venturing way outside my comfort zone, I also checked out a local knitting group at the yarn shop Stash, on Solano Avenue in North Berkeley. There are some truly expert sock knitters in the group. It turns out that three of us were using Malabrigo and two were knitting Hedera (prob three by next week – count me in!).
Nicole who is one of the proprietors of the shop and an extremely friendly and welcoming person, is holding a miniature sock knit by Leslie, known in these parts as the “Sock Empress.” I think Leslie told me she used size0000 needles for this sock and let me tell you, this tiny sock is truly a work of art. Most impressive.
Perhaps Leslie will have the sock finished by next Wednesday. I think my mojo is returning…albeit slowly…but returning nonetheless.
I finished the Dead Simple Lace Socks a couple of weeks ago but in the chaos of moving to California, I was unable to get them modeled properly. Along came my niece Charlotte who graciously complied and she even modeled them on her 19th birthday! She looked stunning with her freshly styled coif, perched atop the blue couch and as always, game for just about anything.
Also willing to try anything at least once is Charlotte’s mother, my sister Karen, who took time from her busy schedule to model the socks for this close-up shot. Karen’s a good sport along with having spectacular feet and also has a beautiful dog named Bella.
As for the socks themselves, well…against my better judgement, I cast on 72 stitches and needless to say they came out a bit too big. Yes, yes, I did achieve the called for gauge but my knitting seems to grow as I knit and besides, I don’t know about you, but I like my socks snug.
The socks have already been shipped off to my dear friend Mary in Portland and they will go nicely with her red hair.
Now getting back to Charlotte and our impromptu photo session. As you can see, Charlotte, who could never pass up mud puddles when she was little, had a lot of fun posing for the camera.
A one time blogger, Charlotte will be starting her second year at Franklin College in Logano Switzerland in the Fall.
This is not the first time the leggy and spirited six foot tall Charlotte has modeled for me. You can see how much she’s changed in a year and half by checking out this blog post and photo. It’s amazing what a little henna will do, isn’t it?
I know that sounds like a cliché but in many ways it feels like the past 18 years have gone by in a nano-second.
Here are my two children, Alice and Max, in 1991, when we first moved to Oregon. Alice was only about six months old in this photo. Seems like yesterday.
*sigh*
If you are a parent of young children, go and hug your child right now. Go. Now. I’ll wait for you. The one thing I wish I had done more, was to hug them and hold them while they were still little. You can never give your child too much love.
This shot was taken in July 2003 and many of you will recognize the famous landmark in the background. It was a warm and dry summer evening and even though Alice hates this photo, it’s one of my favorites.
And this is Max and Alice from two days ago. Yes, Alice is now a high school graduate and I am officially an empty nester. Time for some big adventures…for all of us. With any luck, we’ll have a college graduate by this time next year.
A shout out and big congratulations to a trio of young women who were members of the first graduating class of Union High School in Vancouver, Washington and are now entering the “real world” as my friend Patricia likes to say. From left to right it’s Alice, Gabby and Chelsey. Good Luck to all of you.
So what about knitting? This blog is supposed to be about knitting after all and no, I haven’t forgotten how.
In fact, I finished the May pair of socks and immediately cast on for June’s pair pictured above. They’re the Ribbed Ribbons pattern from Wendy Johnson’s book, Socks from the Toe-Up in lovely Malabrigo sock which I’m enjoying very much. SO utterly soft and stretchy and yummy. The colorway pictured here is #416 “Indiecita”.
Stay tuned. I haven’t given up knitting…not by a long shot! I’m only just starting.
