off on a tangent

Hipstamatically presented.  (Thanks, Kristin , for the challenge).

 

Seeing as I work from a home office, my tea breaks are very important. An excuse to stand up and walk downstairs! And distraction!  We all have our little routines; mine is strong coffee from 6 am till noon, after that it's tea all the way, baby. In the winter, my house is chilly and my office even chillier, so it's not just the mental break but the warmup, and making it last till I get to the bottom of the mug.  Which is how I found myself googling : "tea mug cozies". I realized how insane it is for someone with yarn, felted sweaters and just plain old stuff around to be even thinking about buying a tea mug cozy, so I got busy.

 

That's right, my tea mug has Barbara Walter waterskiing on it. Ugly! But it has fabulous volume, a nice big handle, and sentimental value. It was an audience souvenir when I took my mom & my aunt to see The View, (VIP seats) a rare outing for them together in the city they grew up in.

 

Here they are, holding their mug boxes post taping.2009.

  

But back to my little project. Not exactly brain surgery. I cut a length of sleeve from a felted old black sweater, measured from the cuff up. I cut it open by the seam, and blanket stitched around the three raw sides.

 

I hit the button tin to make a loop & button closure, measured to give my mug some negative ease. (yes, I did just say that). Then I  left it on a table with the tin of tangled crewel thread. Whenever I passed by, I stitched a little. I attribute this to meeting Jenny Hart last year. She gave me a serious jones to rediscover my embroidery licks. 

 

With a lot of wonk, it all came back. Daisy stitch ! Running backstitch ! Split stitch !

Of course none of this is necessary, strictly speaking, you could just cut a piece of felted sweater, add a closure and walla.  But that would not make tea break any fun, would it?

• • • • • • • • • • •

As much as Jenny Hart inspires me with her embroidery, and Kristin with her use of color and design,  Crispina ffrench inspires me to think about the possibilities with recycled sweaters. She's selling some awesome kits to make mittens out of recycled sweaters. More sophisticated than mine,(scroll to the bottom of that linked post if you want to see 'em) which I'm still loving.

 I sort of wish I wasn't off on a sweater knitting binge right now, because look at this tutorial to make a chipmunk  out of a recycled spare glove. Bobo would just explode if I made him one . Wool ! Squirrel !!

But who wants to clean up exploded bulldog, anyway?

it snowed, i worked

 

and the Miami dog searched for a way out of snowy hell. Not on Calle Ocho anymore!

Actually, I spent today putting together my Ignite: Boston craft presentation, this Friday , should be quite the night of craft related storytelling. Ann Weaver and Maryse are also presenting, so I'll be in great company. See you there ?

it's 2011: i'm dipped AND buttered

There's been a certain bagladyish-ness to my presentation when I dressed nice in cold weather.  Black & neutrals vintage-y herringbone tweed coat, red helmet earflap hat, orange  scarf, striped noro blue/purple mitts? yeah.  I'd walk in to a job and catch clients rolling their eyes, wondering why they trusted me with their photo shoot budget. OK, maybe I didn't catch them, but I just know they were thinking that. Can't blame them, I looked one crayon short of the 64 pack. Athough with most of the colors.

No longer. I am now, officially, Put Together. This photo Thursday, thanks to Linda at Knit New Haven as I was on the last few cowl rounds, you can see the needles still in there if you look closely enough. Knit from  2 skeins of Cascade Magnum,  super bulky, super soft 100% wool. What you're looking at is $36. and not a whole lot of time either. That's a lot of put together bang for the buck, no?

details

hat (less than 1 skein of Cascade Magnum, less than 2 hours of knitting)

inspired by  Quick & Easy Ribbed Hat by Laurie Kimmelstiel

needles: us 15

my variations: Cascade Magnum is one bulky mother! I cast on 30 stitches,  did wider bands of reverse stockinette than of stockinette,  added rounds to increase the slouch factor,  with a more gradual decrease than written, ending with reverse stockinette on top.

I'm sparing you the modeled views in which I look more like Hassidic Aunt Chaya than fashionably topped. 

I love this hat .  It is not much of a hair squisher, thanks to the loft, while being very warm Win, win, win.

cowl:  imy intention was a simple cowl in bands of stockinette & reverse stockinette to mimic the hat. I cast on 48 stitches, not paying too much attention until I was well into it, when I saw I'd twisted the join. So, why not? Twisted cowl.  I kind of like it with the twist in front.
Backstory:

Before the cowl I  started  a 4x4 ribbed scarf from the yarn. It was almost done when I left it sitting on a chair. Fatal error .  My lovable new beast Bobo has a taste for one thing , in a house full to the brim of Stuff You Could Chew. That one thing is  wool yarn. 

exhibit a of lovability, boy & his dog 

He doesn't destroy.  It's more like he seeks it, places a whole skein in his mouth and then shakes his bowling-ball sized head, walking and spinning out yarn,  down halls and stairs. I've found whole rooms strewn with saliva soaked unwound skeins*. (are you thanking me for that mental image? You're welcome)

Bad news: Bobo's  big bulldoggy teeth made an impression on the scarf-in-progress. Good news: it was kind of ropey and roll-y,anyway. So I ripped and knit the cowl.

only thing scarcer than yarn sitting out unscathed these days is a squirrel in the yard, 
thanks to this welcoming committee

rollover craft minutes

 

A gift for my niece, who requested a really warm hat with a huge pompom.  Modeled not by my niece but by Leo, who was home for break and apparently is past the stage where he cares if people see him in front of the house wearing a hat with a ridiculously large pompom.

pattern: A Really Warm Hat from Melissa LaBarre (conveniently named, no?)

yarn: Araucania Coliumo (wool/silk blend) in gold-ish,  and a strand of thin fuzzy brown mohair (ballband long gone) carried along for fun

needles: size 13 us

comments: It's knit longer than the pattern, both for style, and for my niece's big head with major hair.

 

With the right attitude, it seems this could be a dude hat. I have to confess I kind of wanted to keep this one. But I might have trimmed the pompom down

 

An attempted Leaf  scarf for sister Marla, who would have liked it if it had come out as I imagined, and not like this.  Again Araucania Coliumo, which is somehow too silky-shiney and maybe too soft, to create well defined leaves. Or, maybe I should have seen it through, and blocked it, but we'll never know, will we?  Ripped, to become

Pattern: ZigZag Cowl by Mandy Powers

yarn: Araucania Coliumo

needles: size 13 us

Comments: This yarns is much bulkier than Mandy's original,  I worked out the gauge & stitch count for a 23 " circumference.  Only a zig-zag-zi before the picot bindoff. I was nervous about running out of my single skein of yarn but had plenty left . It could easily have been a zigzagzigzag sort of deal.

No worries, it was plenty tall.

 

Excuse the wretched photo, it was freeeeezing out

Don't you love the picot edge at this weight of yarn? Funny story: I mailed it all gift wrapped up. I didn't exactly say what it was, only that it should be handwashed. Marla wears the handmades with appreciation & enthusiasm. She put it on her head as a kind of open topped hat thing, and wore it like this all day

(phonecam evidence ) until dinner, when her family  questioned whether it might not belong elsewhere on her body, and she called me laughing so hard she couldn't talk. 

I said, yeah, it was a winter tube top. You GO girl.

My bookgroup long ago declared December a no book potluck dinner  & craft night. We choose a simple project every year, this one was decorating notebooks. I walked in and announced I was too frazzled to even think about collage, I was going to just eat & knit, to relax.

 20 seconds later I'd grabbed a red notebook, sloshing gesso onto it. Some years less is more, and some years, more is more....

. 

Oh come on, Einstein and a smoking troll and I think Hindi numbers tissue paper? Irresistible.

 

Someone commented on how...lively.. my front cover was. I had to do the back, with restraint. In this light I see it can use a final even coat of gesso,it doesn't show as darker splotches to the naked eye.

New mittens! I've been thinking about making recycled sweater mitts for years. Literally. I had a dense, tragically felted  charcoal wool sweater in the box of hoarded selectively saved-for-upcycling woolens. When the snow started to pile up last week, I finally cut a pair of mitt shapes, using the sweater's roll edge hem as the cuffs. I blanket stitched them together, raw edges out, wrong sides together. That is it. Crazy easy. If I was a perfectionist, I'd call these protoype and make another pair, more smoothly shaped on the curves  and evenly stitched.

 

But I'm not, and these are making me insanely happy. Next pair may be reversibly lined with second color of felted sweater. With decorative pompoms or buttons. Maybe more is more here, too?

• • • • • • • • • •

Happy 2011, what are you making?

fly-by december

Somehow the making, the working, the dog-refereeing , the holiday cheer, and well,  life , edged out the blogging lately.

 

aerial views of Bobo & Gordo. I make Bobo sit and stay to get treats, then I hand one to Gordo and tell him he gets snacks just for still being alive. He's, like 94 or something in dog years, altho still maintains his frat boy attitude

Sister Lulu's granny square scarf request for chanukah was met. Her parameters: the colors in a photo of heirloom radishes she sent me, and "burgundy, and grey--menswear palette, please".

Sounds picky to you? Nah. I can work with it. Grow up in a family of artists and a scientist engineer, and you''l find this normal and suitably precise.  I wasn't sure about the combo myself, till I added the olivey acid green in there, then it felt OK.

All  except the purple  are Mission Falls 1824 Superwash Wool (colors 011, 015, 028 with 010 edging it all), and the (slightly heathery) purple is Berroco Ultra Alpaca. Great yarns both, but in my very limited granny square experience, the singles I used on this last crochet project were easier to crochet than these plied yarns. Splitty crocheter that I am.

Most importantly, Lulu  was  happy with it. I've seen her wearing it at least 5 times since then, so I know she means it, too.

my new dog is a metaphor

We're talking the Bobo factor.

A frisson of chaos . A sprinkling of energy. A sugar glazing of the unexpected . At any and every given moment.

Did I mention the whole point of that roadtrip last month was getting Bobo, the one balled American Bulldog to his new home with us ? Quite a bargain: not just a lovable gregarious  furry member of the family but also a whole circus of fleas, a case of heartworm and an enthusiasm for the lady dogs that matches only a 17 year old boy with his own species. Do you need to ask me how I know? I thought not.

So instead of showing the handcrafted gifts underway, accent on the under, way under, I'll give you a gift suggestion. The Color Scheme Bible.

For yourself , or for any knitter, or crafter  in your life. A friend hipped me to this at the library the other day; I can go on & on about why it is just exactly right. Starting with a spiral binding.

It hits the right approach to color theory and presentation for me. My problem with books showing color themes or combinations is they so often offer stripes of color, all even and glossy, then they show a decked out photographed room or outfit.  If I can't relate, like to a super-tztchotchkeed Victorian spread, then I can't get past the things to absorb the colors. Above is what most of this book is like.  A color theory.Like periwinkle gray as a neutral with accents. Or the pages below:

Simple  paint, flat and clear, with some size proportion to help the brain out.  There are also pages with equal sized full range color charts, but these examples work  for me, choosing  colors for knitting ( an Albers Cowl anyone? log cabin blanket? or colorwork mittens?)  . Or making pillows for a couch. Not that I sew much.  But after Bobo gets through testing how much sofa surfing he can get to while we're in another room, it may be ripe time to rev up the Singer.

3 weeks is plenty time to red scarf

How convenient !I needed something to show,

and last week's pitstop near DC caught my mom with three scarves she & her buddy Claire knit for this year's Orphan Foundation of America's Red Scarf Project, which sends a handknit red scarf to approximately  2500 former foster kids now attending college. FYI:  The scarves should be sent to the OFA by December 15th, they get sorted and mailed on Valentine's Day.*

 This one is knit from the same Brown Sheep Lambs Pride Worsted in Wine Splash I showed last week, she can't remember which scarf pattern,  it was a 2 or 4 row repeat she downloaded. The red tweed one was Claire's; Claire said she had trouble following her directions, so the stitch is not  as it was supposed to  be but it looks pretty good in a different way. 

 

The last one is Wavy, from Knitty 06, in Cascade 220 superwash.  Although Leo is a  Miami-based college student who doesn't need a woolly scarf and, anyway, eschews handknits (I know!? let's not go there!) he modeled it  to prove that it looks pretty good on a guy even if he's making faces..

*All  Red Scarf Project details here .
Essentials:

• red or non-gender color yarn, any weight except super bulky (it mails in a fed ex box)

• any knit , crocheted or woven pattern that suits either gender. Lacy, not so much.

• 5-8" wide, about 60" or so long

The folks at the OFA are not weighing and measuring with scientific instruments, it's guidelines, don't fret! Send them by December 15 and feel good. Or, you can feel just as good by sending a donation of gift cards or money to suport the kids who have no "home" to call for reinforcements. Go, cast on for one. Or send. Today.

 

A few remaining red leaves. Just for inspiration. Doncha love red with light blue?

1400 or so miles later...

 
The sum total of yarncraft completed on the road trip. 

I think we can safely say daily blogging and completed sweaters this month are out the window. When November began I hadn't planned on driving from Miami to Connecticut, or having a rather large and personable dog join the menagerie here, so, really, no complaints, the window has some fine if unexpected, views, along the road.

 

Bobo keeping an eye out from the motel in Georgia

 Bobo was a model backseat passenger, and those hours of togetherness let me really bond.

 

Obligatory posed photo of big boy, big dog and really big old tree. Brunswick GA

Leo was good company too. I was tickled to realize that Bobo the American Bulldog is a version of  Chance, from an old fave movie Homeward Bound, a 90's kidflick with Michael J Fox as the voice. I already told Bobo under no circumstances is he to take a cross country journey with an elderly golden retriever and a haughty cat.

Our theme, aside from driving hella fast, was grazing north.

In Florida, roadside citrus.In Brunswick Georgia, we got an inside scoop of favorite shrimp boats. We left town with five pounds of just caught shrimp on ice. 

  

Sub-theme, blue eyed bulldog mixes. I know: weird. This is QBall the shrimp dock dog. 

Further north in South Carolina, on this porch, we discovered a LOVE for boiled peanuts (edemame-ish) and in a thank-god-they-do-not-sell-these-up-north way munched on deep fried peanuts.  You eat them shell and all. Sort of like a peanut wrapped in a kettle cooked potato chip. Also, thumbs up to benne wafers. And peach cider.

See what I mean, another blue eyed fellow, Bobo romped with him outside the peanut place.

At lunch, still further north, Leo polished off the $3.89 lunch special: 2 pieces of homefried chicken, bowl of rice with gravy and peach cobbler.  (That really is $ 3.89, not missing a 1 in front.)

 

Spanish moss, Hipstamatic style. Psychedelic, baby!

 

Spanish moss, regular camera. Still kinda trippy, doncha think?

By 10 pm we were at my parents in suburban DC boiling up the shrimp, and by the next night, at home in Yankee territory.

I really do love a road trip.