Seedless Grape

Introducing . . .

2010-12-16T16:10:00.002-06:00

Ash!

Hello, I am cute as a button.

Handspun, Handknit Bonanza, Part II: Plum Blossom

2008-07-18T12:03:00.000-05:00

The parade of handspun, handknit hats continues, this time with a ribbed deal that I knit up from the Plum Blossom yarn I spun eons ago.

The fiber was originally 4.4 oz of Shetland wool, dyed in the "Plum Blossom" colorway from Pigeonroof Studios. Like the Burning Bush hat, I originally tried to make a Zeebee, which has turned into my default pattern for hats knit out of handspun, and I actually finished it. But . . . because I was still very much a newbie spinner at that time, my spinning was so abominably inconsistent that my gauge changed during the course of the knitting! The yarn was much thicker at the beginning than it was at the end. If you've ever knit a Zeebee, you'll know that a changing gauge spells disaster! There was a distinct dent in the hat's brim where I grafted the thicker-gauge yarn I knit at the beginning to the thinner-gauge yarn that I knit at the end.

I probably could have blocked the dent out, but I planned on giving the hat away as a gift, and I knew that the first time the recipient washed the hat, the dent would reappear and look bad. So I ripped the whole darn thing out, had a couple of fits and starts with various attempts at different brim-to-crown patterns, and finally decided on with this ribbed affair--my default pattern for brim-to-crown hats, courtesy of Fig and Plum.

In the end, it's certainly not an exciting hat, but I suppose simpler patterns are better with handspun so you can really show the yarn off. I think the hat does capture a nice tweedy, handmade sort of feel, and I do always like the way the ribs decrease into a star in Jessica's pattern. The hat is also nice and stretchy, and the fold-up brim will help keep the ears extra warm, which the recipient will definitely appreciate in the winter.

Specs:
Pattern: Fig and Plum's Ribbed Hat
Needles: US6 circular and DPNs
Yarn: Handspun 2-ply, 4.4 oz. of "Plum Blossom" from Pigeonroof Studios
Recipient: A secret (just in case)!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Handspun, Handknit Bonanza, Part I: Burning Bush

2008-07-14T10:03:00.001-05:00

We now return to our regularly scheduled catch-up blogging. In addition to all the spinning that I did earlier this year that I am only now blogging about, I did a bunch of hat-knitting in a (largely unsuccessful) attempt to maintain a net-zero stash intake. Unfortunately, I haven't managed to knit as quickly as I can spin, but I did manage to knock out some hats, which will make some good holiday presents this winter.

This is one of my favorites from the hat bonanza. It's knit out of the Burning Bush Corriedale that I got from Spunky Eclectic back in February this year--one of my first successful wheel-spun yarns. I love the reds, blues, and oranges.

Knitting this hat was quite a struggle, though. I don't remember all the trials and tribulations exactly, but I think that what you see here is probably the fifth incarnation of this hat. I originally started trying to knit a Zeebee and ripped and reknit several times due to fit/gauge issues. When I finally figured out that I didn't have enough yarn for a Zeebee, I switched to a regular ribbed-brim affair. That took a couple more attempts, too, before I hit on a reasonable number of stitches and the correct size.

Still, I'm very happy with the finished object. It's nice and thick and covers the ears, as I think all woolen hats should. And knitting with handspun is so much fun!

Specs:
Yarn: Handspun 2-ply, 4 oz. of "Burning Bush" Corriedale from Spunky Eclectic
Needles: 10.5 Addi Turbo, Brittany Birch DPNs
Pattern: My own--just 2x2 ribbing for 5 or 6 rounds, then stockinette
Recipient: Not sure. I know I said these hats would make good holiday gifts, but I might keep this one for myself because it was such a struggle to knit. Plus, have I mentioned that I love the colors?

Hope everyone had a nice weekend! Happy Bastille Day!

Child's First Socks, Redux

2008-07-07T09:01:00.000-05:00

We interrupt our regularly scheduled spinning blogging for a quick message from our sponsor, Current Knitting!

Look, our cuffs actually match this time.

That's right, folks, I actually have some current knitting to blog about! (Wait--did you just hear that? That was the sound of the earth turning backwards on its axis for a split second. You experienced it first here on Seedless Grape!)

I'm in the midst of a knitting frenzy to try and knit up some gifts for my various co-workers, whom I'm leaving in exactly one month when my current clerkship ends. This is the first effort, a pair of Child's First Socks from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks for one of my co-clerks. The yarn is Dream in Color's Smooshy sock yarn in the Wisterious colorway.

Hello, look how wisterious we are.

This was the first time I'd knit with Dream in Color, and I lurrrrve it and want some more. It's nicely spun and I love, love, love the "veil-dyed" semisolid effect. No striping, no pooling, just lovely shifts of color all in the same color family. It's really beautiful, and I love how it turned out for these socks.

This is the second pair of Child's First Socks that I've made. It's rare that I reknit sock patterns (that is, if I'm not just knitting a straight stockinette or a ribbed deal, which doesn't really count), but the Child's First Socks is such an easy pattern with elegant results that I decided to knit it again. (I'll admit that it helps to knit something I'm familiar with when I'm aiming for speed. ) The only modification I made (besides tweaking the number of repeats to get the appropriate size) was to sub in a short-row heel. My co-clerk has very narrow heels, so I hope that the short-row heel will fit better than the regular heel flap that the pattern calls for.

Specs:
Pattern: Child's First Socks
Needles: 2 US1 Addi Turbo circulars
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy sock yarn, "Wisterious"
Recipient: The Rules Clerk
Mods: Fewer repeats; short-row heel

Sweet as Pie

2008-07-01T18:07:00.001-05:00

The (blogging about) spinning kick continues! I was lucky to snag some of Adrian's "regular" fiber during her most recent shop update at Hello Yarn. This is four ounces of Finn wool in the colorway "Sweet as Pie" (photo of fiber here, again courtesy of Adrian).

The white tag attached to the roving is the backside of an index card on which I recorded the yardage, the kind of wool, and the colorway. I finally started noting all this information on tags and attaching the tags to the finished yarn because this yarn was a birthday gift to the Aspiring Ecologist (who is now ABD, by the way, woot!) and I wanted her to know what she was getting. Of course, bad blogger that I am, I don't remember any of the pertinent facts (namely, the yardage) myself. Again, it's sort of a DK/sport-ish weight, over 200 yards. That's about as much as I remember. (Sorry!)

This was the first time that I actually consciously examined the roving and the color repeats and tried to spin the fiber to achieve a desired result. (Usually, I just split the roving in half, tear off strips, and have at it, willy-nilly.) I wanted to try and maintain a proper barberpole--i.e., no sections where the two plies were the same color--so I noted the color repeats and tried to arrange the order in which I spun the strips of roving to avoid two colors overlapping when plying the two singles together. This was successful for the most part, but there were still a few places where the colors in the plies pooled together.

Again, I can't say enough good things about Adrian's fiber. Her sense of color always amazes me. I love trying new wools and new color combinations with her fiber. For someone with a pretty boring job and a mundane sort of life, spinning things from Hello Yarn always feels like an adventure. I love it!

Hive

2008-06-20T08:32:00.003-05:00

As promised, here's "Hive," the last shipment in the February-April Hello Yarn Fiber Club. Like the Red Velvet fiber, I wasn't organized or disciplined enough to get a photo of the fiber in its unspun state, so you'll have to do with Adrian's picture.

I'll have fond memories of this fiber because I actually spun it in the Japanese Garden in Houston's Hermann Park, which is one of the big green spaces in the city and home to the Houston Zoo. I had a terrible, wracking cold for about three weeks in April and May and wasn't exercising much, so I wanted to get outside and breathe some fresh air before it got too hot. I lugged my Lendrum to the park, found a handy little pavilion in the Japanese Garden, complete with a bench and a roof (it drizzled a bit that day), and sat down and spun up almost the entire batch of fiber.

I was pretty absent-minded when I wound the yarn into a skein, so I don't remember the exact yardage, but I'm pretty sure it's over 200 yards of DK-weight yarn. It was very hard to get the colors exactly right in the pictures, and even now it looks a little oranger in the pictures than it is in real life. But at least you have an idea of how nice and cheerful the fiber is. Spinning it really made me feel like that princess in Rumpelstiltskin who had to spin gold out of straw!

It's 4 oz. of Falklands wool, and although it's not my most consistent spinning effort, I'm very pleased with the finished yarn, which is soft and happiness-inducing. I just have to figure out what to make with it. I think a bright scarf might be the way to go, to cheer up those winter days when the weather is blah.

Red Velvet

2008-06-17T09:15:00.001-05:00

I'm quite embarrassed about how long it's been since I posted. Everything is still fine here at Chez Seedless Grape; work has just been more than a little crazy for the past few months. I won't go into the dirty details, so let's just continue with our regularly scheduled blogging (such as it is), shall we?

In the midst of work craziness, I've managed some intermittent knitting and spinning. Unfortunately, most of the knitting has already been given away--mostly birthday gifts--without proper photographic documentation for blogging. But the spinning FOs are still hanging around, so at least I have something to show for my efforts!

I can't remember if I ever blogged about it, but I joined the Hello Yarn Fiber Club for the February-March-April installment. Wow, I love Adrian's fiber! I won't even pretend to have the same sense for colors and shades that Adrian does, but participating in the club has definitely expanded my color horizons. The colorways are always fun, interesting, and super-saturated. Adrian combines colors that I wouldn't necessarily pick out for myself or even think would look good together, but somehow they always turn out looking amazing.

Below are some pictures of the second club shipment--"Red Velvet." Unfortunately, I was too disorganized and distracted at the time to take a picture of the fiber before I spun it up, so you only get to see the finished product. (But you can click here and see Adrian's picture of the fiber.)

Spinning this fiber was MY MOST PERFECT SPINNING EXPERIENCE EVER. Seriously--no exaggeration. The yarn is the most consistent I've ever achieved, AND I got my singles to match up almost perfectly. I think I had about a yard and a half of extra single after plying the two singles together. That's the closest I've ever had my singles match up. I am in LOVE with this yarn!

It's 4 oz. of Shetland wool, and I can't remember the exact yardage, but it's well over 200 yards of a DK/sport-ish weight. Enough for a hat or mittens, definitely, although I haven't figured out what I want to do with it. I'm a little too in love with it right now to knit anything out of it.

I've spun other fiber since the Red Velvet, but nothing has achieved the same level of UTTER PERFECTION as this lovely little hank. I think it helped that I spun all the Red Velvet fiber up in a fairly concentrated period of time, so I had serious muscle memory, got into a zen-like groove, and kept going until all the fiber was spun. Other spinning projects since then have been a bit more stop-and-go, so the finished yarns are lumpier/bumpier and my singles haven't matched up quite so well. I'm looking forward to the next zen-like spinning experience; as perfect as it is, surely the Red Velvet can't be the apex of my spinning career!

Next up (eventually): "Hive," a.k.a. the Hello Yarn fiber club's April shipment. (See Adrian's picture of the fiber here.)

Fits and starts

2008-04-09T08:23:00.002-05:00

There's not much going on here at Chez Seedless Grape this week. I have much more time to knit these days, but I have very little to show for it because I'm currently trying to knit up my small but burgeoning handspun stash, which means that I'm ripping as much as I'm knitting. Seriously: I've ripped and reknit the Burning Bush AND Plum Blossom yarns at least five times each in separate projects. With the Plum Blossom yarn, this was partly because my spinning was uneven and my gauge at one end of the yarn was significantly different from my gauge towards the middle and other end of the yarn, which made for a very wonky Zeebee on the first attempt. With the Burning Bush yarn, I'm trying to eke out an adult-sized hat with the limited yardage I have, and after multiple tries with different needles and patterns, I'm developing the sinking feeling I don't have enough. Sigh.

But, setting all that aside, I still have a bit to blog about, because the Noro log cabin blocks continue apace:

I have 15 so far and I'm almost finished with the 16th. This weekend I'm going to try to cobble another block or two from the remnants I have, because I've run out of new balls. I'll see how far I can get with the remnants before I stock up on some more Kureyon (because yes, Noro has amazing colorways, but it's a bit spendy, no?).

A quick spinning run-down

2008-04-04T09:46:00.000-05:00

There was a bit of spinning and a bit of knitting over the past Month o' Work, but I didn't really have time to take photos or blog about it. As a result, my knitting FOs--two Utopia hats--have gone on to their recipients without being blogged about, and my WIPs have been ripped and reknit multiple times and no one's the wiser except for me.

I did manage to get a couple documentary photos of my latest spinning endeavors, though. This is mostly because I haven't figured out what to knit with these spinning FOs, so they're marinating in the stash and are still in my possession to be photographed.

Above is 4 oz. of merino fiber that I got at the Boerne Fiber Festival last year. My goal in spinning this stuff up was to spin as thin as I could manage to see if I could make sock-weight yarn. The finished yarn is slightly heavier than most sock yarn, but it's not so thick I'd call it sportweight or DK. I was pretty pleased with it as a first attempt at sock yarn. I can't remember the yardage (I really should write these things down), but it should be enough to make at least a pair of ankle socks. Either that, or I'm going to use it as a liner for some mittens, because it's nice and soft. But I'll have to see if I can find some coordinating yarn/fiber for the outside of the mittens.

And . . . I also got into the Hello Yarn February-April Fiber Club earlier this year. I'm a biiiig Hello Yarn fan; I really love Adrian's sense of color. Here is the February fiber--5 oz. of BFL in the "Insect Wings" colorway:

I loved this fiber; the colors are so nice and saturated, and the finished yarn turned out nice and soft. I managed to get about 140 yards of heavy worsted weight yarn and I think I'll try to get a hat or two out of it.

I can't wait to see how it knits up because I tried to fractal-spin it (at least, I tried to do what I understand to be fractal spinning). I took the entire length of roving and split it in half lengthwise. I pre-drafted one half and spun that on to one bobbin. I took the other half and split that in half lengthwise to get fourths; then I pre-drafted the fourths and spun them on to another bobbin, one after the other, trying to start each length of roving from the same end to keep the color repeats in order. Then I plied the singles off the two bobbins together.

I'm not sure if my efforts at fractal spinning will result in anything special, especially since I'm not perfectly sure that the color repeats are in the correct order (I'll admit I was careless). But I'm sure the finished fabric will be fun and soft, anyway; the color and the fiber really do most of the work!

I'm going to try to get better photos of the Insect Wings yarn this weekend--it's just too gorgeous not to try. Hope everyone has a good weekend!

I got through the tunnel, and wow, it's bright out here!

2008-04-01T10:27:00.001-05:00

Where are my sunglasses?!?!? I'm blinded!

It's April 1, and it's only fitting that I finally get to post after three of the most exhausting weeks I've experienced in a long while. Wow, it's nice to be back!

As I've mentioned before, I'm currently clerking for a federal judge in Houston. Since federal judges have a pretty sweet deal--life tenure with guaranteed pay--the federal judiciary uses something colloquially called "the six-month list" to make sure judges are processing their cases at a reasonable rate. Basically, every six months a list of shame gets published, listing all the motions that have been pending before each judge for more than six months. Most judges, like mine, try to keep the number of motions on that list down as a matter of pride.

The six months tick off every March 31st and September 30th. In an ideal world, someone working under a six-month deadline would be able to budget her time efficiently and spread out the work so that the last few weeks before the deadline aren't crammed. In the real world, though, people file TRO applications, there are trials, there are emergency motions, etc.: there are a million extra little things that demand attention right away and mess up even the best-laid plans.

To make a long story short: The six-month list is why I sort of dropped into a hole and didn't emerge for three weeks. I have been knitting and spinning here and there, and I have lots of blogging to catch up on, but mostly my life in March was consumed with work. It was sort of awful, and really exhausting, but it's over now (yay!) and "regular" life, with knitting, spinning, cooking, and blogging, should return soon.

And guess what I have to look forward to?

YES! One of the highly coveted Fiddlehead Mitten Kits from Adrian of Hello Yarn. Eee! I'm so excited. I had a really, really frustrating day about a week and a half ago, and to take a break from work, I surfed on over to the Hello Yarn website and saw this kit for sale. I didn't have to think twice: I immediately clicked "buy," whipped out my credit card, and forked over my money.

The yarn is BEAUTIFUL. I love, love, love the colors. I almost don't want to knit up the kit because I think the little skeins of yarn are so cute!

Anyway: regular blogging should return soon. Hope everyone has been doing well!

Felty oven mitts

2008-03-06T13:48:00.000-06:00

I wrote up the pattern I developed for my felted oven mitts. This was mostly so I'd remember what I did, since it took a lot of trial and error (read: lots of ripping), but having gone through the trouble of jotting it down, I figured I might as well share it in case anyone else wants to make some mitts for themselves.

So, without further ado: The Felty Oven Mitts!

(And, because I'm kinda sorta a lawyer, and most definitely not a professional pattern designer . . . the obligatory disclaimer: There may be some mistakes in the pattern. I haven't test-knit what I wrote down to make sure it actually jives. I plan on knitting some more mitts and will follow what I've written to see if it makes sense, but in the meantime, if you find an error or some unclear language, please let me know (and accept my humblest apologies). Happy knitting!)

Yarn: 4 skeins Cascade 220
Needles: 16" US10.5 circs; US 10.5 DPNs
Gauge: not important
Notions: waste yarn to hold thumb stitches; stitch marker

Using circular needle and yarn held doubled, cast on 45 stitches. Being careful not to twist, place marker to mark beginning of round and join yarn for knitting in the round. Knit 5 rounds. On sixth round, *k8, kf&b*, repeat between *s until end: 50 stitches. Knit 24 more rounds for a total of 30 rounds from cast-on edge.

Next, shape the thumb gusset as follows:

Round 31: k24, kf&b, kf&b, k24.
Round 32 and all even rounds during thumb gusset shaping: k.
Round 33: k24, kf&b, k2, kf&b, k24.
Round 35: k24, kf&b,k4, kf&b, k24.
Round 37: k24, kf&b, k6, kf&b, k24.

Continue increasing in this manner for a total of 26 thumb-gusset rounds: 76 sts. On next round, k25, place the next 26 stitches on a holder or waste yarn, cast on one stitch using backward loop method, k25 to end of round: 51 sts on needles; 26 sts on waste yarn.

On next round, k25, k2tog, k24: 50 sts on needles. Knit 20 rounds.

Shape top of mitt as follows:

Round 79: *k1, ssk, k19, k2tog, k1; repeat from * once: 46 sts.
Round 80: k.
Round 81: *k1, ssk, k17, k2tog, k1; repeat from * once: 42 sts.
Round 82: k.
Round 83: *k1, ssk, k15, k2tog, k1; repeat from * once. 38 sts.
Round 84: k.

Continue decreasing in this way for a total of 10 rounds: 30 sts on needles. (Switch to DPNs when necessary.) For remaining rounds, shape as follows:

Round 89: *k1, ssk, k9, k2tog, k1; repeat from * once: 26 sts.
Round 90: *k1, ssk, k7, k2tog, k1; repeat from * once: 22 sts.
Round 91: *k1, ssk, k5, k2tog, k1; repeat from * once: 18 sts.
Round 92: *k1, ssk, k5, k2tog, k1; repeat from * once: 14 sts.

Place remaining sts on 2 DPNs (7 sts on each DPN). Cut yarn, leaving a long tail of at least 15". Graft the stitches together using kitchener stitch.

Knit thumb:

Remove thumb stitches from waste yarn and arrange on three DPNs: 26 stitches. Place the mitt before you so that the thumb gusset is on the left-hand side. (In other words, the mitt should be oriented so that you can put your right hand into the mitt and your thumb will poke out of the thumb gusset.)

Round 1: Join yarn at the first live stitch at the inside crook of the thumb, leaving a tail of 6-8", and k one round. When you finish knitting the live stitches and come to the gap at the inside crook of the thumb, pick up and knit 2 stitches, place marker, pick up and knit 2 stitches: 30 sts on needles.

Now you'll need to work a few decreases at the inside crook of the thumb to eliminate the four extra stitches you picked up to cross the gap. The current arrangement on your needles is as follows: Marker, 2 picked-up stitches, 26 "regular" gusset stitches, 2 picked-up stitches. Your working yarn at this point should be ready to knit the first of the 26 gusset stitches.

Round 2: k 26 sts, k2tog. Your working yarn should now be at the beginning of the round, where your marker is. 29 sts on needles.

Round 3: K2tog, k25, k2tog. 27 sts on needles.

Round 4: K2tog, k26. 26 sts on needles. You have just decreased the four extra stitches on either side of your marker.

Knit 8 more rounds. Then shape top of thumb as follows:

Round 13: *k1, ssk, k7, k2tog, k1; repeat from * once: 22 sts.
Round 14: *k1, ssk, k5, k2tog, k1; repeat from * once: 18 sts.
Round 15: *k1, ssk, k3, k2tog, k1; repeat from * once: 14 sts.
Round 16: *k1, ssk, k1, k2tog, k1; repeat from * once: 10 sts.

Place remaining sts on 2 DPNs (5 sts on each DPN). Cut yarn, leaving a long tail of at least 10". Graft the stitches together using kitchener stitch.

Weave in ends. Use the long tail at the inside crook of the thumb to close any holes there.

Make 2 mitts and felt them in your washing machine. I usually use hot water, add a small amount of laundry detergent, and turn the dial on my machine to "super" wash, which agitates the laundry extra hard for a few minutes before beginning the regular cycle. I have a small "economy-size" washing machine, so it usually takes me at least one and a half washes before the mitts are felted to the size I like. I recommend checking on the mitts every five minutes or so from the beginning to monitor how they're felting. As they start felting and shrinking in size, check them more often. When they're a size you like, you can run them through your machine's spin cycle to get as much water out of them as possible.

Shape and let air-dry. Bake up something yummy and use mitts to protect your hands!

Logging another log cabin

2008-03-04T09:01:00.000-06:00

Work is slowly starting to bury me alive. There's a big deadline at the end of March, and before I'll see the light at the end of the tunnel, I have to deal with some projects that are particularly tricksy, boring, complicated, or a combination of all of the above. There's knitting (and even spinning!) going on, but not much time to blog about it.

In the meantime, though, I'm truckin' along with my Kureyon log cabin blocks. I just finished another one yesterday and now have nine blocks, with the tenth on the needles. One block is drastically smaller than the rest--I must have been knitting more tightly for that one, for some reason--so I may have to reknit that one. But otherwise I'm really pleased with the way these guys are coming out.

Hope everyone is enjoying the new month!

After

2008-02-28T09:03:00.000-06:00

And here are the felted oven mitts! I loved them and was so pleased with how they came out. I definitely will have to make some for myself in the future!

Hello, we are nice and felty.

I realized only after I had given the mitts away and was preparing these pictures that I probably should have thrown in the quarter again for scale. Oops. The finished mitts came probably 4 to 5 inches past my wrists, just like regular oven mitts should.

As I've said before, it took me a while to figure out the proportions of the mitt. Technically, the top part of each mitt (for the fingers, above the thumb) ended up being longer--i.e., had more rows--than the bottom part (below the thumb). Unfelted, it looked a little strange, unintuitive, and top-heavy. My gut instinct was to make the bottom part longer, because I think of oven mitts covering a good part of your wrists and forearms.

During felting, though, the mitts shrank in size perfectly. I think the proportions are just right, and the fabric is nice and thick. Yay!

Pattern: My own
Needles: 16" US10.5 Inox circular; US10.5 Brittany Birch DPNs
Yarn: 4 skeins Cascade 220 (I don't have the skeins with me, so I don't have the colorway number, but . . . they're red, obviously)
Recipient: Newlywed co-clerk and hubby!

Before

2008-02-26T08:28:00.000-06:00

One of my co-clerks got married this past Saturday. She's mentioned before that she'd like to start cooking more often after she gets married, so to get her started, I bought her a red Dutch oven (brand = Tramontina--one of Cook's Illustrated's top-rated Dutch ovens) and made her a pair of matching felted oven mitts. It was hard to get the red just right in the pictures, but it's a nice deep red; hopefully you can imagine it even if it doesn't show up right on your monitor.

Here is GPG's artsy-fartsy rendition of the unfelted mitts:

And here is a plain old documentary-style post, with quarter thrown in for scale:

I only realized as I was preparing the pictures that position of the quarter on the top mitt makes the mitt look a little like a red guppy with a fat lip! The quarter probably doesn't provide much scale, but basically the mitts were big enough almost to reach my elbows when I put my hands in them.

I'm very pleased with the way the mitts turned out post-felting. I fiddled around with the pattern and frogged at least three times before I was satisfied with the position of the thumb and the general proportions of the mitt. Pictures of the felted mitts, plus a pattern (written mostly so I don't forget what I did), will come soon!

Eye Candy Friday: Log Cabin Edition

2008-02-15T11:09:00.000-06:00

Remember all that Noro I posted about before? I'm using it to make squares like this:

Pretty, no?

I'm planning on making a blanket like this. I never thought much of log cabin blankets until I saw KathyMarie's afghan on Ravelry and fell in love with it. So I'm merrily log cabin-ing away these days.

But only at work! I generally try to keep a mindless project at work to knit on when I have to read boring things, so these squares are my current work knitting. I keep a pair of US8 needles in my office and bring in new balls of Kureyon as I need them. I kind of like having the idea of making an afghan that I'll always remember as my "clerkship" afghan.

I've made 6 so far and am working on the seventh, so you can expect to see posts about squares every now and then.

Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day! Have a terrific weekend!

WIP: Endpaper Mitt the First

2008-02-14T09:08:00.001-06:00

Waaaay way way way back at the beginning of the New Year, Undyed Yarnpire and I embarked on a two-person knit-along for the famous Endpaper Mitts. I'd had yarn stashed for this project for well over a year. Undyed Yarnpire and I "met cute" on Ravelry; we both had the Endpapers queued up; and eventually we decided to start knitting them together.

Unfortunately, the whole "knit along" concept has sort of fallen by the wayside. At least, it's a little on hiatus. Undyed Yarnpire has been plagued with fit problems and yarn problems. I struggled with the Italian tubular cast-on, and since an amazingly productive burst of knitting when GPG and I went to Steamboat, I haven't had the time to knit a single stitch on this project. In addition, the whole idea of blogging my progress obviously never really materialized: this is my first post on the whole shebang.

Still, posts in general are better late than never. Although I haven't touched the mitt in a while, I'm quite pleased with the progress so far, which is three repeats of the charted pattern, just before the thumb gusset increases begin. I followed the sage advice that Kelp gave me and took out the purl "seam" that runs along the pinky side of the mitt. To do this, I had to rechart the pattern to run continuously around the entire mitt. Now the jog between rounds, plus the small disconnect in the pattern (since the mitt consumes less than a whole number of pattern repeats), are partially hidden at the purl "seam" on the thumb side of the mitt.

The first mitt is currently on hold while I try to knock out some presents, including some felted oven mitts (wedding present) and at least one Baby Surprise Jacket (new baby, obviously). But I'd like to get back to this WIP soon--I really want to block the finished thing and see how my colorwork turns out.

In the meantime, though, Happy Valentine's Day to all!

A public service announcement for Texans

2008-02-13T13:14:00.000-06:00

The Texas primaries are coming up on March 4. Early voting--when you can vote in any precinct, not just the one you are registered in--begins next Monday on Feb. 19 and ends on Feb. 29. This is especially useful for students and other folks who don't live too close to where they're originally registered (like me).

Unfortunately, the deadline to register to vote in the primaries is over. But if you're already a registered voter (here's where you can check your registration status), you're able to vote in one party's presidential primary this year. You don't have to be a registered member of the party in order to vote in that party's primary. Just be aware that if you vote in a party's primary you become affiliated with that party for the rest of the year, which means you can't vote in any other party's primary and you can't sign an independent candidate's petition to get put on the ballot. But, even if you vote in one party's primary, you're still free to vote for a different party's candidate when November's elections roll around. You aren't bound by your party affiliation in the actual election.

Here's a PDF showing all the primary polling locations in Houston, plus the schedule for voting. I hope everyone will find some time to vote in the March 4 primary!

The Noro stashing continues . . .

2008-02-11T08:34:00.000-06:00

How about starting the week off with a nice jolt of Noro goodness? The skeins below are my most recent Kureyon acquisitions, this time courtesy of Webs.

I finally took a few pictures of what I'm actually making out of all this Kureyon. Those will come later this week!

Spinny goodness

2008-02-04T08:43:00.000-06:00

As promised, over the weekend I took some photos of some of my latest spinning endeavors. The "Burning Bush" singles that I spun up turned into this:

I looooove the finished yarn. It's soft, thick, and I am a big fan of the barberpole effect. I ended up with a little over 100 yards or so of chunky-weight yarn.

The shock of red-on-red that you see in one area is the very end of the yarn, where I ran out of single on one bobbin. The remaining yardage of the longer single I had was all red. I wound the remaining single into a ball on my ball winder, spit-spliced the end of the red section to the end of the single where I had run out of yardage, then continued plying the red section on itself to get the most yardage out of the fiber.

Eeee! Have I mentioned that I love making my own yarn???

My next spinning attempt was 4.4 oz of superwash Shetland roving from Pigeonroof Studios in the "Plum Blossom" colorway. I tried to spin the singles thinner than the Burning Bush fiber, just to experiment. But because my spinning was a bit uneven, one singles was thinner than the other--not by much, but by enough that the finished yarn didn't fluff up as evenly as the Burning Bush yarn.

I'm still happy with the yarn, though. It's about 205 yards of DK-ish weight, venturing into fingering/sock-weight every now and then. This is my second time spinning with Pigeonroof fibers, and I love, love, love her stuff. (I just wish I could catch her shop updates so I could actually get some more!)

Each spinning attempt is really a new adventure--I'm experimenting with spinning at different thicknesses with each new batch of fiber. I'm striving for consistency in my spinning, but because I'm still pretty much a newbie, I never know what I'm going to get. Sometimes this is frustrating, but mostly it's fun.

And, because it needs to be said: all my spinning fun is due entirely to the patience, generosity, and--most importantly--enablement of Teresa of Gramma Knits. Thanks again, Teresa!

Hope everyone had a good weekend! Have a great week!

Not by the hair of my spinny spin spin

2008-02-01T10:33:00.000-06:00

I've been such a bad blogger that I haven't even blogged about the most recent exciting development in the Seedless Grape repertoire of fibery pursuits! In January, I got . . .

. . . a spinning wheel! Eeeee!

It's a Lendrum DT ("double treadle"), and I loooove it. I bought it second-hand from another spinner in Louisiana, and at first I refrained from blogging about it because it took a while to get the wheel into my hot little hands. I didn't want to post anything about it until I actually had it. After I got it (probably about three weeks ago now), I didn't blog about it because, well, I'm a bad blogger.

But I've been spinning on it a little every week, and I'm having so much fun! And late blogging is better than no blogging. Here are some singles I spun recently:

It's 4 oz. of Corriedale fiber in the "Burning Bush" colorway from Spunky Eclectic. I was immediately enamored with this colorway when I saw some of it on Jared's blog, so I snapped it up when I saw it on the Spunky Eclectic website. I love the combination of red, blue, and orange.

I've plied the singles and washed and whacked the yarn since taking this picture, and I'm extraordinarily pleased with how it turned out, especially for only my third attempt at spinning on the wheel. I love making my own yarn! There are also lots of other spinny projects constantly on the bobbins, so I promise there'll be plenty of spinning posts sprinkled among the regular knitting/(not-so-regular) cooking posts in the future.

In the meantime, I hope the first month of the new year treated everyone well. Here's hoping for a great February! Have a great weekend!

Steamboat

2008-01-30T08:37:00.000-06:00

I apologize for the radio silence. There's been lots of knitting, cooking, and other regular Seedless Grape-y pursuits lately, but not much time to blog about it. That's partly because work is ramping up for a biiiig deadline coming up at the end of March. It's also partly because . . . .

I went skiing!

Yup, that's me at Steamboat Springs, CO. GPG and I went up for a weekend of skiing last week. Unfortunately, the weather was uncooperative for photography, so that's pretty much the only picture I have to document our trip. The weather was actually beautiful on Saturday, but we took a ski lesson and left the camera at the lodge. The other two days it was fairly overcast; on Saturday, we had total white-out from mid-mountain on up due to very low-hanging clouds. At some point, visibility was probably less than 30 yards. Very discombobulating for skiing!

But there is a teeny-tiny bit of knitting content to this post! If you look closely, you'll see that I'm wearing an orange neck gaiter. You'll have to take my word that my jacket hood is covering up a matching hat. I knit like a madwoman on the plane to Steamboat to make both of them just in the nick of time for skiing.

The hat matches the one I knit for GPG' Valentine's Day present last year. We both wore the hats while skiing and they made finding each other on the slopes a lot easier! The gaiter was simply a long tube of K2, P2 ribbing that I could slip over my head and wear around my neck. Both the hat and gaiter came in very handy--I never felt cold whenever we were out on the slopes.

Hope everyone is having a good week!

Child's First Socks

2008-01-22T10:14:00.000-06:00

One of my 2008 resolutions is to finish some lingering WiPs. A lot of my WiPs have been collecting dust for a while, so I'm trying to get a move on and get them off the needles. One of these WiPs that is now finally an FO is the Child's First Sock from Knitting Vintage Knits.

I started these last summer, just before studying started to heat up for the bar exam. I managed to turn the heel of the first sock before setting the project aside. That single sock languished on my dresser for the rest of the year until I picked it up late in December. I've knit on it off and on since then.

Because there was such a long period of time between when I started the first sock and when I started its pair, I was a victim of my own cleverness (or lack thereof). For some reason, when I knit the first sock, I must have decided that the cuff was plenty long enough at 16 rounds and started on the leg. But when I started the second sock, I followed the pattern directions to the letter and knit a cuff of 20 rounds. *sigh* I haven't decided if I'll try to correct the longer cuff by unraveling or cutting the cast-on edge or not. People at my knitting night said the difference is really negligible, but since I'm giving the socks away and I'm a perfectionist, I might try to fix it.

Aside from the cuff problem, I love everything about these socks. The pattern knits up very nicely and is easy to memorize. The yarn, Fleece Artist Merino Sock, pooled just a little bit, but generally worked really well with the pattern. And of course the yarn is nice and sproingy. I love it!

Pattern: Child's First Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks
Needles: US2 Clover DPNs
Yarn: Fleece Artist Merino Sock, "Raspberry"
Recipient: The Anesthesiologist ("Aspiring Anesthesiologist" no more--she's the real deal now!)
Mods: Fewer pattern repeats in the leg. I think I only did 3 or 4 repeats.

I used to think that the pink of this yarn was eye-searingly bright. But having worked with it for a while, I guess I've gotten used to it and I actually like it quite a lot. These will be going to the Anesthesiologist, who owns pink sneakers. I figure that someone who owns pink sneakers can definitely use pink socks!

Eye Candy Friday: Noro Edition

2008-01-18T08:20:00.000-06:00

January is more than half over and already I'm behind on my blogging. That's partially because the weather in Houston has been less than friendly for photos, and partially because work is heating up again--we have a big deadline for a lot of work at the end of March. I also spent last weekend doing various supportive-girlfriend things for GPG, who ran the Houston Marathon! He ran his fastest time ever--a 4:23:01--and has gotten the marathon bug in a serious way. He's already looking for another one to run in February or March!

In lieu of actual blogging, I thought I'd bring back Eye Candy Friday, if only for a week, to show (one of) my latest stash acquisition(s): 7 balls of Noro Kureyon, which I bought at my LYS's end-of-year sale:

This is just the first wave of Noro purchases, so there should be more Noro-related Eye Candy Fridays in the future. Can you guess what I'm making??? It's not Lizard Ridge! I'll try to post a clue next week that will totally give it away if I can take some good photos this weekend.

In the meantime, have a great weekend!

Elegant Cable Rib Socks

2008-01-07T09:18:00.000-06:00

This was my last FO of 2007, but I've only now gotten around to cleaning up the pictures and posting them. I had promised my grandma a pair of socks a long time ago last year, and by God I was going to give her a pair of socks. I knit madly on these all throughout the Christmas holiday weekend and managed to mail them off so she'd get them before New Year's.

Sport weight yarn + size 5 needles + small feet + easy pattern = fast socks, which was exactly what I needed. I would have preferred to have given her some intricate socks made with regular fingering weight yarn, but I just didn't have time for that at the end of the year. I can make her some nicer socks this year.

Pattern: Elegant Cable Rib Socks from Interweave's Favorite Socks
Yarn: Fleece Artist sport weight ("Merino 3/6") in the "Beet" colorway
Needles: Brittany Birch US5 DPNS
Recipient: My Grandma
Mods: You can't tell from the photos, but I didn't make knee-high stockings, as the pattern calls for. I made regular length socks because a) my grandma is not a knee-high socks kinda gal, and b) I didn't have time to make knee-high socks. Since the leg was relatively short, I continued the cable rib pattern onto the instep instead of reverting to a regular 2x2 rib, like the pattern suggests, just to keep the sock visually interesting (for both recipient and knitter).

The pattern was easy to memorize, but I think it looks great. I will definitely knit it again, maybe with smaller yarn and needles. I also love the yarn--Fleece Artist has a special place in my heart.

Hope 2008 is treating everyone well so far! Have a great week!

WiP Run-down

2007-12-31T10:41:00.001-06:00

Well, it's the end of 2007, and I have lots of WiPs to show for it. Plus, I have lots of projects and ideas queued up. I need to knock out a few FOs while I still have a little bit of holiday left so I can move on to a new set of projects for 2008!

I'm most pleased with the current spinning project, hot off the spindle. I've been working on spinning up 3.9 oz of South African Fine merino in the Dovecote colorway from Pigeonroof Studios. I'm so happy I discovered Pigeonroof Studios, which has quickly become one of my favorite Etsy stores to visit. Krista's colorways are beautiful--you should definitely go check out her store!

I spun up four skeins totaling about 254 yards of DK-ish weight yarn. (I found a chair back in my house that measures almost exactly one yard around, so now I can estimate yardage!) The fourth skein was soaking in some water and Eucalan while I took this picture.

I can't wait to start knitting with this yarn--it's fairly consistent and very nice and sproingy. It's destined to turn into a very belated holiday gift.

Speaking of belated holiday gifts, here's another WiP I have to get off the needles: some log cabin socks from Handknit Holidays. They're intended for GPG's dad, and I need to get a move on--I'm only on the first sock!

I picked the log cabin pattern because it calls for a sportweight yarn instead of fine fingering yarn, so the socks are knitting up a little faster than regular socks, thank goodness.

And here's the last WiP that's still on the needles: the Child's First Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks in the Raspberry colorway from Fleece Artist. I cast on for these back in June after I finished the Mahogany socks for my Sockapalooza pal. Then they sort of fell by the wayside as studying for the bar heated up, and they sat on a dresser drawer collecting dust for the last half of the year. I finally picked them up last weekend and finished the first sock.

I'm really pleased with the way the first sock turned out. I love the pattern, and it works really well with the yarn. I'm two pattern repeats into the second sock, but the log cabin sock has taken priority so far.

And what do I have waiting in the wings? I need to knit another pair of felted oven mitts for a wedding present for February, I'm going to start an Endpaper Mitts knitalong with a fellow Raveler, Undyed Yarnpire, and my dad's 60th birthday is on February 12. I have no idea what I'm going to do for that, but I want it to be something yarny if I can manage it. I'm definitely heading into 2008 with high ambitions and lots of stash!

I hope that you're all enjoying the last hurrah of the holidays. Have a safe and happy New Year! Best wishes to all of you for health, happiness, and lots of fiber fun in 2008!

Look, Ma! I'm spinning!

2007-12-28T09:45:00.000-06:00

Hope everyone is having a great holiday season! Life here at Chez Seedless Grape has been sort of all over the place over the past two weeks, but things have evened out heading into the New Year and I am ready for 2008! (Sort of. I'll admit that the rate at which the years pass by is starting to make me feel old. Or at least old-ish.)

Work was uncommonly busy the week before Christmas, so I was running around like a headless chicken. Then the Christmas weekend came around: *yank on the handbrake* [screeeeech of brakes]! I completely dropped all work for four days straight (how luxurious!). I slept in every day and spent most of my free time knitting like crazy to finish a pair of socks for my grandma and a present for a friend (who reads this blog, so no details here). I had a great holiday! I hope you did, too!

Unfortunately, I ended up finishing a lot of the gifts I gave away at the last minute, so I didn't even get to document them properly for the blog! I kind of feel like they almost never existed: a pair of felted oven mitts, a pair of Fetching mitts, a lot of Christmas ornaments, a scarf. One of my 2008 resolutions is to be better about documenting my knits and my cooking.

Since I have no actual FO photos at the moment, I'm using some photos that Theresa kindly sent me. Two weekends ago I went over to her house to learn how to spin on her Lendrum DT wheel! Of course, I forgot my camera, but Theresa had hers and snapped a few pictures.

Squeeeeeee! It was so much fun. Now I want a wheel!

I think I fell into the beginner trap of gripping the fiber too tightly. I definitely killed the baby bird--see my white knuckles??? My hand was pretty sore the day afterwards! But I assume that sort of thing corrects itself with practice.

I used some wool roving from Spunky Eclectic in her grand opening sale colorway. I love how brilliantly the colors spun up.

I spun up some singles and will head back to Theresa's in a week or two to learn how to ply them. Whee, spinning on a wheel is so much fun! I still enjoy spindle spinning, but the speed of the wheel really beckons to me. I had a laugh when Theresa's husband came home and I told him, "Look, James! I'm spinning!" He responded, "You might as well be saying, 'Look, James! I'm doing crack!'" I think he pretty much hit the nail on the head with that one.

More spinning excitement to come shortly. In the meantime, have a great weekend and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Foliage

2007-12-13T14:23:00.000-06:00

To continue with the headshots, here are a couple photos of a Foliage that I made over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. It'll be a holiday gift for my judge's case manager.

(Please excuse the hair. I'm getting it cut this Saturday; that will hopefully reduce the shagginess factor.)

What a fast, easy pattern--I finished the hat in a day, I think. And nice and stretchy, too! It fits nicely on the head and covers the ears--a hat requirement, in my book. As a bonus, it used fairly little yarn; I was able to make a pair of Fetching mitts for one of my co-clerks out of the rest of the skein. I used the recommended Malabrigo worsted in I think the Indigo colorway, and I love the way it turned out.

The color in the top picture is probably more accurate. I fiddled around with the color in GPG's Photoshop and couldn't really get it to turn out right, probably because last weekend was cloudy and blah.

Pattern: Foliage
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted, Indigo colorway
Needles: US7, 16" Inox circular; Brittany Birch DPNs
Recipient: Judge's Case Manager

The yarn is souvenir yarn from a trip to Santa Barbara over Labor Day weekend to attend a friend's wedding. It's my first time knitting with Malabrigo, and I love it! SO soft. And SO pretty. It knits up into nice, squooshy things--I love how soft and comfy the hat felt on my head. I will definitely use more Malabrigo in the future!

Zeebee!

2007-12-10T08:28:00.000-06:00

As promised, here is my Zeebee! My very first FO knit from my own handspun yarn.

Zeebee was surprisingly easy to knit. I had originally discovered the pattern through Brooklyn Tweed. Jared, of course, makes all handknits look beautiful, but I didn't get too enthused about Zeebee at first because it seemed like a fiddly way to make a hat. One of the things I like about making hats is that you can go around and around and around on circular needles: it makes for nice, mindless knitting. I wasn't too keen on doing garter stitch back and forth with short rows thrown in, to boot.

But the pattern seemed like such an ideal way to use handspun yarn that when I had a bunch spun up that I finally thought was of "knit-worthy" quality, Zeebee was a pretty easy choice. And it turned out to be a fast, easy knit--I finished it in two days. Perfect for holiday knitting!

Pattern: Zeebee
Needles: Inox US6 circulars
Yarn: Handspun from Spunky Eclectic, BFL in the "Castaway" colorway
Recipient: The Violinist

I even learned a new technique making this hat: garter stitch grafting. I've grafted things in stockinette stitch plenty of times, but garter stitch grafting was new to me. It took me two tries before I got it through my thick skull that "knit, purl, knit, purl" was the correct order of stitching with the needle. There's a slight bump at the brim of the hat, but otherwise the hat looks seamless. Yay!

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

In the spirit of the season

2007-12-05T15:41:00.000-06:00

ETA: And now they're 20% off until Sunday!

. . . I encourage consumerism in all shapes and sizes.

These flannel-lined chinos are currently on sale in navy at J.Crew.

I have some J.Crew fleece-lined chinos, and by God they are the comfiest, warmest things you can wear after a long day of skiing when you're venturing out to look for some dinner. They're thick and don't necessarily flatter the figure like regular pants could, but they keep the wind out and they're better than wearing your snow pants (unless, you know, you want to wear your snow pants) or fleece pants or jeans, which let the wind blow straight through. Plus, they come in petite and long lengths.

Castaway

2007-12-04T09:37:00.000-06:00

I actually haven't been spinning for a while--the spindle got set aside for holiday knitting, which I've been cramming into every last minute of free time (which is short in supply). But there was one week back in November when I spun like crazy, trying to make my way through four ounces of BFL fiber that I purchased from the amazing Amy at Spunky Eclectic during her grand opening sale. And here it is!

It's the "Castaway" colorway--a mixture of blues and browns that shaded into beige as I spun it up. Although it's by no means consistent all the way through, I did make an effort to spin as consistently as possible each time I picked up the spindle, and I'm pleased with the results. Unfortunately, I don't have a wpi tool or even a niddy-noddy, so I have no idea how much yardage I have or what the weight of the yarn is. By eyeballing it I'd guess it varies between a DK and a worsted weight (yes, I know that's a lot of variation) with a couple of places that verge on bulky.

The yarn has actually been knit up into a zeebee, which I thought would be best for showing off the yarn. Pictures of that will have to come later, though--the weather has been fairly cloudy and blah (if not downright rainy) this week, and I haven't had time to enlist GPG's help for a photo shoot. The hat is a bit big; I made it big on purpose because I've discovered that I have a relatively small head. What fits on me is tight on most other people. But I think that inconsistencies in the yarn had a bigger impact on my gauge than I had anticipated, which made for a verrrrry loose hat.

I had also hoped to squeeze two hats out of all this spinning--one for my dad and one for my brother, for Christmas gifts--but the Enormous Zeebee that Ate Brooklyn took up too much yarn. I'll have to spin up something else if I want to give more handspun, handknit gifts this year.

But I'm so pleased with the yarn. I love the unique barberpole look of handspun. I hope to knock out some more holiday gift knitting this week so I can go back to spinning soon!

A quick recipe run-down

2007-11-30T08:54:00.000-06:00

Work has been crazy busy this week, so I haven't had a chance to queue up any pictures for proper knit blogging. A preliminary injunction hearing ate up two days of the week, so I've been scrambling to catch up since then.

Since I have nothing to blog about, I'm linking to recipes. The current free recipe available on Cook's Illustrated website is Beef Stroganoff. I highly recommend grabbing this recipe while it's available. I've made it multiple times and it's delicious, especially if you're willing to shell out a little extra for some good meat. I often double the recipe now so the leftovers last a little longer! (By way of forewarning, I salt and pepper the recipe a LOT more than CI suggests. I think CI recipes deliberately have a light hand with spices to let the cook decide how to season the dish. I think this particular recipe benefits from a lot more S&P than the recipe calls for.)

I also highly recommend this chocolate chip cookie recipe, which I've now made twice in the past two weeks when I needed to make a quick, fast dessert. A few years ago I went on a quest to find The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe. After a number of batches, my tasters decided that this one was the best, and now it's my go-to recipe for chocolate chip cookies. Other recipes I've tried since finding this one just haven't measured up.

I use cold butter straight from the refrigerator (instead of softening it beforehand, I cut the butter into chunks and mix it with the sugar until it's properly creamed), and I try to underbake the cookies just a tad. I pull them out of the oven when they're puffy-looking, golden around the edges but still relatively pale on top. Since they're just a hair underbaked, I cool them on the baking sheet for a while (probably 5 minutes) because they're really soft coming out of the oven. Then I put them on wire racks to cool the rest of the way.

These cookies will last for at least two days without getting the stale taste and texture that a lot of homemade cookies do. I don't know if they last longer than that because they're usually all gone by then!

Have a good weekend!

Truckin' along

2007-11-25T12:41:00.000-06:00

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I had a nice holiday filled with lots of knitting and absolutely NO thoughts of work. Although I didn't get as much knitting done as I had hoped (when do I ever?), I'm truckin' along on my holiday gifts and am pretty satisfied with my progress to date. I finished two hats over the holiday and queued up yarn for some felted oven mitts. Unfortunately, the weather was terrible this weekend--rainy, cloudy, clammy, and cold--so pictures of those will have to come later when the sun comes out again.

But I do have a few pictures queued up of a couple things I finished a while ago. I'm almost done with gifts for GPG's family. GPMom is getting a Silk Garden scarf, inspired by Brooklyn Tweed:

If she doesn't like the colors, she can trade her scarf for GPSister's. I was completely out of ideas (and time) to make anything more elaborate for them this year. Luckily, Noro yarn makes even the simplest patterns stunningly beautiful.

GPBrother-in-law is also getting a Noro scarf. It's another shameless rip-off from Brooklyn Tweed:

Instead of Silk Garden for GPBiL, I used two skeins of Noro Iro and size US13 needles. I had never knit with Iro before and I like it a lot--it's nice and thick and squooshy.

The scarf is a little lumpy because I forced myself to knit it Continental-style. I'm an English-style thrower because that's the way I learned, but I want to start doing more colorwork and I know that knitting Continental-style helps a lot for that. I figured a garter-knit scarf would be a good way to practice Continental knitting.

It probably was good practice, but my stitches weren't terribly even and it was a relief to go back to throwing my yarn for the next project. (In the interest of speed, I allowed myself to go back to English-style knitting for the rest of the holiday gifts.) I don't have time these days to do any colorwork, anyway, so Continental knitting and colorwork will have to wait until next year.

Anyway, the scarves are all nice and long and warm, so hopefully they'll be put to good use. I'm still deluding myself into thinking that I can finish GPDad's present--socks--in the near future. We'll see if that actually comes to pass.

Hope everyone has a good week!

Kid 'n' Ewe

2007-11-21T09:07:00.000-06:00

Thanks for all the well wishes about the bar, everyone! I was so relieved to find out that I passed. I wasn't terribly nervous before I checked the results, but afterwards my legs were ridiculously trembly for maybe an hour. Whew!

To celebrate, GPG took me out to a great dinner on Saturday, and yesterday my judge brought a bottle of champagne to work (my co-clerk passed the NY bar, so we had two bar exams to celebrate). It's definitely been a good week!

Kid 'n' Ewe now seems like a long time ago, but I wanted to share a couple pictures from our trip to Boerne. GPG took all of them (I didn't even bring my camera!), so there were hardly any yarn pictures to choose from. But I think he probably captured most of the interesting non-yarn things at the festival.

When we first arrived, we ran into a woman selling angora rabbits. They were very cute and incredibly soft. I think the one below is an English rabbit. If I recall correctly, the French ones have furry ears. (I think the French ones are cuter, but GPG didn't get a photo of those.)

The woman told us that when it's hot, the rabbits will sometimes get "summer ears"--the tips of their ears will droop, like you see in so many cartoon renderings of the Easter Bunny and other rabbits. The ears won't necessarily perk up again once it gets cold--they may be permanently droopy! I thought that was interesting.

There were also alpacas out back:

These were a lot of fun. They were small--shorter than I am--but their fleece was beautiful. Your hand sunk deep into the fleece when you petted them; I was surprised how thick and lofty their wool was. And the owner of this alpaca transported it in his minivan! When he has to take one or two of them somewhere, he just takes out the seats in the back and lays down some tarp, and in go the alpacas.

And here is a photo of some of the beautiful Brooks Farm yarn. They had a huge display of all their yarns, in a myriad of colors. It was total sensory overload to wander through the hanks and feel the yarns and look at the colors. They make some gorgeous stuff!

Some day I'll make something out of Brooks Farm yarn . . . just not now. GPG and our small apartment thank me for not adding to the size of the stash.

There were lots of classes and demonstrations going on at the festival--lots of spinners and knitters all over the place--but the most interesting demonstration we saw was a woman making lace. I had never seen this kind of fiber art before, and it was astounding. The woman had a cushion on a little table set before her, and on the cushion was a strip of paper (or some thin synthetic material) that had the pattern printed on it. She had probably twenty bobbins or so of thin, thin thread, and was weaving the thread into lace by overlapping bobbins and twisting the thread according to the pattern.

The multitude of pins you see stuck into the cushion helped secure the threads, and every now and then she'd take a pin from the "back" of the lace--the finished part--and move it to the "front" to help mark out the pattern for the part she was currently weaving. It was amazing.

The lace maker told us that this particular lace would make up a wedding garter for a relative. She said that it takes her an HOUR to make one inch of lace--and I have the feeling that she's as close as you can get to an expert. She was really flipping those bobbins around like it was nothing. And I thought knitting was time-consuming! I can only imagine how long it would take a beginner to make something like this.

I have no desire to learn something as intricate as this fiber art, but . . . at least the lace stash wouldn't take up much space, you know? (Hee.) And there's no denying that anything you made would really be an heirloom piece, something the recipient would keep with his or her most precious treasures.

Anyway, that was our trip to Kid 'n' Ewe 2007. It was a lot of fun! We definitely saw lots of interesting things.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving!!!

I PASSED!

2007-11-18T17:16:00.001-06:00

The California Bar Exam, that is. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!

Making progress

2007-11-14T12:31:00.000-06:00

Slowly but surely, my spinning is getting better. Here's the last little skeinlet I spun out of my "Phlox" fiber from The Fiber Denn. I was so psyched when I put the yarn into a skein and found out that it's completely balanced:

Look, Ma! No twisting! Yay for balanced yarn!

I already started spinning up the next batch of fiber, which is some Corriedale in the "Coleus" colorway, again from The Fiber Denn. It's amazingly soft. In fact, it was surprising to pull off a bit of it and start separating it into strips to predraft--the fiber is so fine that it almost falls apart into strips by itself. It's spinning up much more finely than the Phlox fiber, which I think was Shetland wool.

Aren't those colors beautiful?

This spinning thing is totally addictive. I've finally moved beyond the park-and-draft method into real drop-spindling, and I've been spinning this Coleus every evening this week, to the detriment of my holiday knitting! On Monday I spun up a little skeinlet of this Coleus fiber and, for the first time, washed the yarn to set the spin. (I didn't bother with the beginning skeinlets because they were so uneven, although maybe I'll go back now and do them all.) The first Coleus skeinlet seemed pretty reasonable off the spindle, so I thought I'd see what happens when you wash the yarn.

Wow! A dunk in some water really helps even out the spin! I was so encouraged by that first skeinlet that I decided to try try spinning the Coleus for yardage instead of making more little skeinlets to measure my progress. So far I've spun almost half of it. It's not perfectly consistent, but it's a lot better than my first few attempts, and it's also much more finely spun. I'm going to try to finish spinning it up this week so I can get some photos on the weekend.

I'm justifying all the spinning this week to myself by telling myself that I can knit a holiday gift out of the spun yarn once I'm done. There should be enough for at least a hat or some wristwarmers/fingerless gloves. Of course, now I want to make handspun, handknit gifts for everyone! Sigh . . . I'm never going to finish my holiday gifts this year!

The Loot

2007-11-12T09:05:00.000-06:00

Happy Veteran's Day! Since I'm currently a federal employee, I should theoretically have the day off. In practice, though, I'm here in the office, starting a regular work day. Why not start it with a post about all my loot from Kid 'n' Ewe?

Kid 'n' Ewe was a lot of fun. As I said before, it's no Rhinebeck or Maryland Sheep & Wool, but I think it was a good first fiber festival. (I think I would have sensory overload if I went to Rhinebeck or MS&W right out of the gate. And I would also end up in the poorhouse.) There were some angora bunnies (so cute!) and alpacas (so fleecy and soft!) to pet, and there was also a cashmere goat competition while we were there. GPG took some pictures of the animals, so I'll try to post some of those later this week.

There was also a ton of fiber and yarn, plus lots of spinning wheels and spindles. I didn't actually find a niddy-noddy I wanted; I found some smaller ones, but nothing reasonably sized. So instead I bought some fiber and yarn.

I actually can't remember the farm this red fiber is from, but it's four ounces of beautiful, soft merino. The red is shot through with blues and purples. I've been gravitating towards reds and bolder colors in all my yarn purchases lately, and this weekend was no exception!

I also bought two rovings from Lynn's Texas Fibers. Lynn is actually based in Pearland, a city/suburb on the outskirts of Houston, which is dangerous information for me to know. She had a lot of beautiful things for sale, including some gorgeous wool/tussah silk blends, but I stuck with wool since I was afraid anything with silk would be a little too challenging for a newbie spinner.

She had two cheerful multi-color rovings that I snatched up because they were the only ones left of their kind. Four ounces of Corriedale (I think):

And 3.5 ounces of some more rainbow Corriedale goodness:

Lynn also had some beautiful golden yellow wool/silk rovings that I really coveted. But I will have to get those the next time, when I'm a better spinner.

As you can gather, for some reason I was really drawn to the rainbow-dyed things over the weekend. My yarn purchases were no different. See, e.g., 800 yards of single-ply yarn in the "Magenta Variegated" colorway from Plain & Fancy Wools:

And 400 yards of the "Primary" colorway:

I intend to make a Clapotis out of the magenta stuff, and I've already started on the Primary to make an unbloggable Christmas gift. It's beautiful stuff. Plain & Fancy is a terrific mom & pop shop based in Henderson, Texas. Knitters Review mentioned them in a write-up of the Taos Wool Festival here. Ken and Grayce, the owners, were really nice--I'll have to write them and find out if they have color cards, because their yarn is something else! They have some beautiful semi-solid yarn that would make great sweaters . . .

All in all, I think I made some reasonable purchases. The rovings were all much cheaper than any of the other things I've bought on-line, and I tried to be disciplined about buying yarn. Brooks Farm had a beautiful, beautiful array of all their yarns, dyed in amazing colors and all deliciously soft. But I couldn't think of a good project I wanted to make from any particular yarn, so I exercised some restraint and didn't buy anything from them.

Anyway, we had a good time at the festival; the time just flew by. I was worried that GPG might be bored out of his mind, but he seemed to have enjoyed himself, too. We had a great weekend. Hope you did, too!

Ravelry!

2007-11-09T09:01:00.000-06:00

Yay! I got an invitation to Ravelry yesterday! I'm now registered as seedlessgrape and I expect that I won't get nearly as much work done today as I would like to. I was clicking around just before bed last night and there are so many amazing projects on there!

I'm going to my first fiber festival tomorrow: the Kid 'n' Ewe festival in Boerne, Texas! I'm very excited. It's certainly no Rhinebeck, but Theresa says it's a nice festival with a little bit of everything--some fiber animals, yarn, spinning fiber, and spinning tools. I might even get to try a wheel, which would be exciting! I think it will be a good introduction to the world of fiber festivals.

I just bought some more fiber from Amy's grand opening sale-abration for Spunky Eclectic, so I'm going to try to exercise some restraint while I'm in Boerne. I mostly want to get a niddy-noddy so I can stop winding my little skeins on the back of a kitchen chair. And if some Jojoland yarn happens to make it home with me for a Clapotis or two . . . well, that will just be a bonus. GPG is coming along to make sure I don't break the bank while I'm there.

(On a legal note, because I can't resist . . . yes, this is the Boerne of City of Boerne v. Flores, 521 U.S. 507 (1997). My religious liberties professor from UT, Doug Laycock, argued before the United States Supreme Court on behalf of Flores, the Archbishop of San Antonio, and the Saint Peter Catholic Church in Boerne. I just might be enough of a legal dork to try looking for this church while I'm in town. I studied this case a fair amount in law school!)

Anyway, I hope to see some of you on Ravelry! Have a great weekend!

Coq au Vin

2007-11-06T09:53:00.000-06:00

Short story: Cook's Illustrated is offering their recipe for "Modern Coq au Vin" (as part of a menu for a full meal with salad and dessert) for free on their website now. This is a great, fairly easy recipe to make--go check it out if you like to cook!

Long story: I don't get to cook as much as I used to when I was a student; I just don't get home early enough any more to cook dinner. But I try to cook once a week, on Sunday evening, when I cook something big enough to generate lots of leftovers for me and GPG to take for our lunches during the week. For one thing, I think homecooked food just tastes better than most things you can buy at a restaurant/deli. For another, I like having something nice and hot to warm up for lunch at work, instead of going out to grab an overpriced cold-cuts sandwich.

This week I made "Modern Coq au Vin" from, as always, Cook's Illustrated. I got the idea after reading a post about it on Two Sheep. June of Two Sheep is also a Cook's Illustrated fan, and she had good things to say about the recipe, so I decided to try it out this week.

GPG loved it. He said it was "great" when he usually says things I make are "good" or "really good." (It's not that GPG doesn't like my food; he's just not effusive about it. At least, I think.) It was also fairly easy to make, and I don't think my substitutions made a big difference for the taste, while they made my life easier: I used dried thyme instead of fresh (and strained the wine/broth mixture) and a whole onion, chopped, instead of pearl onions. The recipe calls for a whole bottle of wine, but I bought the Three Thieves' Bandit Cabernet Sauvignon for about $9 and it worked perfectly.

(If you can find Bandit in your grocery/liquor store, it's worth checking out--the Three Thieves' shtick is that they sell their "Bandit" wine in a tetra-pak box to lower the price. The box is admittedly not the classiest way to buy your wine, but you get a full liter of wine (equivalent to 1 1/3 bottles) and it's quite drinkable, to boot. I'd buy it again just to drink, but it also works well for a high-wine-content recipe like Coq au Vin.)

Anyway, Cook's Illustrated's website regularly offers a few free recipes that change every couple of days. They're offering "Modern Coq au Vin" as one of their free recipes at the moment, so I wanted to post a link to it so that non-subscribers can snag a copy of the recipe while it's available. I made up some mashed potatoes to go with it and the full recipe generated at least 9 meals for me and GPG. It's a great cold weather dish to make and will give you lots of leftovers (or serve lots of people), if that's your thing!

My first EZ!

2007-11-01T15:18:00.000-05:00

I expect I'm fairly late hopping on the Elizabeth Zimmermann bandwagon, but after reading through most of EZ's books and knitting up a famous EZ pattern, my first thought is, "Better late than never!"

GPG has some old friends from high school who just had a baby. These friends have always been very kind and generous to me, so a baby gift was in order. I had some DK Fleece Artist merino in the "Jester" colorway and a recently acquired copy of EZ's Knitters Almanac. What better baby project could there by than the February baby sweater?

I was quite pleased with the knit. Fast, easy, and I'm can definitely get on board with EZ's no-seam philosophy. I was also very happy with the yarn. I was concerned with how the rainbow bits would knit up, but I like the finished product. It's a colorful sweater without being overly bright and cutesy.

Pattern: February baby sweater from EZ's Knitters Almanac
Yarn: DK Fleece Artist merino, "Jester" colorway, from the Knitty Noddy (gorgeous yarn; terrific service)
Needles: INOX US 6 circulars
Recipient: Baby Irma!

Spinning!

2007-10-30T11:41:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it's been a whole month since I last posted! You would think that after a month I'd have a lot to show. Unfortunately, there's not much progress on the knitting front. That's partly because life is still pretty busy, and it's also partly because . . .

I started spinning!

Two weekends ago I got a down-and-dirty lesson in spinning with a drop spindle from Theresa, another knitter/spinner here in Houston who makes the most fabulously beautiful things. (She recently won first prize ribbons at the Texas state fair--one for a beaded shawl she made out of her own handspun, and another for an amazing lace tablecloth. Both were really breathtaking.) I bought some fiber from the Fiber Denn (without even knowing what I was really buying!), got a lesson from Theresa, and came home with some borrowed spindles to try. Since then I've been spinning a little bit here and there, and so far I've made four little skeinlets:

They proceed from left to right in order of when I spun them. My first pathetic skein is on the left--see how overspun it is? The skeins got progressively less overspun as I practiced more. I was also able to make the most recent skein a little more consistent in thickness. Although it's not perfect, I'm really pleased with my progress.

I have inexplicably had a bee in my bonnet about spinning for a while. I don't know why I suddenly developed an interest in it; for a long time I couldn't have cared less about spinning. I admired handspun yarn and could appreciate, on a general fiber-lover level, the kind of skill and expertise necessary to make handspun. My friend the Boll Weaver told me that spinning is very "zen" and that I'd love it. But I never was very interested, I think mostly because I've never been at a place in life (literally or figuratively) where I've had the time or inclination to start a whole new fiber hobby with a whole new learning curve and a whole new set of tools.

But during the past few months, I've started getting really interested in handspun. I like the idea of making unique yarn that no one else has. And I love looking at the beautiful things that Marnie spins up. So I wrote to Marnie to get some tips on starting, and I also remembered that Theresa spins and could actually give me a demo. (Before I talked to Theresa, I really had no idea how spindles worked. At all. Since yarn automatically winds onto a bobbin on a spinning wheel, I assumed that yarn automatically winds onto the shaft of a spindle, too, and for the life of me I could not figure out how that happened. Shows how much I knew just two weeks ago before the scales fell from my eyes!)

I got a lesson from Theresa two Sundays ago. And now . . . look, Ma! I'm spinning!

Here's a bit of detail shot:

As you can tell, the best and most recent skein is on the left. After my second attempt--my first solo spinning, without Theresa there to keep an eye on me--I decided to try for a thicker yarn and concentrate on consistency. There were a few hiccups in the third skein, but the fourth skein turned out much better. I still haven't moved very far beyond the park-and-draft stage, but on the fourth skein I was able to do some "real" drop spinning for a few seconds at a time.

And here's the fiber that started it all!

It's about 4 ounces of Shetland wool in the "Phlox" colorway from the Fiber Denn, and it's almost all spun up at this point. I was thrilled with the wool--it's nice and soft, and the colors are beautiful--so I regret mangling it so much with my clumsy beginner spinning. I might order some more to save for when I'm a better spinner so I can give the wool the treatment it deserves.

Of course, in my wisdom I started a new hobby just as the holidays are rapidly approaching. I'm torn between wanting to spin more to practice and needing to get a move on my knitting for holiday presents. The holiday presents will probably win out, but I hope to spin a little bit here and there, and maybe I'll keep improving.

GPG's mom's Silk Garden scarf is done. Pictures of that to come soon. In the meantime, though, have a happy Halloween tomorrow!

Link-a-dink

2007-10-01T11:28:00.001-05:00

No new photos for the moment, unfortunately; I worked all day on Saturday and spent yesterday trying to recover before another week of work. In lieu of me posting anything, I'm providing a few links of interest:

* A gorgeous afghan--I've always wanted to knit something like this, but given the state of the stash and my current rate of knitting, I'd be an old lady by the time I finished.

* Totally cool short-row socks, perfect for socks that self-stripe or pool/flash.

* I had this shrimp appetizer at a friend's house earlier this year and it was DELICIOUS. My friend graciously provided the link so I can try making it myself.

* Knitted amigurumi grass from Mochimochi. If I can get my act together, I'll make the grass to go along with her woodins from this quarter's Knitty as the Christmas present for GPG's nephews.

* A very good translation of Anna Karenina. Yes, it was an Oprah's bookclub book, but that doesn't discount the fact that it's Tolstoy and I'm really enjoying the book so far.

Hope everyone has a good week!

Wedding Socks: Hers

2007-09-27T16:01:00.000-05:00

Over Labor Day weekend, my friend Gardenia got married. I had intended to give her and her lovely fiance-now-husband knitted socks for their wedding present. Little did I know, though, that my new job would take over my life in a major way, thwarting the very best of intentions to have the socks ready by their wedding day. Luckily, I think that wedding etiquette allows you up to a year after the wedding to give presents to the newlyweds. I hope. (If this is not the case, please don't tell me. Let me remain blissfully ignorant of the ins-and-outs of wedding etiquette.)

I've finished Gardenia's socks:

They're the tried-and-true Retro Rib Socks from Interweave, lately of Favorite Socks. Gardenia said she wanted turquoise socks, and Lorna's Laces provided the best turquoise color I could find, so I wanted an easy but interesting pattern that would work well with a solid yarn. The pattern also couldn't be too feminine because Gardenia's feet are about the same size as her husband's, and she suggested that they'd wear each other's socks. So the Retro Ribs were an ideal pattern.

Here's my and GPG's interpretation of the Caitlyn sock-modeling pose:

You can't really tell, but the socks are a bit big on me. But they are up to spec for Gardenia and her husband, so a nice wash in Eucalan and a ribbon around them will do the trick.

Pattern: Retro Rib
Needles: US2 Clover bamboo DPNs
Yarn: Lorna's Laces in Island Blue
Recipient: Gardenia

Unfortunately, there's still a ways to go on the socks for Mr. Gardenia. They are technically finished, in that you can wear them on your feet and the toes have been Kitchener-stitched together, but . . . in their current state one has a longer leg than the other. I want them both to have longer legs, so I have to rip back the short one (because I knit them toe-down) and knit it up again with a longer length.

I could have knit both socks with short legs and been done with it, but I realized after I finished the first sock that the leg was ridiculously short. So I knit up the second sock with a longer leg, knowing that I'd have to rip the first sock to make them match. These are the silly things I do in my relentless pursuit for perfection.

(On an unrelated note, the Lexus tagline used to be "The relentless pursuit for perfection." Now it's "The passionate pursuit of perfection." I think the former is much more compelling, don't you?)

Anyway, Mr. Gardenia's socks have gotten put on hold in favor of some big-gauge Christmas knitting (this prioritization is all based on my wedding-etiquette one-year grace period assumption). GPG's mom's scarf is done and I've moved on to another Brooklyn Tweed scarf, You're My Iro. Fortunately for me, Mr. Gardenia is a pretty patient guy.

Silk Garden Goodness

2007-09-24T10:55:00.000-05:00

I really enjoy the ever-changing colors of Noro yarns, but I find the colorways a bit much to make a whole sweater out of anything Noro. Accent pieces, though, like scarves? Much more my style.

This scarf from Brooklyn Tweed was particularly inspiring when I was casting about for ideas for Christmas presents for GPG's family. This scarf is for GPG's sister.

Since knitting time is scarcer now than ever before, this year's Christmas presents will be fairly large-gauge items. I need more instant gratification, and I also need quick results. Socks just take up too much time and effort, so my sock yarn stash is relegated to languishing in the corner for the time being.

Fortunately, though, for scarves like these, the yarn does 90% of the heavy lifting in making a beautiful finished product.

The aspect of Noro yarn that particularly intrigues me is how the skeins include colors that I'd never wear by themselves and makes those colors wearable by combining them (often in unusual blends) with other colors. I also how love two different Noro colorways can play off each other and make the finished object even more beautiful than the individual skeins of yarn.

I'm such a fan of the Silk Garden goodness that I bought two more colorways of Noro (two skeins each) for a scarf for GPG's mom. It's almost done, so pictures of that will come eventually.

Totoro reluctantly agreed to be my scarf model:

Thanks, Totoro! (I got him on my last trip to Japan to visit the Chairpeople. I love him.)

And GPG very kindly took some time this weekend to help me take some nice pictures of my latest projects, which we then prettied up in Photoshop. Thank to him, I actually have something to post about. Thank you, GPG!

Hope everyone has a good week! It's hard to believe September is practically over! Time is really flying.

Sockapalooza, long overdue

2007-09-11T15:11:00.000-05:00

I am probably the last Sockapalooza person to post about their sock package. (Melissa--I'm so sorry! I'm a terrible pal!) Work has utterly consumed my life over the past month, and unfortunately, it doesn't look like there will be much of a let-up before the end of the month, when big deadlines are looming. I will try to stop prefacing each post with an apologia about work and just post when I can.

Anyway, I finally have some pictures of my wonderful Sockapalooza package. I received it a long time ago, but looking at the pictures again makes me as happy as I was when I opened it! My sock pal was Melissa in Bryan, Texas, and she sent me a fabulous package!

This is what greeted me when I opened the box:

How fun is that? I especially loved the ransom-note-style Sockapalooza card. And everything was so cheerful and colorful!

Wrapped in all the tissue-paper was this:

That's a packet of Soak, which I've wanted to try for the longest time; a new ball of Panda cotton in yummy oranges and reds; and the leftovers from the Sockapalooza socks that Melissa knit for me! The leftovers will add a nice shot of red into my Extra-Long-Term Miter Blanket Project; I can't wait to knit a miter square out of it!

But, most wonderful of all are my socks! They are Cookie A's brilliant Thelonious sock pattern in Panda cotton:

They are the most beautiful socks I've ever seen! And they fit perfectly, too. I love the cotton (which is ideal for muggy Houston weather), and the pattern is elegant but STRETCHY!, which is a big priority for me.

I especially like how the eyelet pattern travels up and around the ankle:

Thank you, Melissa! I'm sorry for taking so long to express my gratitude, but I really loved my Sockapalooza package; it was so much fun to open. Thank you thank you thank you!!!

Green tea cookies

2007-08-22T18:16:00.000-05:00

I really apologize for the sparse, barely-there blogging. I'm in the middle of the third week at my new job, and although I like what I'm doing, it really is a huge time sink. I don't want to sound like I'm complaining, because I'm really not, but I work such long days now and put in enough time on the weekends that when I actually have a break, I'm just plain tired. I also spend most of the free time I now have running errands and doing chores that pile up during the week, so there's not a lot of crafting or creativity going on at chez Seedless Grape. I haven't even gotten to take a decent picture of my Sockapalooza socks.

I did take a few minutes yesterday, though, to pretty up some pictures that should go well with my last post. Over the summer, as a break from bar studying, I made some green tea cookies:

I got the recipe from Caitlyn, who also made a batch earlier this year. Although I was really intrigued by Caitlyn's original post, it took me a while to get around to making these because I couldn't find the matcha tea that gives them the green tea taste and color! I thought it'd be easy to find some matcha at one of the many Asian food markets there are in Houston, but I clearly thought wrong. I tried three different groceries before I gave up and ordered some on-line (I think I ordered from Teanobi, which looked cheapest after a cursory glance through some green tea websites).

They turned out really nicely. The recipe was fairly easy and the sugar coating makes them look particularly elegant, in my book. I liked the leaf shapes that the original recipe used, but I couldn't find anything similar, so I made hearts instead, just like Caitlyn did. And they really do taste like green tea! I still have leftover matcha and would like to try making green tea ice cream.

I'd definitely recommend the recipe. Thanks again for the link, Caitlyn!

Green tea socks

2007-08-09T11:03:00.000-05:00

I just started my new job working for the Judge on Monday, and life since then has been non-stop craziness. The learning curve is steep, and I'm clawing my way up as fast as I can (but slipping and sliding all the way, unfortunately). All non-work life has suffered as a result; I haven't knit a stitch since Sunday.

I have managed to document one of my more recent pre-job knits, however, and I think it's safe to blog about them since the recipient has probably already gotten them in the mail. Here are the Green Tea socks!

I made these socks for the Aspiring Ecologist's birthday, which was way back in June. Life was so crazy with studying for the bar that I initially forgot her birthday (but only for a week! Sorry, AE!) and then had to scramble to get something knit up.

Unfortunately, my mind has gotten so stuffed with information from the bar and now work that I can't even remember the pattern I used! I know that I got it out of the new Favorite Socks book, but the name of it completely slips my mind. I'll have to look it up later (that's what happens when you blog at work, I guess).

I can tell you about the yarn, though. It's the Green Tea colorway from See Jayne Knits, and it's lovely. The yarn is thin--noticeably thinner than most sock yarns like Socks that Rock, Fleece Artist, and Koigu--but very smooth, squooshy, and soft. It was perfect on size US2 needles and a lacy pattern that knit up quickly, and I have a TON left--probably enough to make a pair of ankle socks, at least. Beautiful colorway, squooshy yarn, generous yardage--what's not to love? I definitely recommend visiting Jayne's etsy shop!

Hope the end of the week is treating everyone well. And a Happy REALLY Belated Birthday to the Aspiring Ecologist!!!

Message to Sock Pal: The Package Is HERE!

2007-08-08T20:03:00.000-05:00

Dear Sock Pal:

I believe that your socks have arrived! I received a notice from my apartment complex office that they have a package waiting for me. Unfortunately, as my new job gets me out of the house before the office opens and back well after it closes, I have not yet had a chance to pick it up. But I hope to fetch if by this weekend at the latest. I just wanted to let you know that it's here! I'm sorry the job delays the fun of opening the package and blogging about it!

Seedless Grape

Eye Candy Friday: Living Proof

2007-08-03T00:10:00.000-05:00

I guess my resolution to blog more didn't take into account the fact that I'm leaving town to visit my brother and family in Alabama for the weekend.

At any rate, I have for Eye Candy Friday living proof that I did in fact take the bar exam in California last week:

Some of the other test-takers were mighty funny-looking . . .

Just kidding! My partner-in-arms and I actually went to Disneyland the day after the bar, and luckily enough, we happened upon Mickey in a remote area of the California Adventure theme park.

(I wonder if Disney isn't putting out as many characters in costume because of the heat. I would imagine it gets pretty hot under the mask and all the layers.)

Disney was fun, and we managed to ride all the "fun" rides that I think are the only ones worth standing in line for: the roller coasters. So we rode California Screamin', the Matterhorn, and Space Mountain. (I know there's some other roller coaster-ish ride that involves water, but we didn't ride that because we didn't want to get wet.) I'm not a Disney fanatic, by any means, and I'm usually more disturbed by the glossy, over-packaged quality of the Disney parks than I am excited about being in the happiest place on earth. But it was just the thing we needed after the bar, and I concede that there are genuinely happiness-inducing things in Disneyland.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

The bar has ruined me for life.

2007-07-31T13:49:00.000-05:00

Well, folks . . . I'm back! Back from the California bar! I actually got back into Houston last Saturday evening, but have been taking my time to recuperate and get back into the blogging swing of things. On Sunday, GPG and I had a very lazy day and went to see the Houston Zoo's baby elephant and Pixar's Ratatouille, which were both very fun, and yesterday I spent most of the afternoon reading the new Harry Potter book.

The bar was not a pleasant experience, but it was an okay one, I guess. I took it with a friend from school--we shared a hotel room, studied together, and went back and forth to the testing center together--and that definitely helped. I think I would have been completely stricken with nervousness otherwise, but having another person there to share the whole experience with me kept the tension to a manageable level. We even got to take the test sitting next to each other because we signed up for the exam together at school, at practically the same time, and it turns out that the test-takers were seated in the order in which they registered for the exam. In a room with over a thousand test-takers (it was a REALLY big room), it was nice to sit next to the one person you actually know.

(Seriously--the room was so huge that if you stood at the very back of the room, and looked up toward the front, the proctor standing at the front was teeny-tiny. In a not very good way. The room was enormous.)

I thought that the multiple choice exam we had on Wednesday was unexpectedly hard, but the essays were not so bad for me. But the entire experience itself was pretty draining. I arrived in Long Beach on Sunday evening, and my friend and I spent all of Monday studying and refreshing some subjects in our minds. We also followed up two full days of test-taking on Tuesday and Wednesday with some more studying in the evening to prepare ourselves for the next day of testing. I didn't ever feel particularly worn out at the time, but now that the adrenaline is out of my system, I'm feeling fairly tired and I'm trying to catch up on rest before I start working for the Judge next Monday.

So I've been knitting some and cooking some and reading Harry Potter some. It was so agonizing to have the Harry Potter book out in bookstores while the bar exam was going on that I went to the bookstore first thing on Monday, while GPG was at work, got myself a copy, and read the whole darn thing in one sitting.

***Warning: Harry Potter spoilers ahead!***

(I can't imagine that I'm really spoiling anyone, since I'm probably the last person on earth to read it by now, but I thought I'd just be safe. At the very least, there are probably other bar exam takers like me who had to forgo the whole Harry Potter experience for the bar. Curse you, bar exam!)

I really enjoyed the last Harry Potter. I thought it was very exciting to read; it definitely kept me turning pages to find out what happened, even though my resolve had weakened as the book got released and I read a few spoilers to find out what happened. I cried more than once at some of the deaths in the book, and I thought the ending was reasonably satisfying.

But, I tell you, the bar exam has ruined me for life. I will never be the same again.

I was trying to explain to GPG the (perhaps contrived, but still entertaining) cleverness with the Wand to End All Wands at the very end. You know--how Voldemort thinks that he'll win because he's got the extremely awesome WtEAW, but Harry gets to explain to him that Voldemort does not, in fact, have total power over the WtEAW because he didn't defeat the previous holder of the wand. And I realized that the whole point of the CHAIN OF CUSTODY (Evidence, anyone?) of the wand is that Voldemort doesn't have PRIVITY (Real Property, anyone?) with the previous rightful owner of the wand!

The reason why Voldemort can't wield the wand's full power is because there was no privity as to the wand between Dumbledore and Snape, and hence, no privity between Snape and Voldemort! It's so BRILLIANT!

I'm so pathetic.

Seriously--the bar has ruined me! I can't believe I've been reduced to seeing ridiculous bar concepts like privity in Harry Potter. What is WRONG with me?!?!

***End Harry Potter spoiler***

Anyway, it's awfully nice to be back, even if the Houston heat feels doubly sweltering after the nice weather I caught glimpses of in Long Beach. I have a week of break, and then I start working for the Judge next Monday. I'm using the week to catch up on all my favorite hobbies--the ones I didn't get to do so much over the past month--and to rest up a bit. I also plan to catch up on photos of the few things I've managed to knit this summer, plus a few random other things, and hopefully I'll blog a lot more. I've ended my yarn diet in a SERIOUS way, so there's lots of nice new yarn to post about, too!

I apologize for the long hiatus, but am glad to be back and done with the bar. (It's so funny to think that last week, there were literally thousands of test-takers filling convention halls and hotel ballrooms across the country with enough fear to black out the sun--and I may sound like I'm exaggerating about the fear, but if I am, it's only a little bit--and the rest of the entire nation had no idea. Incredible.) Hope everyone has been having a good summer!

Mahogany Socks

2007-06-29T18:15:00.001-05:00

Yaaaay! I finished my Sockapalooza socks!

I was a little worried that I wouldn't finish them before major crunch time for the bar starts in July. As a result, I've been knitting in all my spare time (in the car while GPG's driving, just before bed, whenever the Barbri lecture drags (and maybe when it doesn't . . .)) to get these socks done.

This is the first time I've ever knit socks for someone whose feet weren't substantially the same size as mine, so I really hope they fit. They feel loose on my legs, but my ankles are about an inch narrower than my sock pal's, and her feet are also an inch longer than my feet. So unfortunately, I'll have to wait and see how they work for her, since I have no way to confirm independently that they'll fit. I followed her specs, but I'll still have doubts until I get feedback from her!

Pattern: Undulating Rib from Interweave's Favorite Socks
Yarn: Fleece Artist Merino Sock, Mahogany colorway
Needles: Clover US2 DPNs
Recipient: Sock Pal!
Modifications: US2 needles instead of US4 and US3; short-row heel instead of heel flap

Regarding the modifications: The pattern calls for a cast-on of 66 stitches, which made the suggested US4 and US3 needles seem awfully big to me. I knew that the Retro Rib pattern (also in the same book) has the same number of cast-on stitches, but uses US2 needles, and past experience with Retro Rib tells me that 66 sts + US2 DPNs is just fine. So I gambled and started with US2 needles. I think the resulting socks should be okay in terms of circumference, especially since the pattern is so nice and stretchy with its ribbing.

I also swapped out the heel flap for a short-row heel. I had to do some creative juggling of the placement of the heel because I wanted a purl-stitch gutter on both sides of the instep, and the division of stitches for the instep and heel suggested in the pattern didn't seem to provide that. I also increased by 4 stitches at the heel for a better fit, as suggested by Gleek in her most excellent post on short-row heels.

The yarn was FABULOUS. Fleece Artist Merino sock yarn has officially turned into my favorite sock yarn--it's nice and squooshy and has such beautiful, beautiful colors. I was so enchanted with the Mahogany skein that I immediately cast on for the next pair of socks with the Raspberry sock yarn that I bought at the same time as the Mahogany. It's a wild pink color that reminds me more of lipstick than of raspberries, and everytime I start getting used to the pinkness, I put the sock down, do something else, and look back at it only to realize that wow, it really is wildly, extravagantly pink. I haven't decided if I like it just yet, but knitting with it sure is a dream. Progress pictures of that will come eventually.

In the meantime, though, have a great weekend and a super Fourth of July holiday!

3L Finals Socks!

2007-06-26T11:44:00.001-05:00

I actually finished these socks over a month ago, while I was in Taiwan, but I'm only now getting around to posting about them (curse you, Barbri, and the horse you rode in on!).

Pattern: Generic garter rib stitch. K4, Rib 2. 64 sts in circumference.
Yarn: Koralle im Meer (Coral in the Ocean) colorway, from Wollmeise
Needles: Addi Turbos, US1, 2 circulars
Recipient: Me

I actually don't knit very many socks for myself, because I don't often have occasion to wear them. It's fairly warm in Texas most of the year, so I usually only wear handknit woolen socks to bed when my feet are cold in the winter. I prefer to give away most of the socks I knit. But I needed a simple, portable project to knit on while studying for my finals in May, so an easy garter rib stitch was just the ticket. I didn't have any ready recipients in mind, so I just knit them for myself.

I read on Sheri's blog that the Loopy Ewe will soon be carrying Wollmeise yarn. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for this. I've knit with several colorways from Wollmeise, and they're all gorgeous. Her sock yarn is smooth and easy to knit with. Although a lot of them do stripe, it's a very close repeat, so you never get big blocks of color, which I appreciate.

Of course, with the stripiness, you do get some big bull's-eye heels with a short-row heel:

But that's okay with me. I actually like that unexpected bright splash of concentrated color at the heel.

Oh, and of course I knit up a miter for the Extra-Long-Term Miter Blanket Project:

This is the only miter I've made in a while. Most of my energy has been spent on my Sockapalooza socks. But there will be some exciting new miters coming up eventually, thanks to Caitlyn. I will post about those soon(ish)! I'm almost finished with my Sock Pal socks (knock on wood)!

Eye Candy Friday: The Miho Tunnel

2007-06-22T11:03:00.001-05:00

I'm not actually sure if this picture looks significantly different from the one I posted yesterday, but GPG spruced it up in Photoshop for me for Eye Candy Friday. The Miho tunnel really is one of the cooler architectural things I've seen (not that I've seen many noteworthy architectural things, though!).

Have a great weekend!

A brief outbreak of travel blogging

2007-06-21T23:40:00.000-05:00

I realize that I took my trip to Taiwan and Japan a long time ago (at least, it feels like a long time ago now!), but I did take some interesting pictures that I'd like to share with you. I especially have to post a few pictures to explain my post for Eye Candy Friday tomorrow.

Before Eye Candy Friday, though, here are some pictures from the Taiwan leg of the trip. I visited Taiwan several times when I was younger, and the thing I remember most is the traditional Taiwanese street markets. Although Taipei has urbanized and modernized quite a lot, there are still traditional street markets here and there along specific streets. I don't think they'll ever completely go away--they're really a part of Taiwanese culture.

You can buy all kinds of things at these markets. Fish:

Pre-cooked chicken, all cut up into slices:

All different kinds of fruit:

One of my favorite fruits is mango. And boy, does Taiwan have mangoes!

And they're so cheap, too! I see mangoes for sale in the US for a buck a pop. But in Taiwan you can get beautiful ripe mangoes like these for three or four to a dollar.

While I was in Taiwan, I got to visit my one of my uncles, who works near Hualien, an eastern coastal city. His place of work is out basically in the country, and he works right near a beautiful lake. This picture below is fairly representative of the kind of lush green landscape you see once you get away from the urban centers of the island.

And what is a trip to Taiwan without seeing the obligatory tourist attractions?

Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall:

The 2/28 Peace Park Memorial, dedicated to Taiwanese nationalists who were massacred by government troops while protesting the oppressiveness of the Chinese-run government on February 28, 1947 (I think--I'm obviously sure about the day and month, but not about the year).

Taipei 101, which used to be the tallest building in the world:

I also went to Japan for a few days to help celebrate the Chairwoman's birthday. I took a lot of pictures while I was there, especially of some new temples I visited, but haven't gotten to sort through all of them just yet. But I did pick a few of one of the nicer things I got to see while I was there--the Miho Museum.

The Miho Museum was designed by I.M. Pei, the same architect who designed the glass pyramid in front of the Louvre in Paris. Although the museum collections are okay (really, nothing to write home about), the museum itself, and especially the entrance to the museum, are really cool.

The museum is very modern looking, but Mr. Pei explained in a documentary provided by the museum that he wanted to integrate the design of the museum into the natural landscape of the mountain into which it was built:

He also designed a special entrance to the museum. Basically, you have to pass through a tunnel that cuts through part of the mountain to access the museum. The concept doesn't sound particularly interesting, but Mr. Pei said that he wanted to design the entrance so that coming upon the museum would be like a pleasant surprise. And he did a good job of it, too--I think the tunnel and the entrance to the museum are the best part of the whole experience of visiting Miho.

Here's what the tunnel looks like from the museum itself:

The design is really modern and striking:

The inside is lit up with lamps and is fully air conditioned:

And the best part about it is how it curves gracefully and sinuously through the mountain. It really does create the effect of happening upon a surprise as you come around the bend.

It's hard to capture in words (or even in pictures) just how cool the experience is of walking through the tunnel and getting to see what's on the other side (whether it's the museum on one side or the gardens on the other). Mr. Pei achieved exactly what he said he wanted to do.

Anyway, that's a brief run-down of some of the more beautiful/interesting/noteworthy things I got to see on my trip. I regret not being able to give the trip or the pictures a more thorough treatment, but . . . well, that's the way the cookie crumbles.

Barbri sucks!

2007-06-20T09:26:00.001-05:00

I apologize sincerely for my blogging absence. I've been studying doggedly for the California bar over the past three weeks, and although there's been some knitting and crafting going on, there's been no time for blogging. My head is overflowing with ridiculous things like false pretenses, the best evidence rule, how many days the plaintiff must wait before sending an interrogatory to the defendant in California, and modified comparative liability. I don't know how I'm going to survive until the bar! My head will explode before then!

Anyway, I will try and post a few updates on the various crafty things I'm doing while studying for the bar. I'm not sure how often I will be able to post, but I'll make an effort.

My first bar-studying post must, naturally, be about Sockapalooza. I see various bloggers posting pictures of the beautiful socks they're knitting for their pals, so of course I need to oblige with a few pictures of my own. I actually started my own Sockapalooza socks just last week:

I lost my US2 circular needles somewhere during my move from Austin to Houston. I ordered some more, but they haven't come in the mail yet, and I realized that I'd better get hopping on these Sockapalooza socks now before I really go crazy studying for the bar in July. So I pulled out my trusty DPNs and started with those. This is the first time in a while that I've knit with DPNs (I prefer the 2 circular needles method), but it isn't too cumbersome.

Since I took these picutres, I've managed to turn the heel, but that's about it. (That's no great feat, since my sock pal says she likes socks that aren't too long in the leg, so I got a break there.) There will be more progress pictures eventually.

Here's a close-up of the pattern:

I chose the "Undulating Rib Socks" pattern in the new Favorite Socks from Interweave Knits. The socks in the book use a multicolored yarn, so I thought it would suit the Mahogany Fleece Artist I'm using. I have made some modifications, though--smaller needles, and a short-row heel, since I've come to believe that short-row heels fit better.

The Mahogany colorway is absolutely beautiful. I tried to get a good picture of it, but it's a little more saturated and vibrant than the pictures show. And it's a perfectly variegated yarn, too--no pooling or flashing; just subtle changes between different shades of umber and brown, with flashes of pinkish red and tan. It's a really lovely yarn.

But now I've got to get back to studying. I just wanted to surface for a moment and say hello, especially to my own Sock Pal out there somewhere! I'll try to post again eventually--I got a terrific package from Caitlyn that I have to blog about!

A Whirlwind of Domesticity

2007-05-29T22:51:00.000-05:00

Pretty much as soon as I got back from Taiwan, I started cooking up a storm. This is partly because GPG was out of town for Memorial Day weekend, so I had as much time to putter around in the kitchen as I wanted. It's also partly because I hoped to cook up a couple big dishes to create some leftovers for meals later on this week.

With GPG, it's hard to make anything that really creates leftovers, just because he's 6'4" and has a big appetite. Something that would last an entire week for me lasts just a couple of days for him. So I made lasagna on Sunday and enchiladas on Monday, in the hopes that we'd get a few extra meals for my pains.

I didn't take a picture of the enchiladas, since those got scarfed down pretty quickly (and they're none too photogenic, anyway), but I did get a picture of the lasagna, all cut up and ready to go into plastic containers:

The recipe, as always, is from the fine folks at Cook's Illustrated. I especially like this lasagna recipe since it comes from The Best Light Recipe and is therefore fairly healthy, while still delicious. I also found the recipe particularly handy when I made it this time because it uses no-boil lasagna noodles, which I managed to find at the grocery store for the first time. Those no-boil noodles are the best! I was afraid they wouldn't cook through all the way, but they turned out perfectly and really made the assembly process a lot easier than the noodles you have to boil. I really recommend them if you're ever in the mood to make your own lasagna.

The Start of a New Stash

2007-05-28T21:11:00.000-05:00

Happy Memorial Day to everyone!

I'm still recovering a bit from jetlag and sorting through the pictures I took on my trip. I also just started Barbri, the prep course for the bar exam, this afternoon. As a result, I haven't had much opportunity to prepare pictures for posts.

But, I did manage to take two very important pictures in the small window of sunlight we had this morning: the start of the new stash! The fabric stash, that is.

I was very good in Japan and Taiwan and bought no new yarn. I didn't even go back to the Nishijin textile center in Japan, because I knew I'd be sorely tempted to buy some. Instead, I went to Nomura Tailor, which a reputable source tells me is one of the most famous Kyoto fabric retailers. Inspired by knitters sewing up a storm, I went in to take a look and ended up buying a large haul of fabric.

Above are the thinner fabrics I picked out. The left-most fabric is orange and yellow strawberries, which I thought was cute, and the second from the left is little umbrellas with teeny-tiny droplets of rain. I got a meter of everything except for the umbrellas, which are a half-meter (because I was running out of money!).

Although I spent practically all the money I had, the prices were actually quite reasonable, in my opinion. I've seen fabrics for anywhere from $9-$16 per yard at places like Purl and Repro Depot, so I was pleased that I didn't pay more than 980 yen (a little over $8) per meter.

Above are the thicker fabrics I got. They're not super-thick--they're thinner than denim, at least--but I think they'll be good for bags and anything else than needs to be sturdy. I didn't intend to buy a bunch of blue fabric, but I do naturally gravitate to blue. (For a long time my wardrobe was primarily blue.) Once I had picked out a few blue things I liked, I decided to go with mostly blue in case I wanted to piece things together for something quilt-ish, rather than buy some other random fabric that might not go with anything.

I'm really pleased with the haul, and can't wait to start sewing. I hope to practice a little this coming weekend--or, at least, do some research and find a good local quilting/sewing shop that I can visit for tips and support, and perhaps get some cheap practice fabric to make mistakes on before tackling the nice stuff.

Hope everyone has a good week!

Eye Candy Friday: Yarn Edition

2007-05-25T18:25:00.000-05:00

It's nice to come home after a trip and have yarn waiting for you!

Yes, I know, I'm supposed to be knitting from the stash . . . but I am making an exception (or two) for some specific gifts. Since I know I'll get pretty busy pretty soon studying for the bar exam, I ordered some yarn before I left for Taiwan so I can get started on these gifts right away, even though the gifts aren't "due" until several months from now.

I was so excited about the yarn that I took some nice Eye Candy Friday pictures first thing this morning. GPG's glass kitchen table makes a very nice backdrop.

First, some wedding present yarn:

My friend Gardenia is getting married this fall, and I am planning on knitting socks for her and her fiance. She requested turquoise blue yarn for herself, so in comes Lorna's Laces to do the job. Luckily for me, Yarn 4 Socks had Lorna's "Island Blue" colorway on sale a while back. Lorna's also has a proper turquoise colorway, but I thought that the Island Blue colorway was brighter, cheerier, and more appropriate for my friend.

She requested dark green socks for her fiance, and I'm still hunting around for a good yarn. Lorna's does have a dark green colorway called "Pine," but I may look for something a little more interesting.

Yarn 4 Socks conveniently had a nice price for Fleece Artist merino sock yarn, too. Although I don't usually buy pink, I picked out this "Raspberry" colorway primarily with my budding miter blanket in mind.

I thought that the blanket could use a little pink.

And, to round out the order, I picked out another Fleece Artist yarn for my Sockapalooza pal. My pal doesn't like really bright colors, so I thought the "Mahogany" colorway would do the trick:

Here it is in the skein so you can see all the different colors. Isn't it beautiful?

I can't wait to get started knitting with these fabulous yarns. I'm planning on some nice Retro Ribs with the turquoise Lorna's Laces, and something from the new Favorite Socks book for my Sockapalooza Pal. Unfortunately, I appear to have misplaced my US2 circular needles during my move from Austin to Houston. I'll have to look for them before I can cast on for the Retro Ribs.

Hope you have a great weekend!

3L Finals Socks

2007-05-23T20:30:00.000-05:00

Hello again from Japan! I'm enjoying a leisurely night at the Chairpeople's house before I head off to the airport tomorrow morning. I'll be back in Houston by tomorrow night, and I plan on catching up on comments and posting over Memorial Day weekend. Sorry to all those who have kindly commented, but haven't received responses--I've read everything and will write back ASAP!

Meanwhile, one last catch-up post. When the finals crunch time rolled around, I put aside the Koigu that had been frustrating me through attempts at stockinette, Hedera, Monkey, etc., and opted for something less stressful: a garter rib sock.

The photo doesn't show the colors properly, but this is what remains of "Koralle im Meer" yarn that I used to make ankle socks for the Anesthesiologist's Christmas present (go me! Yay for stashbusting!). It's a really vibrant mix of orange, teal greeny-blue, and royal blue (GPG would say "Subaru" blue, since he used to drive one of those bright blue WRXs).

I actually finished the socks on the flight to Taiwan a week and a half ago, and they are now packed in my luggage, ready to go back to Houston. Originally I intended to make the socks as gifts, but in the end I decided to make them to fit myself, so I'll always remember them as the socks I was knitting when I finished law school. This weekend I will have to post a catch-up to the catch-up and show the finished pair!

In a novel departure, I made these socks with a short-row heel. I told Caitlyn a while back that I preferred cuff-down, heel-flap socks (as opposed to toe-up socks or short-row heel socks), but . . . I think I may be changing my mind. (Sorry, Caitlyn!) As I've been knitting socks lately, I've kept in mind that soon I will have to knit socks for an unknown recipient, my Sockapalooza pal. Although I have measurements for this person's feet, knitting for someone I don't know won't be quite the same as knitting for someone like, say, the Aspiring Ecologist, who I know can wear socks that fit my feet in circumference, but which are slightly longer in length.

I've also been a little disappointed with the way my recent heel-flap socks have fit my ankles, which are fairly narrow. (My ankles at their narrowest point are actually narrower than my feet around the ball, when for most people the two measurements are the same.) I decided to try Gleek's suggestion of working the short-row heel over more than half the total number of stitches to see if that made for a better fit.

The verdict? I'm quite pleased. So pleased, in fact, that I'm knitting short-row heels on the next pair of socks I'm working on, some toe-up knee-highs. I think the short-row heel is more forgiving, more able to suit a variety of different heels and ankles than a heel flap.

But, never fear: I still prefer cuff-down socks to toe-up socks. I'm only knitting these knee-highs from the toe up so that I can maximize the use of the yarn I have! I'll post pictures of my progress when I get back. I've turned the heel of the first sock, but we'll see how much I actually get done on the flight tomorrow--I have no gauge check, and I only did some hasty measurements of my leg dimensions before I left on my trip, so I have to wing the calf-shaping!

More from Houston this weekend!

Books, and the start of a new obsession?

2007-05-22T07:32:00.000-05:00

Greetings from Japan! Yesterday I took the short flight from Taipei to Osaka and then the train from Osaka to Kyoto. Wednesday is the Chairwoman's birthday, so since I was in the neighborhood (so to speak), I thought it'd be nice to bring her a gift in person.

But I still have some things to catch up on from before I got embroiled in finals. One of them is all the lovely books I have acquired recently!

The top book in the picture is a graduation gift from a friend in Austin. She knows I'll be heading out to California eventually, and she knows like cooking, so she wanted to get me something foodie- and California-themed. There are some delicious-looking recipes in this book, plus beautiful photographs. I'm planning on trying out some recipes once I get back!

The two bottom books are ones I got courtesy of my Lexis Nexis points. (For non-law people: Lexis Nexis is one of two popular legal databases that provide frequent-user points to law students. The points are meant to get students hooked on using the particular database so that when the students turn into lawyers, they'll choose to use that database when it actually costs money. (The databases are provided free of charge to law schools.)) I never accrued many points, but I got enough to get $50 worth of gift cards to Barnes & Noble. So I bought Favorite Socks and Amy Butler's In Stitches.

I am especially excited about In Stitches. I would really like to start sewing more this summer, if I can find the time; I never had time in law school, and my grandmother's sewing machine just gathered dust in a corner of my apartment. But the projects in this book are absolutely beautiful--just right to inspire me to get sewing.

I also treated myself to a pre-graduation present and bought Denyse Schmidt's Quilts and the Modern Quilt Workshop. (I'll put in links and pictures later, when I have more time! I didn't manage to get pictures of these books before I left.) Those are even more inspiring! I am rapidlybecoming obsessed with quilts. I'm sure my first few attempts will be a disaster, but I really like the idea of slowly putting together something as big as a blanket. As knitters well know, producing a knit blanket takes forEVER. Quilting holds out the (probably illusory) promise of more instant gratification.

Anyway, maybe this blog will expand to include quilting in the near future. We'll see!

Catching up: The Knitterly Letter Swap!

2007-05-18T11:30:00.000-05:00

Greetings from Taiwan! I've sweltered in the heat, visited my grandfather, seen the Taroko Gorge, swallowed down fish eggs, and viewed beautiful Chinese embroidery at the National History Museum. Needless to say, it's been a jam-packed week!

I won't be back in the States until next week, but I do have a few things to catch up on while I'm out of the country. The first thing is . . . The Knitterly Letter Swap!

I actually don't know who my original letter swap pal is. (If you're out there--I didn't get your letter, unfortunately! Please let me know if you're still waiting on a letter and I will get on it as soon as I get back in town!) Luckily for me, though, Melissa swept in to save the day. She sent me a great letter on Winnie the Pooh stationery, complete with STICKERS!, with a postcard from her hometown and a bunch of recipes from her company's cookbook!

The KLS was a great idea, because it was so exciting to get fun things in the mail! Usually all I get is bills and advertisements. As I wrote to Melissa, it was really nice to make a connection with another knitter, especially since in law school knitting was a pretty solitary sport for me (not much time to go to knitting groups or anything like that).

My own pal was the fabulous Maritza! She wrote back on some beautiful stationery and sent recipes, yarn samples, and some scraps of fabric that she's used for some of her beautiful projects--go check out her blog if you haven't already!

I can't wait to try out the recipes once I get back in the States. I had to hold off while school was wrapping up because I was trying to depopulate my kitchen pantry, not restock it! Now that I'm moved, I'm excited to try out some new recipes. Maritza sent some great muffin recipes and I've had my eye on Melissa's banana pudding.

Thank you to both my pals! I hope to write back once I get home next week.

More to come soon! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

There's something else I've been hiding from you

2007-05-14T00:12:00.000-05:00

Yes, I've kept a fairly big piece of information to myself for about the past month: I'm returning to Japan!

Actually, I'm returning to Japan for a few days via Taiwan. My grandfather has been in and out of the hospital, and was actually admitted to the hospital only yesterday, so I thought that now is as good a time as any (really, the best time, what with the bar exam and starting work for the Judge in the fall) to visit him and my extended family in Taiwan, whom I haven't seen since 2001. I'll spend 6 days in Taiwan, then hop over to Japan to visit the Chairpeople for a couple of days before returning home. The Japan leg of the trip only cost an extra $25 dollars, so I figured it was worth it to catch the Chairwoman's birthday.

I have a couple of posts queued up, so I won't be entirely absent, but generally the blog and I will be on another hiatus (another! I'm sorry!) for the next ten days. I'll be back with a vengeance (at least for a while) after I get back.

Until then, enjoy spring/the beginning of summer!

I've been hiding something from you . . .

2007-05-11T08:30:00.000-05:00

I've been hiding a variety of things from you, actually. I guess that's what happens over a blogging hiatus. I'll reveal everything gradually, but first, a confession.

I may have jumped on the miter wandbagon(just scroll down on that last link--if you don't already read that blog, that is!):

But not just any miters. Heathen Housewife miters.

I cottoned on to the amazing blanket that Shelly is making after the Yarn Harlot showed Shelly's progress in a write-up of her visit to Chicago. I was quite enamored with the blanket, and thought to myself, "I have sock remnants! I'd like a blanket! Let's start mitering!" (I'm sorry, but I wasn't able to figure out the direct link to an actual picture of the blanket. You'll have to scroll around on Shelly's website--she has lots of progress pictures everywhere.)

The good news is that the miters are nice little projects. I can usually finish one in a day. I used the tutorial that Shelly posted on the right-hand side of her blog, and I'm using US3 needles with a cast-on of 31 sts.

The bad news is that I definitely don't have enough sock yarn. I'm proud to look through my yarn remnants, remembering the socks I made with each yarn and realizing that I've knit my fair share of socks, but I have nowhere near enough to make an actual blanket. Shelly got the Yarn Harlot to ask for sock yarn donations. I won't reach to such great lengths, but my lack of sock yarn means that the blanket will probably be a very long-term, back-burner project.

But I'll stick with it because I love the idea of a multi-color blanket made of bits of the socks I knit for other people. It's even making me consider knitting with other colors that I wouldn't usually use, just so the blanket is more balanced in color. It's also lighting a fire under me to knit through my sock stash, just to create new remnants to make new miters from!

There are only eleven, but I love them, anyway. Each one represents a special sock!

Stick a fork in me and . . . you know the rest.

2007-05-10T23:16:00.000-05:00

Done! Done! I am officially DONE with law school! YAAAAAAAY!

I was much more excited about it than I thought I actually would be. I think this is the case because my last exam was an 8-hour take-home exam for Federal Courts, which for most law students is a bear of a course. So after I printed that sucker out, I ran through the school to turn it in to the professor's secretary. Conveniently, I ran into some friends on the way and gave them high-fives, so it felt extra celebratory. But, inconveniently, the secretary had stepped away from her desk for ten minutes, so I had to cool my jets outside her office until she came back. That made the actual turning in of the last final somewhat anticlimactic.

But I'm done, and feeling very happy about it. I'm not so happy about sorting through all the stuff in my apartment to get ready to move on Saturday, but I am VERY glad that I will never have to take another law school exam in my life (unless I want to. And the bar exam is not a law school exam.).

And just because it can't be said enough: YAAAAAAAAY!

Hiatus

2007-05-05T11:46:00.000-05:00

Hi, folks, I'm just surfacing from a moment to put the blog on hiatus for about a week. Finals are upon me, and although I'm halfway through (two down! two to go!), I don't expect to be able to post anything interesting until at least next Thursday. Have a good weekend!

Sockapalooza 4!

2007-04-30T20:25:00.000-05:00

Sock pals have been matched up for Sockapalooza 4! Have you looked up your pal yet?

I'm totally psyched about knitting for my pal. Although I'm technically on a yarn diet (which I admittedly already broke by buying yarn in Japan), I'm allowing myself one lapse to buy yarn to make a wedding present for some friends getting married this fall. I'm quite willing to let the lapse include some special yarn for my sock pal, too.

Happy knitting to all you Sockapaloozers! Can't wait to see all those socks in August!

Kyoto, Day 9: More Cute Japanese Kids

2007-04-30T20:01:00.000-05:00

This is my final travelblog post! Just in time for me to shut down the blog for finals, which are approaching WAY too soon. There may be some intermittent posting about knitting, baking, or both in the next week and a half or so, but mostly I'll be buried in my books.

But, before that happens, I need to write about my last day in Kyoto (which seems such a long time ago now!). On that day, the Chairman's company had a special open house for its employees. The open house seemed oriented primarily towards families with kids, but the Chairman took the Chairwoman, me, and GPG along so we could see what his company is like.

I didn't take very many pictures while we were there, partly because 1) office buildings aren't all too special, even if they are in Japan; and 2) I was running out of memory in my camera! But it was generally a nice event. There were presentations about what the company does (which includes making instruments that measure various things, like pH and infrared emissions), and we also got to go around to various stations to try out the company's products, like an instrument that can remotely measure the temperature of an item. Some of these instruments were in fact pretty cool.

We also got to go on a tour of some of the company's buildings, and there was a welcome committee at each location. Each committee asked a multiple-choice trivia question about the company ("How many customers for such-and-such product did we have last year?"), and if you got it right, you got to put a stamp on a little bingo grid that the company provided. We all then trooped back to the main conference room where the open house was based and played bingo. The bingo winners got to choose a prize from a variety of little wrapped presents. Like I said, it was mostly for kids, but nevertheless it was a very nice event to have visited.

So, speaking of kids, I took pictures of a few of them. As I mentioned earlier, all Japanese kids are very, very cute. I did not see a single un-cute kid during my entire time there.

I don't understand how they can all be so gosh-darn CUTE. Some of them certainly don't keep the cuteness as they grow up. I wonder where it all goes.

I especially liked this little girl below. Her parents knew English and were very nice to us, the poor foreigners who couldn't understand a single word of what was being said at the entire open house. They told us that their daughter's Japanese name means "Seven Seas." Isn't that pretty?

The open house took most of the day. We then ran around the city buying up some last-minute souvenirs. As it probably always happens with these sorts of long trips, we finally had figured out the lay of the land . . . and then we had to leave!

GPG and I had a great time in Kyoto. It's a really intriguing mix of modern and historical, with modern buildings on one block, traditional temples on another, and teeny tiny houses all crammed in between. And although I was a bit disappointed to have missed the cherry blossoms and more blooming green things, I was glad that we missed most of the tourist crowds--we definitely noticed more foreigners showing up in the last few days we were there. For a first trip to Japan, this trip was a really good one.

Thanks for your patience and indulgence while I travelblogged our trip to Kyoto. I'm really glad that I wrote everything up, because even now I look at some of the pictures I took and have only a faint memory of the place and what we did there. I can't promise a great deal of knitting content for the next month or so, as finals and moving come up, but eventually we'll return to our regularly scheduled knitting programming.

Peanut butter cookies

2007-04-29T08:46:00.000-05:00

I'm still on a cookie-baking rampage here at Chez Seedless Grape. I realize that it's arguably somewhat irrational to buy more ingredients (like butter and eggs) just to use existing ingredients (like peanut butter and chocolate chips) up, but I think everyone is entitled to a little irrationality around finals time. And the butter and eggs are ingredients that will eventually get used somehow before I move out of my apartment after graduation . . . chocolate chips, not so much, unless they go into cookies.

So, bring on the cookies! I made these peanut butter cookies on Friday night to use up some peanut butter. I actually ended up not having enough peanut butter, which threw the proportion of ingredients out of whack. As a result, these cookies don't really have the traditional criss-cross hatching on them that signify peanut butter cookies--they were too soft to really hold the hatch marks. But I think they actually taste quite good.

I still have quite a lot of chocolate chips left, though. More chocolate chip cookies are in store . . . maybe. My first tests are on Thursday and Friday of this week, so studying is starting to kick into high gear. If I don't make the cookies, I can always make . . . brownies, too!

Eye Candy Friday: Life as a 3L

2007-04-27T19:31:00.000-05:00

Being a 3L means . . .

Making chocolate chip cookies a week and a half before final exams!

I never would have taken the time to make cookies when I was a 1L or 2L. At least, not just a week and a half before exams. It's unbelievably nice to have slightly different priorities as a 3L.

Have a great weekend!

Fourth time's a charm . . . ?

2007-04-27T19:07:00.000-05:00

I am still struggling with the current socks on the needles. I tried a plain stockinette sock first, but I wasn't really digging the stockinette for some reason. Then I tried the Monkey pattern, which knit up prettily but provided no stretch. On my third attempt, I tried the Hedera pattern, with hopes that the lace would knit up nice and stretchy. I have no documentation of this attempt because I only did a few rounds of the lace pattern before ripping out yet again; I found the pattern to be too fiddly for my tastes, and my backward yarnovers (i.e., purl stitch, yarnover, knit stitch) were not showing up properly, which made the lace lopsided.

My fourth try is the Elfine pattern from Amelia at My Fashionable Life. Although I'm still somewhat dissatisfied, I've given up on finding a good pattern for myself and have decided to persevere with the pattern and give the socks to someone else. Clearly, I was not meant to make socks for myself out of this yarn.

(Please excuse the bad pictures. I was in a rush before leaving for school today.)

The pattern is knitting up nicely with this yarn (yay! no pooling!), but the circumference is a little wider for my foot than I'd prefer. Nevertheless, I decided that I was tired of frogging this skein of Koigu and have kept going, with the intent of finishing the pair and sending them off to live with a friend. I will never get through the stash if I keep knitting the same ball of yarn over and over again!

One thing I have appreciated about the pattern, though, is that it has given me a chance to try Gleek's modified short-row heel. Gleek noticed that handknit socks often use the same number of stitches for the short-row heel as for the instep, but store-bought socks work their heels over more stitches than the instep. So she suggests increasing a few stitches for the heel just a few rows before you actually work the short-row heel. I've only just finished the heel, so I don't know how the entire sock will look just yet, but it seems to fit all right:

Here's how the stitch pattern sort of looks (bad picture, I know):

The sock is a bit loose because the intended recipient has bigger feet than I do. And the flash was way too bright in the picture. But at least you can see the diamonds of the pattern a little bit.

The sock has been put on hold for the past few days, though, because I'm busy trying to knit up another graduation hat. The Odessas have been given away, and I think they were a nice surprise, so now I'm trying to work up a good sturdy ribbed hat for a male friend, who I don't think would appreciate beads. Once that hat's taken care of, I'll hopefully be able to power through these Elfines.

Posting will be sparse over the next week and a half, though, due to finals. But I hope you have a great weekend!

Kyoto, Day 8: Himeji

2007-04-25T08:15:00.000-05:00

On our eighth and penultimate full day in Kyoto, GPG and I took the train out to see Himeji Castle, one of Japan's "Three Famous Castles" and one of the oldest surviving structures from medieval Japan. It is truly an impressive structure, clearly built with military defense in mind. The castle is built on a hill, with five graduated floors:

You got to climb extraordinarily steep stairs to go all the way up to the top, and on the way you could see that each floor has lots of weapon racks, lookout windows, and hidden positions where reinforcements could hide. The castle walls all had gun/arrow slits and were very, very thick. Each entrance to the castle had a massive gate and watchtowers.

I didn't take too many pictures at Himeji because my camera was running out of memory. I was also getting tired of taking pictures in general. I only took the expected panorama pictures:

As a result, I don't have much documentation for our eighth day in Japan. The train ride to Himeji from Kyoto took about two hours, so visiting the castle pretty much took up the whole day. So, I've decided to use the rest of this post to include some miscellaneous pictures of some of the things I really liked in Japan, such as . . .

. . . The light festival that was currently going on at the time. All the temples in the eastern part of the city (Kiyomizudera, Choen-In, etc.) and the Gion area were lit up with special lights at night for about two weeks. The Chairpeople told me that the city puts on this event to draw both tourists and residents out at a time when the cold weather would usually keep people indoors. Although the picture below shows just one example of some of the lights that were put out, there were all sorts of lanterns lighting up the streets in this area of the city. Each street had unique lights, and a lot of them were very beautiful.

I also liked these turtle rolls at one of the bakeries in the basement of one of Kyoto's major department stores:

All the major department stores in Kyoto are monstrous. They are multiple stories tall and feature every kind of imaginable retail ware, from many-thousand-dollar suits to kimonos to stuffed animals to stationery. In the basement floors (at least one floor, sometimes two) there are vast food court-type areas selling ready-made food for customers to take home. Although the food is pretty pricey in general, it's also pretty mouth-watering and, of course, beautifully presented. I saw these turtle rolls and thought they were very cute.

Divisadero commented a few days ago that the Japanese taste range is somewhat delicate, thus producing baked goods and desserts that are a little too bland for the Western palate. I think that this is generally correct. A perfect example is GPG, who isn't a big fan of any kind of Asian dessert or baked good for precisely this reason. But I guess that, having grown up eating a fair number of Asian breads and desserts, I'm used to it. That's probably why I really liked Japanese toast:

This is the breakfast of champions in Kyoto.

I normally don't like eating buttered toast in the States, but I was mad for Japanese toast and butter during our time in Kyoto. The butter was really, really good (I don't eat enough butter to be able to articulate just why I thought it was so delicious, but I just liked it a lot), and I loved eating it on Japanese toasted bread, which is twice as thick as regular American bread:

The bread is thick and has a fluffy-soft consistency. I couldn't eat enough of it while we were there. In fact, I really miss it now!

And, lastly, one of the things I really liked about Japan is the CUTE KIDS. All the children I saw in Japan were inordinately cute. They didn't necessarily grow up to be cute or otherwise attractive grown-ups, but I don't think I ever saw a single kid in Japan who wasn't cute. Here is a prime example:

You can't tell me she's not cute.

Next up: Even MORE cute kids from our last day in Kyoto!

Odessa X 3

2007-04-24T17:14:00.000-05:00

I was quite scatterbrained this morning and left more than a few things at home by accident. One of these things was my camera, with some pictures of the chocolate chip cookies I made last night. Since I can't blog about those, I searched through the pictures I actually have saved on my computer and remembered these:

Three Odessas, ready to be given away as graduation presents to friends at school.

Your eyes don't deceive you--the blue one is, in fact, larger than the purple ones. The Odessa pattern fits my head pretty well, but I've discovered that I have a somewhat small head (at least, compared to all the people for whom I've made hats). I wanted to make these graduation presents a little bit bigger, just in case.

Unfortunately, making the blue one bigger ate into a second ball of the RYC Cashsoft DK I was using--enough so that I'm pretty sure I can't squeeze another full-size Odessa out of it, as I had hoped. So I made the purple ones to spec, and I just hope that they'll fit. I will make a smaller, kid-sized Odessa out of the remaining blue yarn I have left.

I had complained earlier about how the beads don't really show up very well on the light purple yarn. This is still the case, but they're more visible when the hat is actually worn. Nevertheless . . . I think a better combination of beads and yarn would have been ideal.

Kyoto, Day 7: Nishijin and the Katsura Imperial Villa

2007-04-23T12:51:00.000-05:00

On our seventh day in Kyoto, GPG and I split up in the morning. I wanted to go to the Nishijin Textile Center, which was having an open house, and he wanted to go back to some places like Ginkakuji to see if he could get some better photographs. Plus, he wasn't so interested in textiles, whereas I had read up on how famed Kyoto is for its traditional handicrafts, so I really wanted to go to this open house. So we parted ways and I ran off to Nishijin to feast my eyes on all things crafty.

The textile center certainly didn't disappoint. I spent most of the morning ogling fabric and peering over weavers' shoulders at their work:

Isn't that fabric beautiful? I took a picture just as the weaver pulled some of her bobbins of thread to capture all the different choice she had.

As the fabric and bobbins above suggest, the weaver was handling very thin thread for a very tight weave. Nishijin is famous for "fingernail" weaving, which involves thread so fine that the weaver actually files teeth into his or her fingernails to help compact the threads into fabric once they've been woven. (Although I was quite awed by the weaving, I really know no weaving terminology, so I won't even try to speak technically.) It was really quite impressive.

This older gentleman was working at an even bigger loom:

And his weaving was even more complex. You can see in the picture below all the different bobbins he had. And, to complicate things even more, I discovered that the weavers actually weave with the wrong side of the fabric facing up. If you look in the picture, there's actually a mirror below the weaving that shows the weaver what the right side of the fabric actually looks like. You can see a beautiful golden flower in the mirror towards the left-hand side of the fabric. Incredible!

Even more amazingly, I think the mirror was there primarily for observers, like me, because it was quite apparent that the weaver knew exactly what he was doing and didn't have to hesitate to think about the pattern he was weaving.

Here's a better picture of the wrong side of some woven fabric:

And here is what that fabric looks like on the right side:

Isn't that just absolutely beautiful? I was so amazed to see this fabric getting produced before my very eyes!

The textile center also had a kimono fashion show to display all the latest kimono fashions. This was a treat because the kimonos being modeled were much more fancy and elaborate than most of the kimonos GPG and I saw on the street, either on geishas-for-a-day or regular civilians. I took this picture to show the beautiful bow the obi was tied into in back:

As you can see, the bow is elaborate and the sleeves of the kimono are quite long. The Chairwoman told me an obi bow shaped like a butterfly indicates that the wearer is unmarried! The obi of a married woman is much more sedate and simple--really, just a plain gathering of the fabric into a flat roll. In addition, the sleeves of a kimono correspond inversely to the wearer's age. Younger women's kimono sleeves are almost as long as the kimono itself, while older women's sleeves are shorter.

They displayed all types of kimonos at the fashion show--bright and elaborate for younger women, and more toned-down for older women. If you look closely, you can see that the woman at the very bottom of the frame (in the light blue) is modeling a plain, rolled obi for married women.

And what would be a visit to a weaving center without trying out weaving personally? They gave me a very simple loom:

And I wove with very thick thread:

It was nothing special, but it certainly was interesting just to get an idea of the mechanics of weaving. My little piece of fabric got sealed on the ends with glue and cut with scissors:

Although the fabric was nowhere near as beautiful as what the fingernail weavers were making, it was enough to get me interested in weaving. I can't start any time soon, but I would really like to learn some day.

While I was weaving, I noticed this:

And then THIS:

And before I left Nishijin, I went crazy and bought up loads and loads of beautiful silk yarn. I still haven't properly documented it yet for the blog, and won't be able to for a while (it's in Houston now, and I'm stuck in Austin until finals are over), but I assure you that it's spectacular stuff. I almost felt guilty getting such a good deal, even though I'm sure the textile center felt like it got the better end of the bargain!

After my glorious morning at Nishijin, GPG and I met up in the afternoon to eat lunch and go to the Katsura Imperial Villa. As an Imperial property, Katsura requires visitors to get permission from the Imperial Household Agency for entry. Conveniently, GPG and I were able to do this before we parted ways in the morning.

I didn't take many pictures at Katsura because 1) photography was limited to certain areas, and 2) I was getting a little garden-ed out. (Perhaps you are, too.) But it was a very beautiful property whose gardens are laid out to tell a story to the visitor as the visitor walks through the paths. Each vantage point in the garden provides a unique view of the scenery.

The Katsura gardens are studded with several small teahouses. I took a picture of the most interesting one, which featured blue walls and some blue-and-white checkered panels:

The brochure we received told us that such blue paint, and the checking, were very rare in Japan.

This picture shows the outside of that same teahouse, and you can see the blue-and-white checking inside:

Katsura also features a variety of stone lanterns. Each one is different.

It certainly was a beautiful property. It was the kind of thing that GPG and I had the luxury of seeing as a result of our decision to spend most of our time in Kyoto, because it was quite remote and also provided no English-speaking tour. If we had had less time in the city, we almost certainly would not have gone to see it. But I was glad that we were able to catch it.

Next up: Himeji!

Monkey see, monkey . . . don't

2007-04-22T19:13:00.000-05:00

This morning, I reduced this:

. . . to this:

Yes, I took a mostly finished Monkey sock and frogged it.

Although I find the Monkey pattern beautiful, and although it's a fairly easy pattern to knit and remember, I just wasn't enjoying the knitting. The knit-up fabric, as I mentioned earlier, was not very stretchy at all. It was a struggle to get the sock on to my foot, even though it fit all right once it was finally on. I think that knowing that I'd have to tug and pull at the finished product just to put it on ended up dampening my enthusiasm for the pattern. I had the same no-stretchy, no-likey problem a long time ago with the Jaywalker pattern, too.

But, I continue on, undaunted. I've upgraded to the Hedera pattern, which should be stretchier and more comfortable to wear, and I've finished already one repeat of the pattern. Hopefully I can make some bloggable progress this week before my finals lockdown!

Kyoto, Day 6: Sanzen-In and Arashiyama

2007-04-19T14:01:00.000-05:00

On our sixth day in Kyoto, the Chairpeople took us to some of the more remote areas of the city. We had a lot of fun and saw a lot of things. But first, we had a DELICIOUS breakfast at the St Marc Bakery.

The bakeries at Japan are absolutely phenomenal. Whenever we were hungry, GPG and I often stopped in bakeries on the street for a break from being tourists, and we never bought a single thing from a bakery that we didn't like. The quality of the baked goods is just amazing--so much higher than anything you'd find in regular bakeries (which are themselves scarce) in the United States.

I had such a good time at St Marc's that I took a picture of all the pastries they offer:

For our breakfast at St Marc, a waiter would bring around freshly baked rolls in a basket. You got to choose what you wanted, and each time the waiter came around, the selection was entirely new. And everything tasted wonderful!

The green roll at the top is a green tea roll. The one on the right was a flaky layered roll with strawberry jam between the layers!

The rolls were all teeny-tiny, too. I think things taste better when they are small.

The brown roll on top is a CHOCOLATE layered roll. So. Yummy.

After stuffing ourselves on miniature rolls at St Marc, we went to see Sanzen-In, another temple. Like Ninna-Ji, Sanzen-In is somewhat on the outskirts of the city, and I think as a result, it has larger grounds and it lets you wander around more.

AND . . . It snowed!

It was pretty crazy. Snow in Kyoto! We got all possible kinds of weather during our trip to Japan.

Someone creative even made tiny snowmen on a wooden bench on the way to the gardens of the temple:

Although it wasn't too cold to walk around, the snow actually stuck around for quite a bit:

There was a shrine in the garden of the temple, and someone had hung up hundreds of folded paper cranes:

As you can see, there's another bib tied to the post from which the cranes are hanging. I still don't know what those are for.

As I mentioned in last week's Eye Candy Friday, Sanzen-In is most famous for some small stone people in its moss garden. There are about five, I think, and they are all very cute. They are in cute little positions and have smiles on their faces.

The one in the foreground of this picture is lying on his stomach with his chin in his hands. There are two in the background who look like they're sharing secrets.

After enjoying the snow at Sanzen-In, we went to Arashiyama, a suburb of northwest Kyoto. It was somewhat later in the day, so we didn't spend so much time there, but we did go to a MONKEY PARK!

The monkey park was pretty fun. You got to hike up a hill and see a colony of Japanese monkeys, all running around free. For someone who likes monkeys (me), it was a terrific thing to do.

I took lots and lots of pictures of monkeys:

There were a lot of baby monkeys running around, too. One had a lot of fun playing on this parked vehicle:

And you had a great view of Kyoto from the hillside:

It was hard to get good close-up pictures of the monkeys, but I managed to get a few:

Many were huddled together in groups to stay warm from the cold:

We had a great time with the Chairpeople in Arashiyama!

Next up: The Nishijin Textile Center!!!! Weaving!!! And YARN!

Retro Rib Socks!

2007-04-18T13:35:00.000-05:00

It's been a long time since I posted last, I know, and I apologize. Posting will probably be sparse for the next month or so because finals are rapidly approaching. (Last round of finals EVER! Yee haw!)

Still, I managed to get a fair amount of knitting done over this past weekend. The Retro Rib socks are finally done!

I'm quite pleased with the way they turned out. I like how the pattern is intricate, but simple and easy to memorize--and stretchy, too, to boot. (I ended up ripping my plain stockinette Koigu socks and starting Cookie A's Monkey pattern instead, and although the pattern is lovely, it's not stretchy at all. I'm learning that beautiful but stretchy is key for sock patterns.)

Here are the specs:

Pattern: Retro Rib socks from Interweave Knits
Needles: 16" and 24" Addi Turbo circulars, US 2
Yarn: KnitPicks Essential in Denim
Recipient: GPG's sister in Germany

This is a terrific pattern. It has some variation to make it more interesting than stockinette; it's stretchy to accommodate differently sized feet and legs; the patterning is evident but still subtle and understated; and it knits up fairly quickly on US 2 needles. I'm planning on making some socks for the Violinist in the same pattern in black, and I bet it'll look good then, too.

All in all, I'm pleased. I wasn't so keen on the KnitPicks' yarn, but I won't deny that it knit up into a very nice product. Yay for the Retro Rib!

Eye Candy Friday: Sanzen-in

2007-04-13T09:19:00.000-05:00

This little dude is one of several statues, all small and smiling, at the Sanzen-in temple in Kyoto. I'm not sure what these statues are there for, but they are iconic representatives of this particular temple. And, admittedly, they are pretty darn cute. The Chairwoman really likes them and wanted a good photo of them, so I took a bunch. This is one of the better ones.

Koigu Sneak Peek

2007-04-13T09:13:00.000-05:00

When I posted about my STR Rooster Rock socks, I mentioned that I'm persevering with my sock yarn destashing and knitting up some Koigu that's been a long-time resident of the stash.

Well, it wasn't a lie, even if I'm a bit behind on posting. (I suppose I'm a bit behind on posting because I'm also a bit behind on knitting!) I sent a sample of this yarn to my pen pal in the Knitterly Letter Swap. It's a lovely mixture of violet, mottled brown with a hint of siena in it, and forest green, all shading into one another.

I actually haven't made much progress beyond what's shown. This is the stockinette project I always have to have on the needles for school and studying purposes, and I've knit most of the leg. (Lest you think I haven't made progress on the sock because I'm not actually studying . . . that's not actually the case! I've just been studying at school and leaving the sock at home. Finals are coming up, unfortunately.) The heel flap will start soon. But I doubt that I'll finish these socks any time in the near future.

However, I've also stalled somewhat on these socks because I've been concentrating on knitting up some Odessa hats. I'm planning on giving some of these hats to a few friends of mine who are graduating and moving to colder climates for their jobs after school. Since graduation is coming up in about a month and a week, I realized I'd better get hopping with those hats! So those have been taking up most of the knitting time. Pictures of those will come soon--I'm almost done with the crown of the third one, and I'll take a picture of all three once I'm done with it.

Have a great weekend!

Kyoto, Day 5: Nara and Uji

2007-04-12T10:23:00.000-05:00

Although the Japan trip is now quite distant, I'm still trying to persevere with travel blogging all the things we did. Co-opting of regular blog content will continue intermittently for a few days more. Apologies!

The fifth day that we spent in Japan was Saturday, so the Chairpeople were free to come with us and play tourist. They took us to Nara and Uji, two smaller cities not too far from Kyoto.

Nara is somewhat famous for its roving deer herds. There were a ton of deer wandering all over the place. I made friends with this particular deer:

But he soon lost interest in me because I didn't feed him anything. There are lots of vendors near all the tourist sites who sell wafers of deer food. In the picture below, you can see how all the deer are mobbing this poor woman who's holding some of the wafers in her hand:

You had to be careful about handing out food, because you really got swarmed!

The deer were loitering primarily around the main temple in Nara, which is called Todai-ji.Here is Todai-ji's gate:

Hopefully the size of the people entering through it gives you an idea of how big it was. It was really immense. And you can see more deer wandering around, pestering tourists for food.

When you're standing inside the gate, you can look to each side and see a fearsome statue. I think the statues were supposed to be some kind of Buddhist gods that protect the temple from evil spirits.

The Chairpeople are in the picture for scale:

Everything about Todai-ji is big. Supposedly, the temple itself is supposed to be the largest wooden building (I think volume-wise) in the world. So I guess a big temple requires a big gate and big scary guardians.

And yes, the temple is quite large:

Although it's built very much in the same traditional style that most Japanese temples are, it's still impressive to think that it's entirely built out of wood.

Todai-ji houses a very large bronze statue of Buddha:

The picture doesn't give you a good idea of just how big the Buddha is, but I'd say he's pretty large and in charge.

We ate lunch in Nara at a traditional Japanese restaurant and then got on the train to Uji, which is between Nara and Kyoto.

At Uji, we visited Byodo-in. This temple is most famous for being the image stamped on the face of the ten-yen coin.

In lieu of gardens, Byodo-in features a modern museum that displays some of the treasures preserved from the main hall of the temple (which you can't enter). The museum documents the preservation efforts and houses a lot of original artifacts, including dozens of small wooden statues of of flying bodhisattvas, sitting on clouds and playing a variety of musical instruments. It was amazing that these wooden statutes were still so intact after thousands of years. The museum was really interesting, but unfortunately, we couldn't take any photos.

Here's a view of Byodo-in from the side:

The smaller pavilion in front is mirrored on the far side of the main, larger building. It's really quite pretty.

That was the fifth day. Next up: Sanzen-in! Arashiyama! And MONKEYS!

The Year of the Swap

2007-04-11T21:58:00.000-05:00

I just signed up for Sockapalooza 4, officially making this year the Year of the Swap for me. Letters! Socks! What will come next???

Hope to see you at the Sockapalooza!

Addition

2007-04-11T09:21:00.000-05:00

Yellow cupcakes . . .

Plus chocolate butter cream frosting . . .

Equals blurry but delicious FROSTED CUPCAKES!

I already sent off my Knitterly Letter Swap letter on Monday. Although I wanted to take pictures and document the whole process--the stationery I used, the yarn samples I included, etc., I was absent-minded and brought everything with me to school to mail off before taking any photos.

But, hopefully this substitute documentation is sufficient: my KLS swap pal now is the proud owner of the recipe for these cupcakes--which, by the way, are absolutely divine. Thanks again, Cook's Illustrated!

I'm PROFESSIONALLY RESPONSIBLE, baby!

2007-04-09T15:32:00.000-05:00

Yay! I just found out that I passed the MPRE. I'm a 100% certified Professionally Responsible person. Yee haw!

Eye Candy Friday: Pavilion at Heian Jingu

2007-04-06T19:04:00.000-05:00

I think I may have already posted this picture in my write-up of Heian Jingu, but GPG has kindly monkeyed with the processing in Photoshop, so it's not exactly the same. Heian Jingu has beautiful gardens for visitors to go roaming around in; it's a great place to play tourist.

Have a great weekend and a happy Easter if you celebrate it!

Kyoto, Day 4: Kinkakuji, Ryoan-ji, and Ninna-ji

2007-04-05T16:43:00.000-05:00

On our fourth day in Kyoto, GPG and I were ready to stop walking everywhere and start taking the bus. We had only walked for our first three days, and each day our legs were sorer and sorer. So we hopped on a city bus to see some of the sights out in the farther reaches of the city.

One such sight is Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavilion:

Like Ginkakuji, the Silver Pavilion, I think Kinkakuji originally served as living quarters for a wealthy person, but then was eventually converted into a Buddhist temple. If I recall correctly, the Japanese government spent lots and lots of money to recover the pavilion in gold leaf one or two decades ago. That's probably why it's so nice and shiny.

Although Kinkakuji is certainly impressive, its gardens were less developed and beautiful (in my opinion, at least) than Ginkakuji's gardens. (Maybe Ginkakuji, since it's not covered in gold leaf or even silver leaf, feels like it has to compensate?) The main attraction at Kinkakuji really is the golden pavilion. I didn't take many pictures of any of the gardens as a result.

However, I did take this picture of two wizened old women, gathering up lots and lots of coins that tourists had thrown at some sort of Buddhist stone carving:

As irreverent as it seems, I couldn't help thinking that they looked a little bit like Hobbits.

Since we'd had something of a late start to our day, after leaving Kinkakuji we were quite hungry, so we needed to find some lunch. Fortuitously for us, on the road that joins Kinkakuji, Ryoan-ji, and Ninna-ji, there was . . . a Japanese fast food restaurant! We went in and muddled our way through ordering and came away with reasonably decent food.

As a result, we were inordinately proud of ourselves.

Although Japan has restaurants like McDonald's, there are also Japanese fast food places that serve up traditional Japanese food quickly. They usually feature a variety of noodle soups and rice dishes, plus--most dauntingly--an automated machine from which you order your food:

This thing basically functions like a vending machine. You insert money, and there are various buttons that you can press to order the item you want. The machine returns your change, if you have any, plus a ticket that you give to the person at the counter. That ticket tells the restaurant staff what to cook up for you.

It's a pretty clever idea, except that everything on the machine is in Japanese. There are pictures on the buttons so that you can figure out what you're getting yourself into, but before you can actually order food you have to push one of two buttons that, we suspected, tell the restaurant staff if you want you order "for here" or "to go." At least, that's what GPG surmised while we were trying to order. We picked one button and were lucky it was the right one ("for here")! I, for one, was very excited about being able to order Japanese fast food without actually knowing a lick of Japanese. The food was even reasonably good.

After our success at the fast food restaurant, we continued walking down the road to Ryoan-ji, which GPG was very interested in seeing. It's most famous for its Zen stone garden, which is supposed to be one of the premier examples of this sort of thing in Kyoto, if not in Japan. GPG is a big fan of such dry gardens, so of course we had to go.

Lots of tourists sit by the side of the garden and contemplate what it means. Our guidebook told us that the garden is designed so that you can never see all the fifteen different rocks in it at the same time. Although my Japanese is virtually nonexistent, I could hear some of the other tourists counting out the rocks to see if this information was true.

Ryoan-ji also had some plum blossoms blooming:

It was practically instinctual for me to take pictures of all the plum blossoms we ever saw, even though they never made for particularly good photographs. I guess it's just because we were in Japan early enough in the season that not very many things were blooming. So seeing splashes of pink was something rare, and also very pretty, and I took lots of pictures.

We also found more bibbed statues on the grounds of Ryoan-ji:

I still don't know what all those bibs are for.

Lastly, we went to Ninna-ji. As I mentioned in my write-up of our first day in Kyoto, GPG and I met a professional photographer that day. She told us that Ninna-ji is one of her favorite temples, so we wanted to make sure we saw it--she had clearly taken pictures (or seen pictures that her father or husband had taken) of most of the temples in Kyoto, so we figured her opinion was trustworthy.

She was right. Ninna-ji turned out to be one of my favorite temples in Kyoto, too. It's a welcome change from some of the other temples because they actually let you walk everywhere in the main complex of buildings. Most temples--at least, the ones that don't appear to hold public services or have an active congregation--only allow you to look at the historical buildings from the outside. So GPG and I really enjoyed wandering all over the place in Ninna-ji; there are a lot of walkways and rooms to look into.

Here is the main gate of Ninna-ji. The best part, which isn't really apparent from the picture itself, is that I'm taking it from inside the temple complex.

Like many other temples and historical buildings, Ninna-ji had very beautiful gardens:

They also had some very carefully raked dry gardens one could enjoy in combination with the "living" gardens:

But, clearly, that bridge over the pond can't be too useful. At least, not if you don't want to ruin the nice Zen garden!

Again, all of the pictures of the gardens were taken from various vantage points inside the buildings of Ninna-ji. It was very cool to go poking around everywhere.

This picture gives you a better idea of just what it was like to wander all over the place:

I liked the series of standing lamps. There were many covered walkways like this in Ninna-ji that led to different buildings, where you could look at various tatami rooms and Buddhist altars.

The funny thing is that our guide book, which was pretty good (The Rough Guide to Japan; I'd highly recommend it), didn't mention anything about Ninna-ji--even though it's fairly close to Kinkakuji and Ryoan-ji. GPG and I suspected that perhaps the reason why Ninna-ji lets you tromp all over the property is because it happens to be off the main tourist track, for whatever reason. If all the major tourist temples let tourists wander willy-nilly through the buildings, there'd be nothing left to see. So we were very glad that our photographer friend told us it was worth visiting. I really think it's one of the best places to visit in Kyoto.

Next up: Nara! Japanese deer! (They're pushy!) And Uji!

Rooster Rockin' Socks

2007-04-04T09:20:00.000-05:00

Goodness, I can't believe it's April already. I'm convinced that time flies by faster as you get older. And boy, do I feel old!

Anyway, the time flying by hasn't been entirely devoid of knitting. I present to you . . .

Rooster Rock Socks!

I really like this colorway. It's a beautiful mix of darker red, pewter gray, eggplant purple, sienna brown, chocolate milk brown, sage green, and lots of other shades in between. I'm very pleased with the way the socks turned out--which is good, because I frogged three times before finally settling on a circumference of 64 sts in order to avoid pooling!

I had tried a few ribbed patterns and a stockinette sock of 60 sts in circumference, but all my attempts resulted in an less-than attractive pooling of the reds in one area of the fabric and the browns in another. Not good. 64 sts is a just a smidge bit looser than I'd like, but it produced the best fabric. At least, it produced what I thought was the best fabric after three previous tries.

Pattern: Generic top-down socks, 64 sts in circumference, with 20 rounds of 1x1 ribbing at cuff
Yarn: Socks that Rock, Rooster Rock colorway
Needles: 2 Addi Turbo US 1 circulars, 12" and 24"
Recipient: Me. Like the Kyoto Fantasy Shawl, these socks were knit primarily in Japan. So they're special to me!

It's hard to believe that the spring semester of school is already almost over. I had high hopes for this semester, especially with regards to stash reduction (good to know I have my priorities straight, right?) . But I finally had a reality check just this past week or so and reminded myself that socks and other small portable projects are still all I can really afford to work on while I'm in school. I'm just not at home at regular enough hours, with sufficient amounts of time, for me to commit to knitting a sweater, even though I have plenty of sweaters queued up in the stash. A sweater would languish in a pile for months, and when I finally finished it, it'd probably fit all wonky because my gauge would be inconsistent.

As a result, although I've been trying to knit a lot, and I have made more socks this spring than I've ever made before in a similar period of time . . . the actual physical size of the stash has not been reduced in a tangible way commensurate with my knitting efforts. Sock yarn just doesn't consume a whole lot of volume, unfortunately. It's sort of disappointing, considering how many stitches I've knit over the past few months. I had hoped to have a reduced stash to move to Houston at the end of the school year, but instead I'm arranging with GPG to find space in his apartment for some new stash containers (because really, what I have isn't adequate) to store the not-very-reduced stash.

Oh, well. I'm not disappointed in my knitting in general, and I certainly love all my stash as much as I did before. But this certainly strengthens my resolve not to buy any new yarn for a while. Even if the Webs anniversary sale is just a click away, tempting me with beautiful yarns.

At least the stash reduction continues. I'm particularly proud of myself this week for digging into some Koigu I've had for well over a year. Pictures of that will come soon!

Kyoto, Day 3: Choen-In, Heian Jingu, and Ginkakuji

2007-04-03T16:22:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately, the weather here in Austin has been cloudy and rainy for the past week and a half or so, so I haven't been able to take any reasonable pictures of current knitting. But I will try to get some pictures soon--I have lots to show. Finished STR socks! A finished Retro Rib! A new sock beginning! All this will hopefully come this week.

But, in the meantime, I have plenty of Japan pictures, so that's what you're getting for now. On our third day in Kyoto, GPG and I walked EVERYWHERE and saw lots of things, including the Buddhist temple Choen-In, the Buddhist shrine Heian Jingu, and Ginkakuji, the Silver Pavilion.

Amazingly enough, GPG and I were somewhat templed-out by the third day, so I didn't take very many pictures of Choen-In itself. It was a temple much in the style of Kiyomizudera and many other temples we had already seen, so I wanted to save my digital camera's memory.

But, I did take pictures of Choen-In's main feature: the biggest bell in Kyoto.

The Chairwoman says that on major festivals, it takes 17 men to pull back the log you see in the picture to ring the bell. That's how big it is.

And what's really remarkable is that it's completely supported by a wooden structure. On an absolute scale, there are bigger bells in cathedrals in Europe. But I find it impressive that this massive bell is held up entirely by a wooden building, not a stone one. It really speaks well of Japanese engineering.

Here's another picture with GPG in it for scale:

Don't forget that GPG is over six feet!

While we were at Choen-In, which sits on a fairly large piece of property with many associated buildings, we also saw a little wooden shrine with many cups in front. I liked all the colors of the cups, so I took a picture:

I don't know what they were for. Perhaps the gods of the shrine were thirsty?

After stopping by to see the big bell at Choen-In, GPG and I then hiked up to Heian Jingu, a very big Buddhist shrine near Kyoto's Museum Mile. (I am not sure what the difference is between shrines and temples, so don't ask!) Heian Jingu is distinguished in part by the very large vermillion Torii (gate) that stands before it.

I'm sorry about the drab colors. It was a really overcast day.

Heian Jingu was one of my favorite places on the trip because it has a really beautiful garden. I'm sure it's exceptionally pretty when things are blooming and growing, but I liked it even though we were just a hair early for the cherry blossom season.

It also had some fun stepping stones that traversed some of the man-made ponds in the garden in various places.

Of course, I opted to walk on the stepping stones whenever I could, instead of on the regular paths.

And I especially liked how prettily everything reflected on the surface of the water:

I really hope to go back eventually when the weather is better--it's a beautiful place.

Since Heian Jingu was so conveniently located near the Kyoto Museum of Traditional Craft Arts, we stopped in there after wandering through Heian Jingu's garden. I say "conveniently" because I really wanted to visit this museum, and I laid out our walking plan for the day so we'd be able to go. GPG, who is not a knitter or otherwise crafty person, was less enthusiastic. But he was very patient as I wandered through the whole museum, which was terrific (in my crafty opinion). Photography was not permitted; otherwise, I'd have lots and lots of pictures to show you of all the beautiful things we saw in there.

If you're ever in Kyoto and have any kind of interest in crafty things, you really should visit this Craft Museum. There are certain crafts that are designated as "traditional" in Japan, including various kinds of cloth dyeing, bamboo work, lacquer work, knot-tying, building special Japanese dolls, stone work, and weaving. The museum had a very informative exhibit for each traditional craft, plus excellent English translations (rare in Kyoto) and English-subtitled videos in various places in the museum that showed an artisan demonstrating each craft. In addition, some of the exhibits had step-by-step examples of how a particular item was created, which I really enjoyed. The skill necessary to practice these crafts is really astounding! When I make it back to Heian-Jingu, I will visit the museum again to get a better look at everything.

From Heian-Jingu, we walked north to one of the major tourist attractions in Kyoto: Ginkakuji, a.k.a. the Silver Pavilion.

Unlike Kinkakuji (the Golden Pavilion, which is really golden), Ginkakuji is not actually silver, despite its name. I believe that it was initially intended to be silver, just as Kinkakuji is golden, but the owner ran out of money.

Although I think Ginkakuji originally served as living quarters for a very wealthy man, it was eventually converted into a Buddhist temple.

Ginkakuji is also known for its zen gardens.

The gravel of the garden is molded into a shape vaguely resembling a shield. As you can see, diagonal stripes have been marked out on the surface.

I'm glad I'm not the person responsible for maintaining that rock garden!

Ginkakuji also had beautiful grounds and gardens:

It really was one of the prettiest places we visited, even though the weather was so uncooperative. GPG, with his new SLR camera, was very frustrated with the weather for picture purposes. He actually went back to Ginkakuji later on in the trip to try and get better pictures.

After visiting Ginkakuji, we walked back home on the Philosopher's Path, a path that follows a canal down Kyoto's eastern side. It was pretty, but the sun was going down and our legs were very, very tired. By the time we got back to the Chairpeople's house, my feet and legs were aching with every step. I remember finding it a little funny just how hobbly I was--I felt just like an old woman.

For a final picture, I'm posting something that gave me and GPG endess amusement for the rest of the trip:

If you look closely at the label in the picture, it says:

Very Important Moss
(like VIP)

This display of moss sat next to other displays of presumably less important moss. It was actually pretty interesting to see all these different kinds of moss--in addition to the display shown in the picture, which features 12 different kinds, there were at least 24 more specimens on the same table. And our guide book said there are over a hundred different varieties in Japan. So it was interesting to see some of the different kinds side by side for comparison.

But, what we liked the most was the label. We were able to identify Very Important Moss at all the gardens we visited after that.

Next up: Kinkakuji (the Golden Pavilion), Ryoan-ji, and Ninna-ji! But hopefully some Rooster Rock socks before that.

The Knitterly Letter Swap!

2007-04-02T11:22:00.000-05:00

I'm very excited to be participating in the Knitterly Letter Swap, hosted by Domesticat. I have a super person to write to, plus some nice new stationery that the Chairwoman gave me in Japan. And Domesticat says that there are over 200 participants! I'm quite happy to be one of them. Yay for letters!

Presumably, the person who is supposed to write to me will be coming by this blog sometime soon, so: Hello, fellow letter-writer! I hope you won't be turned off by the excessive travel blogging that's clogging up my blog at the moment. Regularly scheduled knitting content will return soon.

Hope everyone has a good week! Happy letter writing to all the KLS participants!

Eye Candy Friday: A Tree From Heian Jingu

2007-03-30T20:49:00.000-05:00

This is a sculpted tree we saw at Heian-Jingu, a prominent Buddhist shrine in Kyoto. (I'll write more about Heian-Jingu the next time I write about Kyoto.) I really liked how the branches looked spreading out over the water. You can see how the tree needed some man-made support to maintain its artistic growth!

Many thanks to GPG for prettying the picture up for me in Photoshop.

Kyoto, Day 2: The Imperial Palace and Nijo Castle

2007-03-30T20:43:00.000-05:00

On the second day of our visit in Kyoto, GPG and I visited the Imperial Palace grounds and Nijo Castle. Unfortunately, as I looked back over the photos I took, I realized that I didn't take very good documentary pictures to show what we actually looked at. I think this is primarily because GPG was quite the shutterbug, and I unconsciously took fewer pictures because I knew he was taking so many. But I did try to take some interesting pictures, even if they don't really give you an idea of what we actually saw . . .

Kyoto used to be the seat of government for Japan for a long time. (I will paint Japanese history in only very rough strokes, because I am definitely no Japanese historian. GPG says the government moved to Kyoto in the 8th century.) Although the government got moved to Tokyo (I think in 1868?), there are still a number of Imperial properties in and around Kyoto that are preserved, at the government's expense, for historical and cultural reasons.

Fortunately for Kyoto residents and all visitors, this means that all Imperial properties are free of charge for entry. This is key when most other tourist attractions usually charge a fee ranging from 400 to 800 yen, or about $4-8 USD. However, in order to gain access to any of these properties, you have to apply at the Imperial Household Agency for a particular entrance time.

Since we weren't sure how far in advance you had to apply for entrance, we decided to go to the Imperial Palace early on in the trip. It turns out that you can enter the same day you apply, so we got a mid-morning tour of the Imperial Palace that same day--and in English, no less!

This is the gate through which nobility entered in order to visit the Emperor:

The tourist guide told us that the Emperor was so important that all visitors had to arrive on foot, except for a few select visitors who were allowed to arrive in ox-drawn carts.

Among various official state buildings on the Imperial Grounds, there was a very large Throne Hall, where the Emperor historically was crowned. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to get anywhere near it. We could only stand at an internal gate and peer at the building across an great expanse of white gravel. (The rest of the palace grounds, as well as the grounds of pretty much every other historical property we visited, were covered in black gravel. The guide told us that the large walled area in front of the Throne Hall got to have white gravel because of the significance of the Hall. The white gravel was supposed to reflect light better and literally increase/figuratively reflect the luminscence of the Hall and the Emperor.)

The Throne Hall and the wall surrounding it were painted in bright vermillion, which, as I mentioned before, was to ward off evil spirits:

I liked the geometry of the columns and the roofs, which is why I took this picture from this particular angle. If you moved left from my vantage point when taking this picture, eventually you would see the entrance of the gate that led to the Throne Hall (the high roof in the picture covers that gate). Then you could look through the gate over the white gravel and squint at the Throne inside its Hall, which was about the size of my index finger across the distance.

In addition to the "public" buildings, the Imperial Palace also held "private" residential buildings for the Emperor and his family. We didn't get to see the insides of any of these buildings, but we did get a drive-by viewing. Through this gate you can see one of the residential buildings, which were less ornate than the public buildings.

In retrospect, I should have taken more pictures of the buildings to document what we saw, but instead, I mostly took pictures of the Imperial Gardens, which were very beautiful. As GPG and I would learn in later days, many gardens used small ponds and pebbled shores to represent the ocean.

The Imperial grounds clearly demanded a lot of careful horticultural attention. While our tour was walking through, we saw some gardeners tending to an area of Imperial moss under some Imperial trees. (I have some pictures to show later--moss is VERY important in Japan. I had no idea there were so many varieties of moss. Seriously--there are hundreds.) The gardeners were wearing special footie bootlets to avoid damaging the moss, and they were very carefully tearing off pieces of sod and moss by hand and assembling a new mossy lawn. It was very similar to how landscapers here in the U.S. will use pre-grown sod and grass to give someone a new lawn really quickly, except that in the U.S. we just slap those squares of grass down, and we don't really care if you can see the original squares of sod because the grass will grow and cover up the lines between the squares eventually. In contrast, the Japanese gardeners were being very careful about making sure that the new mossy lawn they were making looked organic and natural.

There were also a lot of bridges across many parts of the various ponds we saw. I've seen many so-called Japanese gardens in the U.S. that feature crooked or zig-zaggy bridges that run in right angles, the idea being that evil spirits can't cross those kinds of bridges because they can only travel in straight lines. However, all the bridges I saw in Japan except for one wooden footbridge were perfectly straight.

The Imperial Palace was the only place where we got an English-speaking tour. I suspect that our entire time in Japan was probably somewhat culturally stunted because there was no way we could have learned all the really interesting and cool information about all the places we saw. (Although most historical sites had English-language brochures, those don't really substitute for a detailed tour by a docent who knows what he or she is talking about.) So I appreciated that we did get to learn some interesting tidbits on the Imperial tour, such as how traditional Japanese roofs are constructed:

If you look closely, you can see the hundreds of individual pieces of Japanese cedar wood that form the first, lighter-colored layer of roof just above the gold-embossed support beams. Above that is a layer probably about half a foot thick. That layer is made of millions of strips of cedar about the thickness of . . . maybe two credit cards held together. I.e., if you laid two credit cards together on top of a table, the distance from the top of the stack to the table is about how thick those strips are. I can't imagine how much work it took to make a roof like that. The guide told us that these roofs have very good insulating properties, but they eventually decay, so they have to be redone every five years or so. Incredible!

(And, as a funny side note: The English-language tours are for non-Japanese visitors only. You have to show your passport at the Imperial Household Agency to prove that you're not Japanese. While we were at the Agency to apply for entrance to the Imperial Palace, I wondered aloud to GPG why the English tours were only for non-Japanese. When we were actually on the tour, we found out the reason: we were surpassed by a Japanese-language tour probably five times the size of our English-language tour! The Japanese-language tour guide was using a megaphone to explain everything to the Japanese tourists! Apparently, you have to prove that you're non-Japanese so that you can avoid the cattle-call Japanese-language tour and get the much smaller English-language tour.)

Outside of the Imperial Palace proper, there is a large park still within the walls of the Imperial Grounds. This is one of the few public recreational areas in central Kyoto; we saw lots of people there walking their dogs or jogging or cycling.

We also saw some plum blossoms:

Although we missed the cherry blossom season (we were there too early), we did get to see plum blossoms, which were quite beautiful. I never knew there were so many colors of plum blossoms:

Are you worn out yet? We still went to see Nijo!

Nijo is a fortress that was actually built with strategic considerations in mind. The local shogun lived there, although I don't think that Nijo was actually ever used as a defensive position. Nijo's main curiosity is that the hallways of its buildings have "nightingale" floors that were designed and built to squeak when you trod on them. Beneath the floorboards there were metal fixtures that would rub against the underside of the floorboards and make a squeaky noise when floorboards bore any weight. They were designed to alert the people inside the rooms to the presence of, presumably, assassins.

Even military structures like Nijo were still beautiful! This is the corner of the grounds, where presumably a guard post of some type stood at the juncture of the walls.

My pictures got all disorganized, so this was the only Nijo picture I could dig up where you can actually see why it was a defensive position. The stone walls were immensely thick, and all of the entrances had enormous iron gates:

I'm sorry the pictures aren't so great. I'll try to find some better ones later and maybe post them as Eye Candy Friday pictures.

Like the Imperial Palace, Nijo also had beautiful gardens:

Note the straight bridge!

It was amazing how everything was so carefully cultivated and organized. Even the trees were deliberately shaped, just like bonsai trees. It was very rare that we ever saw trees at a site of historical importance growing without any human-imposed direction.

On an unrelated and final note, perhaps the largest demographic group of Japanese tourists besides uniformed schoolkids were geisha wannabes. Apparently, there are places in Gion, the geisha district, where you can fork over a whole lot of money and get dressed up like a geisha for a day. Of course, there are some people who dress in kimonos and other traditional clothing simply because they like to--they own kimonos like they own regular clothes and they go to work and other public places in them. But we did see lots and lots of women at all the tourist attractions who were playing geisha-for-a-day.

I took this picture at Nijo because I thought it was especially funny to capture a geisha (or at least a pretend geisha) in a very un-geisha-like pose:

The one in orange is posing while the one in pink takes a picture of her. It was amusing to watch--these particular women were clearly tourists, and they stood in very affected poses when taking photos of each other (you can see how the one in orange has her hand up to her face). I gathered that they were recreating some kind of ideal geisha image in their pictures.

That's about all I've got in me to post for today. Next up will be Choen-in, Heian-Jingu, and Ginkaku-ji (a.k.a. the Silver Pavilion)!

Have a good weekend!

Flower Basket Shawl The Third!

2007-03-29T14:14:00.000-05:00

I can't get away from the Flower Basket Shawl pattern, apparently!

This is my VERY belated Christmas present for my grandmother. My grandmother unfortunately got the short end of the stick when it came to Christmas presents, because once I managed to finish everyone else's presents, I had to start work on the Chairman's birthday present and GPG's Valentine's Day socks, which took an interminably long time to knit. It was only after mid-February that I was really able to make any progress on the shawl.

But I love the way it turned out:

(Please forgive the awkward position in the photo. The only clear wall in the apartment is behind the bed, so I was kneeling on the bed while GPG took the picture!)

Pattern: Flower Basket Shawl, of course
Needles: Inox 24" circulars, US 6
Yarn: Fleece Artist merino sock yarn, "Ivory"
Recipient: My grandmother

I was very, very pleased with the Fleece Artist I used. My aunt, who takes care of my grandmother, suggested a neutral sort of color for my grandmother, so I spent a long time last year looking for some kind of white or near-white yarn that wasn't totally white. I didn't want to be utterly bored with the knitting, you know? I didn't want just plain white yarn. But finding hand-painted, white-toned yarn was quite a challenge! Nothing really seemed suitable until I found this Ivory yarn from Fleece Artist.

It's impossible to see in the picture, but in real life the yarn has really beautiful, subtle variegation that changes from cream to gold to silver and back. It's perfect.

And, lucky for me, I still have a whole other skein! I ordered two, just in case, but managed to use up all of just one. I'm thinking about using the other skein for some nice patterned socks, like Pomatomus or Monkey. The variegation is subtle enough that a pattern will really come through.

I can't say enough good things about the Flower Basket pattern. I've knit it three times partly because for a while it was the only shawl pattern I had, but now that I've also knit the Diamond Fantasy pattern for comparison, I appreciate the genius of the Flower Basket much better now. The pattern is really simple, and easily memorizable once you get the hang of it, but it's so beautiful! And I've also decided that I much prefer the flowing, curvy lines of the Flower Basket to the straight, geometric lines of the Diamond Fantasy. I'll seek out new shawl patterns eventually, especially because I have LOTS of silk yarn from Japan, but I'm very happy with the Flower Basket.

Kyoto, Day 1: Kyomizudera and Sanjusangen-do

2007-03-28T17:17:00.000-05:00

On our first full day in Kyoto, GPG and I visited two of the city's most famous temples, Kiyomizudera and Sanjusangen-do, which are conveniently located near where the Chairpeople live. These were two very impressive sights to see to begin our Kyoto adventure!

Kiyomizudera is a very large temple in the eastern hills flanking Kyoto. You walk up a hill and up some steep stone steps and enter through this vermillion gate:

Orange, or vermillion, is a lucky color in Japan. It's intended to scare evil spirits away. We saw quite a lot of orange during our time in Kyoto.

Once you get through the enormous gate, you see this:

There are some temple buildings and shrines towards the front of the temple grounds. I'm not sure what they all are used for.

But the main thing Kyomizudera is famous for is the primary temple building, which is partially built out onto the side of the hill. A lot of pictures of the temple feature this enormous wooden platform:

In the picture, they're kind of small, but you can see a big crowd of Japanese schoolkids all mingling around on the platform. Hopefully their small size gives you an idea of just how big the platform is. The amazing thing is that it's entirely made out of wood. A lot of times during the trip, I was impressed with the historical buildings we were seeing precisely because they were made out of wood--not stone, like a lot of European cathedrals are. It's amazing that wooden buildings like that can last for so long. We're talking centuries, if not millennia! It's really jaw-droppingly incredible.

(Oh, and I think Japanese schoolkids must get lots of field trips, because there were lots of them in all of the cultural/historical places we visited. You couldn't escape them.)

Kiyomizudera is also famous for its fountain. Water pours out of three stone spouts, and people use cups attached to long handles to catch some of it. Supposedly, if you drink the water, you will live a long life. I drank the water. GPG didn't.

On a less crowded side of the temple grounds, I discovered a lot of small stone statutes, all wearing colorful bibs:

A lot of the stones were worn and eroded, but the closest one with the white and red big shows that many of them had an image of Buddha on them. Unfortunately, though, I am not sure what these were all for, or why they were wearing bibs. Bibs are a big thing in Japan; we saw many statutes--not just ones like these, but even very detailed stone and metal statues of lions or foxes--wearing bibs. But we never found someone who could tell us why the bibs were important.

Something else that's very prevalent in Japan is "fortune-tying" (my own term, not theirs!). You can buy fortunes printed on thin strips of paper at practically every temple for the equivalent of about three to five US dollars. I'm not sure how the fortunes are generated, but it's basically a luck-of-the-draw thing (think fortune cookie luck), not a buffet-style thing where you can specify the kind of fortune you want. The Chairwoman told me that if you like the fortune printed on your slip of paper, you keep it, and presumably it will come true. But if you don't like it, it's bad luck to throw the paper away.

So, people tie the fortunes to these little stands posted in places around the temple grounds. I caught some teenagers in action actually tying their fortunes:

In some places, the fortune-tying stands are absolutely covered with tied fortunes. Some of them are shaped like trees so that the tied fortunes look like white leaves. More pictures of these things will come later.

After Kiyomizudera, we got lost, but eventually found Sanjusangen-do, a temple which boasts Japan's longest wooden building. (It may also be the longest wooden building in the world, but I'm not sure.) The building is so long because it contains one thousand (that's right, one THOUSAND) golden statutes of Buddha. It's sort of indescribable; you have to see it for yourself to understand the magnitude of these statutes, all around 6 feet tall, standing in long lines one behind the other, shoulder to shoulder. Unfortunately, you can't take photos on the inside of the temple! So you'll just have to imagine it until you go see for yourself.

The amazing thing about the statutes (besides their number) is that they are all DIFFERENT. They all have subtly different serene expressions on their faces, and they each have multiple arms that are all holding a different object. It's amazing to think about how long it must have taken artisans to carve all these different statutes out of cypress and then coat them with gold. And in the thirteenth century, no less! It was really an impressive sight.

I did manage to get a picture of the garden outside, where a plum blossom tree was blooming:

Behind the garden you can see the building housing all the statutes.

Later on our first day, we went to visit the Chairwoman at the Kyoto International School, where she teaches, and we also got to see a photographer's studio and a kimono-painting studio, which was a real treat. One of the school board members of KIS is a professional photographer, and her father is a well-published and highly regarded photographer as well. She was kind enough to take me and GPG to her family's studio, which features photos from her father, herself, and her husband (it's a family profession!). Many of them were of different temples and gardens in Kyoto and were simply beautiful. Japan is a really stunning country, especially as the seasons are changing.

The photographer also lives in the major textile district of Kyoto, so she took us to a kimono-painting studio nearby. Many kimonos have woven patterns, but there are some that feature painted patterns, with embroidery providing the gold and other metallic embellishments.

The painted kimonos at the studio were astounding. Although kimonos are quite simple in their construction--they basically consist of four long panels of fabric (two long ones for the body, with a shorter one on each side forming the sleeves), their beauty comes from the fabric. As a crafty/fibery person, the kimono-studio was right up my alley.

Some of the kimonos we saw were covered in non-repeating designs that covered all the panels of fabric; these designs were painted on after the kimono was assembled. They were really beautiful--just like works of art, with the kimono as a canvas. But, perhaps even more impressive were the kimonos that featured painting only in certain areas of the kimono, like branches of cherry blossoms that stretched diagonally over the bottom of a kimono and across the sleeves. Although these kimonos featured less painting, they were pieced together from the same bolt of silk! That means that the kimono-painter painted identical (but very intricate) designs repeatedly at certain lengths over the entire bolt of silk. In doing so, he had to be precise enough in his painting that when different kimono panels were cut from the same bolt, the design could be lined up properly to present a seamless painting on the finished kimono when the panels were sewn together. This is probably quite simple to do with machine-printing, and it's also probably feasible with some kind of pattern--but the kimono painter worked entirely free-hand! And the designs were sufficiently intricate that you really couldn't tell that they were repeats, either--it looked as though the painter had taken a fully assembled kimono and painted a single beautiful design onto it. It was really impressive.

However, GPG and I felt that it would probably be wrong and gauche to take pictures inside these private studios, especially when the artists themselves were being kind enough to let in people like us (i.e., people who weren't going to buy anything) and show us around, so there are no pictures of these beautiful things. I really would have liked to show you pictures of these amazing painted kimonos, but to no avail. I do have some pictures of woven kimonos--the latest kimono fashions, apparently!--from my visit to the Nishijin Textile Center, so I'll post those eventually.

It's hard to believe that I was in Japan only last week! Already I am forgetting some of the details of my trip! I'll have to hurry and post some more memories before I forget them entirely!

Next up: The Imperial Palace and Nijo Castle! But before that, a knitting break and another shawl!

Kyoto Fantasy Shawl!

2007-03-27T11:21:00.001-05:00

Hi, folks! I'm back from Kyoto! (Actually, I've been back for five days now, but have only now gotten to surface on the blog. Life has been busy, and I can't believe I was in Japan only last week! The days are really flying by.) And I have lots to blog about!

Japan was GREAT. GPG and I had such a good time there. We spent most of our time in Kyoto, with some day trips to some nearby cities, and we saw almost everything there is to see in Kyoto, which is a lovely, historically rich city. I'm thinking about co-opting the blog for about a week and a half worth of posts to document what we did each day, primarily to record down my memories. That's a pretty selfish endeavor, but I promise that there will be plenty of knitting posts interspersed among the travel posts.

So, to kick things off, I present to you . . .

The Kyoto Fantasy Shawl!

Pattern: Sivia Harding's Diamond Fantasy Shawl
Needles: Inox 24 " circular, US5
Yarn: Koigu, 2 skeins (don't have the labels with me now, so I can't remember which colorway)
Recipient: Me!

I knit this shawl entirely during my trip to Kyoto. I cast on in Terminal B of Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport while we were waiting for our flight to Detroit (where we had a layover), and I cast off on the return flight from Osaka to Detroit eleven days later. I don't sleep well on planes, even on long transoceanic flights, so I was happy to knit most of the time going there and coming back (even if I was completely exhausted at the end of the flights).

The pattern calls for 6 repeats of the diamond stitch pattern for the "scarf," and 10 repeats for the "shawl." Given the other versions of this pattern that I've seen, I figured that I'd knit 6 repeats and then assess my progress. I wanted to wear the shawl on the Saturday after I got back at a fancy schmancy banquet for the journal I work on at school, so it was imperative to finish the shawl before I got back to Houston on Thursday night so that I could block it the day before the banquet. 6 repeats looked like plenty.

I ended up doing 7 repeats, which was just enough to use up all but a few yards or so of 2 skeins of Koigu. I suppose I could have done more repeats and broken into the third skein that I bought just in case, but I was getting very tired on the return flight from Japan. I also didn't want to start on the third skein and use only part of it, which would probably have happened because I was running out of knitting time on the way back. I decided that 7 repeats was probably big enough, and that 1 full skein of Koigu was more useful than half a skein. (Seriously--what can you make with half a skein of Koigu? It's not even enough for baby booties.)

I guess that I must knit lace pretty tightly, though, because the shawl was not as big as I'd hoped, even though I blocked as "severely" as I could, as the pattern instructs. Probably the full 10 repeats in my gauge would have been just right, even though January One's 10-repeat shawl looks totally huge. I also found the I-cord edging to be somewhat fiddly; I probably should have cast off more tightly because the top edge of the shawl is much stretchier than the rest of the shawl, as you can see in the second picture. If I undo the edging, I may just bust into that third skein and knit the remaining repeats.

Anyway, I'm glad to be back home, although I was really unenthused about going back to school yesterday. The good thing to look forward to is that I should be done in about a month and a half! The rate at which time is flying by is just overwhelming . . . !

Off the wagon

2007-03-19T07:31:00.000-05:00

"Hello, I'm Seedless Grape, and I stash yarn."

I'm still in Japan and enjoying the country very much. There's a lot to see, even just around Kyoto where the Chairpeople are, and GPG and I have kept busy every day looking at things.

But today I found one more reason to love Kyoto: SILK YARN!

Yes, folks, I fell off the wagon today. Hard. I went to the Nishijin Textile Center with an eye towards learning about Japanese weaving, but instead I came away with over $100 worth of silk yarn. Despite my best intentions, I lasted for about two and a half months of yarn diet before encountering the beautiful, vibrantly bright, and (pretty much) dirt-cheap yarn that I absolutely HAD to buy today. As GPG pointed out to me, I bought over 2 km of silk yarn (red, blue, pumpkin orange, wisteria purple, and raspberry pink-purple) for about $120. I can't wait to show it to you.

Pictures are forthcoming. I'll be back in the States on Friday and will take some time to organize all the photos I've taken, of yarn and otherwise. Hope everyone is having a good week!

Ohayo gozaimas!

2007-03-12T16:43:00.000-05:00

Good morning from Kyoto! I'm here, and I already like it. Today we are going to explore the city and look at some of the temples and the Imperial Palace. Blogging will be light for two or three weeks, but I'll try to take lots of pictures to show when I get back.

In the meantime, for those who have it--Happy Spring Break!

MPRE, ho!

2007-03-10T07:56:00.000-06:00

Sorry for the lack of blogging this week. I had an edit to do for my journal at school this week, which sucked up a lot of my time, and after I turned that in I've been scrambling to study for the MPRE and to get ready for my trip--on Sunday, GPG and I will leave for Kyoto, Japan!

But right now, I'm off to take the MPRE. Here's to mediocrity on official exams! All I have to do is pass. So I hope I'm professionally responsible . . . but just enough.

Less than Perfect

2007-03-06T18:07:00.000-06:00

After my success with the Torrid Socks, I'm afraid the current knitting is somewhat less than perfect.

First, an Odessa:

The Odessa is somewhat less than what I had wanted because I hadn't realized that the beads I chose (semi-translucent white beads) would fade so much into the pale lavender yarn. I bought the beads to use with a dark red yarn (the same stuff I used for my Shedir), this lavender yarn, and a cornflower blue yarn, all Cashsoft DK. The beads looked great on the red yarn, and I think they will be fine for the blue yarn, but they completely disappear in the lavender yarn. You can't even see them in the knitting in the picture, and you definitely can't see the remaining beads stranded on the working end of the yarn. So I am somewhat disappointed. I'll keep soldiering on, though, since this is intended to be a graduation present for a law school friend who's heading off to Palo Alto, CA.

Second, a blue Retro Rib sock:

I'm a little less than thrilled with this sock, too. I'm using KnitPicks Essential Sock yarn, and it's a perfectly acceptable workhorse yarn, but after knitting with luxurious handpainted yarns, the Essential yarn is something of a letdown. It's somewhat scratchy and rough on the hands, and it's not as tightly spun as Socks that Rock, Koigu, or the Wollmeise yarn I've been treating myself to lately. So the stitch definition is not as clear as it would be with a neater yarn.

I'm happy to be knitting the sock, since it's an ingenious pattern that I've wanted to knit up ever since I lost/had stolen a satchel containing a practically finished pair of Retro Rib socks in Lorna's Laces' "Gardenia" colorway. I have lots of handpainted, variegated yarns that I need to knit up, but I'm reluctant to use these yarns for anything more complex than stockinette or plain ribbing, because I've come to the conclusion that more complicated patterns and variegated yarns really don't mix. The Essential yarn is some of the only plain yarn I have, and I was itching to do something more complicated than regular ribbing, so I'm satisfied with the way the sock is turning out. But the knitting certainly isn't as nice as the original Retro Rib/Lorna's Laces experience.

But, beggars who are knitting exclusively from their stash can't be choosers. I'll just power on through these two less-than-perfect knits to move on to the more exciting parts of the stash.

Torrid Socks

2007-03-05T10:51:00.000-06:00

The Torrid (hee!) Socks, a.k.a. the Southwestern Easter Egg Socks, are done!

Stockinette + studying for the MPRE = fastest socks ever. I finished these in exactly one week.

I love how the colors didn't really pool all that much (although, of course, it can't be helped around the heel):

Pattern: My own. Generic cuff-down pattern, 60 sts in circumference.
Yarn: Socks that Rock, "Torridon"
Needles: US1 Addi Turbos, 16" and 24" circulars
Recipient: Maybe the Pianist (my new sister-in-law) for her birthday. I made the socks a bit snug on me, so they should be just right for her.

These socks were a great first experience with STR. The colors are unusual but beautiful, the yarn is a pleasure to knit with, and the yardage in the skein is generous--I had a lot left over. I can't wait to knit up the remaining two skeins I have!

Eye Candy Friday: Galveston Sunset

2007-03-02T16:05:00.000-06:00

I took this photo one weekend in January. The sun was setting and some kind of front was moving in. It made for a nice scene.

Happy knitting to you this weekend!

A Southwestern Easter Egg

2007-03-01T14:14:00.000-06:00

Currently on the needles: Socks That Rock, "Torridon."

I picked out this yarn for the next pair of socks because I knew I needed to dive in head-first and start using up the sock stash. As I've said before, sometimes I don't want to knit with yarn because it's so beautiful! But I know that I need to get over that reluctance, because what's the point of buying yarn if you don't knit with it?

So I picked out this STR yarn, "Torridon," mostly because the colors were somewhat Eastery and I thought they might be good Easter-type socks. (Of course, I'm seven years old, so associating a word very close to "Torrid" with "Easter" cracks me up.) Knitting up the yarn really makes me marvel at the color genius of those fine ladies at Blue Moon Fiber Arts. The colors are beautiful--mustard yellow, deep lavender, sky blue, terra cotta red-brown, and shades in between all these colors--but I never would have put them together and thought, "That'd be a great colorway!"

The yarn is knitting up differently from how it appears in the skein, though. I can't quite explain it, but I guess my initial impression of the yarn in the skein was "Blue-Yellow-Purple." At least, those are the colors I remembered most. But knitting up the yarn, I see that the terra-cotta color and some brown sections predominate with the mustard yellow a lot more than I originally thought they would. It makes me think of the Southwest, for some reason, although I've never really visited the iconic Southwest (like Santa Fe) and wouldn't really know. I guess it's' the terra cotta. Anyway, when I was describing the yarn to GPG, I said it was like a "Southwestern Easter egg."

This picture may give you a better idea of how the colors are playing out:

I've actually made a fair amount of progress since I took these photos on . . . Monday, I think. I'm knitting plain stockinette socks to show off the colors better, so progress is quick. I should have some finished socks by next week, at the latest.

Heh. "Torrid." "Easter." I'm seven.

Eggplant gloves

2007-02-28T16:23:00.000-06:00

Just when it gets to be too warm in Austin for gloves, I finish . . .

A pair of gloves.

Actually, these gloves have been sort of done for a while. I made them out of the leftover eggplant Opal yarn that I used to make my Armwarmers, but didn't get around to weaving all the ends in for a long time. They especially got pushed to the backburner while I was trying to finish up all of GPG's Valentine presents.

Still, regardless of my unwillingness to suck it up and weave in the ends (gloves have so many ends to weave in!), there's no denying that it's been too warm for gloves in Austin for a while now. I will just have to save these babies for next fall/winter.

This past winter, I wore a pair of glittens that I made a little over a year ago out of some Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport. They are nice enough, but I think the looseness of the mitten top lets my fingers get colder than I would really like when the temperature's down. Also, I wasn't too careful with the thumbs, so they both ended up being a little short. So I decided to try knitting up some gloves and was very careful about making sure all the fingers fit properly. Fitting the fingers is actually harder than it initially seems. I ended up reknitting all the fingers on one of the gloves at least twice.

Pattern: Gloves from Ann Budd's Handy Book of Patterns
Yarn: Louet Gems Opal, eggplant purple
Needles: Brittany Birch US 5 DPNs
Recipient: Me

The gloves seem warm enough, but they haven't really been put to the test. I may try them out in Japan, since it looks like it will still be a little chilly when we go in a couple weeks. But if the gloves turn out not to be as warm as I hope, at least that will give me some extra incentive to knit up some Anemoi mittens!