Chapeau Marnier brim

Look, knitting!

I’ve started Chapeau Marnier from the Summer 2007 issue of Knitty. I’m knitting this hat as a chemo cap for a friend of a friend who is in need. This is the brim. It’s knit in a fun lace pattern. I’m up to the straight stockinette, now.

We were asked to knit pretty things, and I can’t think of anything prettier than this lovely pattern in this amazing yarn.

I can hear you out there, gentle reader, saying Judy has finally completely lost it. It’s gray. But… it’s not. It’s silver. Stitchjones Glam Sock in Silver, to be exact. I thought the silver would be fun, and also neutral in color. A ribbon trim is threaded through the elongated stitches you can see in the picture. FOF can change the color of the ribbon to suit mood or wardrobe.

I have been trying unsuccessfully to photograph this yarn. I have tried all kinds of angles and lighting conditions and flash vs. no flash. This is the best I got. But it totally and completely fails to do any justice to this yarn. I swear the wound-up skein looks like a work of art. I’m exceedingly tempted to display it on my mantel like a small, gorgeous sculpture. But, with it’s mix of merino, silk (20% for nice sheen), nylon and real silver (that’s the sparkly bits) it’s too yummy not to knit with. Do click on the pic for the biggy version. Those little thin white lines and dots… those aren’t dust or digital artifacts – that’s silver sparkles.

Perhaps the reaction of my non-knitting friend L will help to describe it. All L could say was, It’s so soft! . . . It’s so sparkly! . . .

Yes, it is! And I have more of it in Santa Baby and my favorite Black Cherry. Ooooo… shiny!

By the way, for all of you looking for the Andean Chullo Hat pattern or its kin, I have it on very good authority that Knit Picks will eventually have the kit back in stock. They were just totally surprised by the number of orders they received. Please take a deep breath and be patient and let them catch up.

Broad Street mittens

This is Secret Project #1 that I have not been able to show you until now. It was the last finished object of 2008. I am modeling these because I wasn’t sure of my ability to get #1 Son to pose. (click the pics to embiggen) They’re a little big on me, but fit him perfectly.

I had really a lot of fun knitting these. I made the thumbs also convertible, because that seemed cool and fun. It took me several tries to get a thumb I liked, but I’m really happy with the way that these turned out.

The buttons were a happy find at Jo-Ann. They are made from a polyresin material that’s flexible, so the buttons won’t break and won’t hurt his wrist if #1 Son bangs them against something accidentally.

#1 Son’s take: Oh, yes! Do you know how hard it is to find mittens with convertible thumbs? You just can’t get them. These are awesome! And the buttons – how cute are those! And look, I can hang them up by the loops! How did you get them just the right size? [ed. I followed the pattern and crossed my fingers]

Broad Street mittens

The Particulars:

• Yarn: Blue Moon Socks That Rock medium weight Mill End in an unknown colorway that I picked up at Tina’s destashing sale
• Buttons: JHB Clay Swirl buttons purchased at Jo-Ann
• Needles: a pair of Addi Turbo 24″ circulars, US#3 (3.25 mm) and a pair of Addi Lace 24″ circulars, US#2 (3.00 mm)
• Pattern: Broad Street by Janis Cortese
• Modifications:
  • I ribbed all of the fingers because #1 Son likes the fingers snug
  • I made the thumb also convertible by knitting it in stockinette and ribbing the last 3 rows. Then I followed the directions for the mitten part, except in miniature, to add the convertible part, except I kit the end following the thumb instructions so it would look and fit right. (hope that made sense)

Andean Chullo

And this is Secret Project #2 – the Andean Chullo Hat Kit from Knit Picks.

It became the first finished object of 2009 because I was up until the wee hours weaving in little ends that I stupidly did not weave in as I went. And there were a @%#! bunch of them, gentle reader. After sleeping for a few hours, the hat got a very quick steam-block, which fortunately turned out to be all it needed. I sewed the tassels on in between dinner preparations and such. It was finished, photoed and wrapped about an hour before #1 Son showed up for dinner. Whew.

#1 Son’s take: Mom! you are really rockin’ this knitting stuff! This is the best hat ever, and it fits perfectly. Look at the little alpacas on the earflaps! Too cute! My friends are going to be so jealous. They couldn’t believe all the kitted stuff from you that I wore when it was cold and snowy. [ed. that warms the cockles of my heart! what more could a mom want to hear?] So you had to finish this and is that the reason I couldn’t come up on Christmas? [ed. No! that wasn’t it at all!] Haha… Oh, yeah… there was this snow thing, huh.

Andean Chullo closeup

Here’s a closeup of the main body of the hat. I’m using this picture as my iPhone wallpaper now. 😉

The Particulars:

• Pattern: Knit Picks Andean Chullo Hat Kit
• Yarn: Knit Picks Pallette included in the kit – 100% Peruvian Highland Wool, 231 yds/50 gr per ball – portions of 9 colorways: Sweet Potato, White, Bark, Semolina, Pimento, Blue, Clover, Masala and Pool. There’s plenty left over for another hat, or two, or three.
• Modifications: none. Really. The pattern is a choose your own adventure. You pick one of two earflap charts, four of six pattern band charts, and one of two different hat top charts. Colors are suggested but not dictated and I did change one or two.

Andean Chullo inside

And for those of you just dying to see the inside (you know who you are), here you go.

I’m a two-handed fair-isle knitter — that is I hold one color in my left hand and pick it, and the other color in my right and throw it. Philosopher’s Wool has a wonderful video that shows this technique. Their technique recommends not having floats longer than two stitches. On this hat I have floats up to 5 stitches. Do watch their video if you have not done so before. Their weaving stitches are very cool.

I will probably knit another of these hats and be a bit more adventurous with the colors. The kit came with enough yarn to knit several.

modeling the goods

Happy #1 Son with his hat and mittens. 😀 He wore the hat for a goodly portion of the time he was here, so I think it was very successful.

I made a pot of chili and a pan of corn bread. We ate and watched Mission: Impossible III on cable – which is way fun when you can cheer Tom on and jeer the bad guys and discuss the physical possibilities of actually doing any of the stunts in real life and why the heck can’t they get a better camera angle than that one and isn’t the technology and aren’t the gadgets just the coolest things ever?

The chili came from a kit that was a gift from one of my cousins. The kit was made by the Women’s Bean Project, a nonprofit organization that helps women to transform their lives and move to self-sufficiency by teaching entry-level job readiness and life skills. My kit came with enough for two batches of chili – one Firehouse and one Mild – and spices for two batches of salsa.

The chili mix comes with the beans and spices, and you add a can of tomatoes, onion and green peppers. I had made the Firehouse chili earlier in the week, and found it very mild and in need of salt. #1 Son and I both like our chili pretty hot, and if that was the Firehouse I couldn’t imagine how mild the Mild would be.

So, besides the tomato, onion and green pepper, I added a bit of salt, a big Anaheim chili and about a tablespoon of dried chipotle chili. ( The kit suggested adding a teaspoon of chili powder if desired. teaspoon… hahahahaha) I’m not sure how much chili I added because I poured it in until I thought it looked like enough but it was probably around a tablespoon.

For some reason the beans refused to soften up all the way – and I’m sure that was cook’s mistake somewhere, although I followed what I usually do with dried beans. But I was also trying to get a hat finished, so I may have been distracted. At any rate, some of the beans had a sort of al dente texture – nice in pasta but not quite what you want in beans. But the chili tasted wonderful! #1 Son ate two helpings and took the leftovers home.

The cornbread was from the recipe on the back of the Albers Yellow Cornmeal box. It’s the recipe I’ve always used – fast, easy, and comes out great.

#1 Son’s take on dinner: Perfect chili, Mom! Good and hot, but not so hot that it’s not really tasty. What kind of chli did you add? Good choice! And you always make the best cornbread ever! I tell all my friends how good your cornbread is.

Do you think I should tell him what recipe I use? Nah… 😉

shoes

Yesterday I wore my favorite store-bought sweater. It’s my favorite because, first of all, it’s a henley-style pullover and I find those very comfortable. And it’s a silk / mohair / wool blend, so it’s very warm but light-weight. And it’s bright rainbow stripes separated by black stripes. So, while colorful it’s not obnoxious. And when I bought it, it was on close-out, and marked down, and then put in the final sale rack, and I had a coupon. So a $120 sweater cost me $15. I should have bought two of them. But I digress.

Yesterday I wore my favorite store-bought sweater. As I waited for the elevator, one of my colleagues said to me, That’s a very bright sweater! It’s nice on a gray day like today.

I thanked him, and he continued, With all those colors, you could wear those with any socks and shoes you wanted! Then he looked at my feet.

Oh, he said, you did! 😆 We both chuckled all the way down in the elevator.

Did I tell you I also love my Danskos?

unburied Barry Bear

I escaped on Saturday.

I can’t begin to tell you how good it felt just to do normal things like buy groceries. But my first stop was to one of the LYS, where Cindy happened to be working. I gave her a big hug! It was so good – so good, gentle reader, to be back amongst my peeps. And I got to show Cindy my finished secret project, and she agreed that it’s pretty kick-ass. I bought some Addi Turbos in celebration.

Well, and because I really needed some shorter circs for the new secret project that I’m working. I knew I wouldn’t finish it by Christmas. But New Years? I might make it if I knit really a lot between now and then. And Christmas, you know, is coming a little late this year since everything was put on hold by the snow.

Since I have no knitting pictures I can show you, I’m giving you one last picture of Barry The Berry Bear, finally uncovered from his long winter nap. I took this on Saturday, when there was still a bit of stubborn ice and snow left to melt. It’s all gone now. The ruler is for size comparison. It’s 16″ long. In the end, the snow completely covered Barry. Not even the tip of his paw showed through. I don’t have a picture of that because, well… all you could see was snow. But, I would guess that the chez PI unofficial snow depth was right around 18″.

That’s a lot of snow.

I haven’t seen that much snow since I left SE Idaho. Although Bro, who is in SE Idaho for Christmas along with SIL and amazing niece Z, assures me that they do have a bit more snow there.

They can keep it.

P.S. The robin is still guarding the Asian pear tree. 😀

P.P.S. I made a slight change to the blog look. There are little pictures for commenters now. If you have a gravatar already, it will use it. If not, it will assign you a little face. It uses your email address in some sort of hash routine to come up with one that is uniquely yours. Comment and see what you get. The assigned pictures will only show up in the comments list under the post, but not in the sidebar. Your own gravatar will show up both places. I think the little pics are cute, but we all know I’m easily amused. Let me know what you think!

buried Barry Bear

First, before we get to the knitty gritty (haha), here is the obligatory snow update. Yes, I know gentle reader… snow… ick. But I have been living this for the last week, so work with me here.

It snowed all night last night and has been coming down pretty steadily this morning. Poor Barry The Berry Bear is buried (say that 5 times fast). He will be in a snow cave soon, whether he wants to be or not. I can only see the tip of his nose and one forlornly raised paw. (Sorry for the pic suckage, but I took this through the window glass. Not going out there. Nope.)

Thank you to everyone who entered! It was lots of fun. I had a blast reading your comments. I’m sort of a tool nerd.

The tools picture in the contest was cobbled together from clip art, although I have a ball peen hammer that looks just like that one, and it’s my favorite hammer ever. But that also means that I don’t have these objects actually in hand to look at.

I didn’t realize that the business end of the tin snips (?) was hidden by the screwdriver handle until y’all started commenting on it. So I threw that one out. Or gave it to everyone, whichever way you want to look at it.

The big bucket thing is listed by the clip art program as a bucket grinder, which is not very helpful. I’m pretty sure it’s not a cider press, a butter churn, glue pot, oil can, paint mixer or carburetor cleaner. Sausage stuffer is a possibility. Or my thought was a mash tun. In any case, no matter what terms I googled, I never found a picture of anything that looked like it. So I threw that one out, too. But I had tons of fun reading all your guesses! My readers are so inventive and creative! 😎

The correct answers to the tools contest are (drum roll please):

• ball peen hammer
• duct tape
• packing tape
• 5 nut drivers
• compass divider
• 3 screwdrivers
• cordless drill
• crescent wrench
• 8 allen wrenches (no extra credit for the ring, although Dave does point out that it makes a decent bottle opener. Having once opened beer bottles with tweezers, I can appreciate this)
• tin snips? – probably. Thrown out.
• bucket grinder? – your guess is as good as mine. Thrown out.

Mountain Colors Flathead Cherry

There were four people who got all of them right (except for the two eliminated items). I couldn’t stand to leave one of them out, even if it would have been random and yadda yadda. So I dug around in my stash and found this skein of Mountain Colors in Flathead Cherry, which I believe is a discontinued colorway.

To choose who got what, I wrote the names on slips of paper and put them in a hat. And I listed the yarns on other slips of paper and put them in a different hat. The hats actually looked a lot like box tops because I seem to be hat challenged right now. I then closed my eyes and picked a slip from both hats as a pair. I didn’t look at who got what until I had picked all four pairs.

And the winners, in alphabetical order, are (another drum roll please):

Amber – Zen Yarn Garden Bamboolicious in Creamsicle

Bonnie – Mountain Colors in Flathead Cherry

Holly – Blue Moon Socks That Rock Medium in Calico

Tami – Schaefer Anne in Toni Morrison

The winners have been emailed, and their yarn will be winging its way to them just as soon as I can get unburied enough to mail it out.

I love tools

Yesterday was an interesting day, gentle reader.

First, thank you to everyone who clicked through to Jack Bog’s Blog for Buck-A-Hit Day. $9,920 was raised for very deserving local groups. Thank you, thank you!

It was also interesting because it was the day that I decided, rather early in the morning, to upgrade to WordPress 2.7. I’d been playing around with 2.7 on my local computer, and everything looked OK. But, when I moved it up to the web server where y’all can see it… it was not a happy experience. 😳

I’m really sorry to anyone using IE who started getting can’t load this site messages. I know it was awhile before I noticed. There were some things not playing well together. I got out all of the tools at my disposal and fixed it as fast as I could.

You might have also noticed a few things coming and going, appearing and disappearing. That was caused by the need to upgrade a few plugins that I thought were OK. It should all be back in place now.

I think it’s done. If you find anything that’s broken, please let me know.

I love yarn, too

Because of all of that, I think it’s time for a contest. I haven’t had one for a really long time, and I’ve been meaning to. And now it’s the holidays and I’m snowed in and all. So it’s time.

I have three skeins of yarn to give away, so that means I will have three lucky winners.

Left-to-right, Zen Yarn Garden Bamboolicious in Creamsicle; Blue Moon Socks That Rock Medium in Calico; Schaefer Anne in Toni Morrison.

I’d forgotten all about that Calico when I was searching for yarn to make fingerless gloves from. My forgetfulness will be your gain!

Here’s the contest: the first picture in this post is a bunch of tools. Name all of them – every single one – in the comments. I will draw from amongst those who name all of them to select the winner. If nobody names all, I will draw from those who have the most correct. Be sure to click on the picture to see the biggie size.

The rules: Tell me how many tools there are and name them. You can’t say something like a collection of widgets of varying sizes. You may say 9 widgets of various sizes.

All of the tools are in plain sight – none are hidden. There’s one there that may be obscure. But why should I make this too easy?

Contest will close Sunday night at midnight Pacific Time. Decision of the judge (that would be this intrepid reporter) are final. Blah, blah, blah.

Have fun!