I’ve been busy….

When all else fails, start another project…. Vine Lace Cardigan (from Sweaterbabe.com) in Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Bulky, Sable colorway.

Originally, I used my $30 Knit Picks gift certificate from Christmas for this project, and ordered Cadena in Thyme colorway for it.  To my dismay, Cadena was all in hanks instead of the skeins Wool of the Andes was in when I made Cabled Coat last year.  Despite what that, I made a swatch of one skein and found that Cadena really wasn’t right for the project, so I returned it.  In technical terms, Cadena didn’t have enough fluff to it, and when knit up to achieve the proper guage, the resulting fabric was loose, holey and lacked character.

It’s nice yarn though, and is a pleasure to knit with.  The color was perfect: not quite deep olive green, not quite light brown, and somewhere in-between, but I’m also quite pleased with my color choice of Lamb’s Pride Bulky.

I’ve also started Shoulder Cozy from Wrap Style.

Actually, I started that sometime in September, swatching and swatching, trying to find the right gauge, but by the time I cast on for it, it was mid-October. I’m using stash yarn for this, which is Reynolds Smile in a green-yellow-teal multi colorway. Smile was supposed to be for crocheted slippers that never made it to the hook.

Meanwhile, I haven’t given up on Shawl Neck Cardigan, but it’s become my on-the-go project to carry in my purse. I’ve passed the halfway point on it, but it will probably be finished in January.

What else?  Here’s my order from Frenchy Bee:  a bottle of almond (orgeat) syrup for my coffee, chestnut paste as a topping for ice cream, 4 tins of Anis de Flavigny violet flavored drops or mints (not minty, but tastes like violets—an old favorite of mine).

Then, I needed to re-stock on my Vegemite, and tired of having to find a local place that carries it because supply is unpredictable, I boldly ordered a 400-gram jar of it from a vendor on Amazon.com.  Normally, I get a 150-gram jar but my kids have taken a liking to it, and even though they get just a scant amount on their toast every now and then, we’ve been going through my little jar quickly and since it lasts forever, I went for the big jar.

I shocked my family the other day, and made a full, real meal, the prime focus of which were these delicious split Rock Cornish Game Hens, broiled with a vinegar and broth sauce from How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman, Smashed Red Potatoes from marthastewart.com, and roasted broccolini from The Gastrokid Cookbook by Hugh Garvey and Matthew Yeomans.  The silence at the table was deafening as they feasted.

I’ve been going through stuff to get rid of, and one thing I came across was this helpful book that my dad gave to me a long, long time ago; I guess he was concerned that I wasn’t married yet.

That book always irks me.  Still.  Time to get rid of it.

Then there are the bags and bags of clothes for my daughter that have been passed on to us, and have been waiting for me to sort through.  The best item I found, which I find bewildering in so many ways:  a pink 100% cashmere sweater.  Cashmere.  In a 2-year old size.  Barely worn (I can imagine why).  Cashmere for a 2-year old?  Cashmere sweater given away.  We’ll take it.

We’re back into the rainy season.  I find it rather soothing to hear it on our roof, even though it makes for blurry views from the windows and dim lighting inside.

This is so annoying!

Don’t you hate it when this happens? There you are, with a project in mind, and don’t you think the yarn could at least cooperate? Ugh!

This happened while trying to do a test swatch with a previously unused skein of Lamb’s Pride Bulky, and this what I get when I tried to pull from the inside of the skein. No reflection on the yarn. Grrr…I hate it when this happens!

Please help save Liam.

Photo courtesy of www.saveliam.org

My heart breaks for this child….I went to high school with his father.

Please visit www.saveliam.org.

It’s downhill from here…

Now past the half-way point for Shawl Neck Cardigan I am pleased that I have gotten this far along. Honestly, I thought I was going to frog it as I did much earlier on back in January. I haven’t been enjoying the process here, not at all. I get kind of turned-off by projects that have instructions that read like this: “repeat this step 11 times every 4th row and at the same time repeat that other step 20 times every other row.” I think this is mostly because if I’m really lucky, I have a short amount of knitting time available every day, and projects like this seem to be ones where I lose track of where I’m at, and I begin to dread the how the project is going to turn out, and then it’s like, Why bother? It probably isn’t going to look very good. Despite this, though, it looks promising, but here I am at the part with the odd number of steps to keep track of and do it in mirror image of the other half of the cardigan and I hear the voices of procrastination and negativity whispering to me, “Give up! It will never work!” Having gone this far though, it’s unlikely I’ll abandon the project completely. At least, I think so.

Last week we celebrated my son’s 5th birthday and somehow I got it all together on very little preparation and shopping time and it was a success. Of course, it was the complete opposite of last year, when he didn’t get much of a celebration on his actual day because we were in Geneva, Switzerland, and I ended-up throwing together a belated party a few weeks later after we got home.

Personally, I’d like to be in Switzerland right now. And if I could find a good spa there where I could veg and have someone rub my feet and my shoulders 24/7, while eating chocolates from Tristan of Bougy-Villars (Switzerland), I would be quite happy.  I can see that hillside that Tristan is located on, sloping down to Lake Geneva and the fall sun warming the grapes on the vines.

Ah. That was was a nice mental break.

Those were the days…

I don’t know what came over me, but last night I remembered a sweater I’d knit about 20 years ago and that I no longer have.  It wasn’t an old favorite sweater, but it was a could-have-been-a-fave.  It wasn’t an old fave because the way it turned out was disappointing; it never looked like the photo in the pattern book, Pingouin No. 62.  Remembering that sweater caused me to set about searching for that pattern book, which I still have.  You can say it:  “Packrat.”  In fact, I’ve knitted two patterns from Pingouin No. 62, and turning it’s pages sent me back in time to when I was single and would longingly look at the pictures of couples modeling sweaters and I would dream of such romance and such knitting.

Although there is no publication information in the book, it’s quite the ’80s look throughout, and it’s a bit scary.

I think you can tell by looking at the cover, just how ’80s we’re talking, okay? But there are some good sweaters to be had in it, and my problem is to decide if it’s my old 1980s self coming back saying how great they look, or if my 2009 self can win and help me see that some (not all) of these sweaters have no place in the current era. Do you know what I’m saying here? I think my head is stuck in a time warp. Have you ever seen someone who is older, who still wears the actual clothes they wore 20 years before and they think it’s just fine and haven’t a clue how funny they look? No, that’s not me…or at least I don’t think so. No, I know that’s not me, because I have people who would tell the truth no matter how much it hurts.

Anyhow, look at the two I’ve knit—

This one I’ve knit three times (don’t they look romantic?  Sigh).  The first one  I knit in Pingouin Pingolaine (I think), in natural, and I just loved it. In fact, I still have it, because I dig it out when it gets really cold and I’m going to be outside for a bit. Don’t worry, it doesn’t look like I’ve been dancing to Duran Duran or something, and it just serves as my last resort sweater. I do think it’s time to pitch it though, but it’s hard to let go of my knits. Real hard. Besides, it’s slightly felted from when I washed it a long time ago, so it doesn’t look so oversized anymore.

Perhaps because of the felting, I later made the same Aran-style pattern in some superwash wool that I bought from WEBS and I made it into a blue cardigan in 1990. I loved that huge, oversized cardigan. It was with that cardigan that brought me to the decision to never knit for anyone (paying for the yarn, or anything else, for that matter) again, because a coworker liked my cardigan so much that she begged me to make the same one for her, so I did. It turned out well enough considering that I’d made a few sweaters by then, and I was and am no professional knitter, but she criticized the way the buttonband curled slightly at the bottom, and she went on and on about it. I politely refused to reknit it, and pointed-out that it was a handmade sweater and that if she wanted something that didn’t look handmade to go buy one. I was very nice about, and maybe too nice, considering how much work I put into it. I think I even offered to give her her money back, but she didn’t accept my offer. Shortly afterward, another coworker asked me if I would knit something for her too, but I was not going down that road again.

The above pattern I knit with Pingouin Fleur du Laine in navy, and I was so disappointed with it because the collar was all loose and floppy. I think this one would fly in today’s look, don’t you? Maybe I could make it less boxy, but it is a jacket, so it could get by looking a bit oversized. I would love to make another one, but I don’t think this is a good time for me to be starting an Aran weight yarn sweater. Too busy these days.

This is the one that got away. I wanted to make this one, but finances made it hard to rationalize spending so much on another knitting project. Back in the day when I learned how to knit, I was either in college and or working jobs that barely paid my rent, and in the ’80s everything was oversized, causing the price of a handknit sweater to approach prices well beyond my reach. It is for this reason that I didn’t knit much until about 10 years ago. I just couldn’t afford the luxury and I thought I had to take special classes to learn how to knit sox and mittens, and for some reason, it didn’t occur to me to make scarves. Maybe because back then scarves were more stockinette and didn’t have the fun stitch patterns and colors that they do now.

So that’s my little trip down knitting memory lane, for today, at least, because there are the two Phildar pattern books I have from back then. We’ll explore them another day. Happy knitting dreams to you!

Whew! Back to school.

Heavenly trio: marocchino, Perrier, and croissant

I popped into French Bakery in Kirkland today for a quick bite to eat and a marocchino (an espresso drink), which Ms. Adventure’s in Italy so aptly called “Heaven in a Cup”. My son YM started preschool this week, and although I’ll miss him, it is a relief to me that he will be someplace to expend all that almost 5-year old energy in a safe, loving and supportive environment and under the guiding, patient and capable hands of his teachers, each of whom are my rock. You know, I think I learn more from his preschool teachers than he does.  So I took my daughter MR shopping at Sur La Table for a wedding gift for a friend: a Bialetti Moka Express.

Of course, the reason I went to French Bakery was to get a package of pre-ground Attibassi coffee to add to the wedding gift…or maybe that was the excuse to go there and have a croissant and a marocchino…okay, that’s the real reason I went. It was a lovely break, with YM in school and MR asleep in the Ergo carrier, it was 2:00 and I still hadn’t eaten lunch so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to take a rest during a busy day.  To the gift package I added a copy of the cookbook Pasta Harvest, by Janet Fletcher, which I bought gently used (really never used) through a seller on Amazon.com (I guess it’s out-of-print, because new books aren’t available).  As some of you may be familiar, I have used my copy a few times, and I am sure that the foodie groom and his bride will enjoy this book too.

The day ended well with Alex and I leaving the babysitter with MR and YM crying as we made our escape to a parent orientation meeting for preschool.  While there I was able to put in a few more rows on Shawl Neck Cardigan.

I don’t know, this thing is taking too long for me. My fingers are getting itchy to move onto something else. You know, something I can see finished before next summer. Maybe some gloves or a sweater in something truly satisfying like a nice bulky wool.

[Sorry for the cell phone pictures, but sometimes you have to make due.]

Fairest One Of All

Or, at least in my home she is.

We’ve been back from South Korea for two and a half weeks now and we’ve hit the ground running with an almost-5-year old and a 13-month old in the house. Life is both good and hectic for us these days. Our son YM has discovered that anticipating his baby sister MR has a flip-side: sharing Mom. From the moment they first met, they were thick as thieves and they truly enjoy eachother, however they are both facing the new reality of no longer being the sole center of attention as they each had enjoyed previously before they were brought together under one roof.  If only I’d known that instead of buying YM new toys, all we had to do was bring another child onto the scene for him to rediscover how special his old and long-forgotten baby toys really are.  MR is adjusting much better than we’d expected and she’s a lot of fun.  It’s a whole new world figuring out what she’s going to wear everyday, although I’m no fashionista, and trying to get her hair from getting food or nose-goo in it and trying to get barrettes to stay in it (they keep sliding out).

I hope to follow-up with additional posts about the trip, but these days I can’t promise much, except that tomorrow the sun will rise and there will be dirty diapers and laundry to wade through.

On the knitting side, I was pretty realistic about how many knitting opportunities I’d have on the trip and brought just two active projects, Bird’s Eye Shawl and Shawl Neck Cardigan, and I actually made some progress on both. By the way, I’m kicking myself these days for my never ending attraction to projects that call for small needles/gauge. I also brought a new Wine and Roses Mitts project that I sort of started months ago, and haven’t done much more than about 5 rows. I didn’t work on Wines and Roses, but I brought it along as my if-all-else-fails project, since I’m using US 0/2.0 mm needles for it, I figured that if security had issues with my other two projects (unlikely) on the plane they’d have a hard time justifying taking the needles for this one, because they’re bamboo and thinner than a toothpick. Whenever I fly I always make sure that: the projects I take on board are thin-needle projects (though most of mine are), that I always transfer the projects to bamboo needles ahead of time, and that with the exception of sock or glove projects, I use circular bamboo needles, and for the sock/glove projects I use short double-pointed bamboo needles. Also, I don’t use the two-circular needle method on a plane because it attracts more attention, and I figure that if I really want to be able to knit, it’s best to keep a low profile.

Thank you all for your support, prayers and well-wishes in our endeavor to adopt MR.  It seemed like such a long, never-ending ordeal and it was at times very uncertain for our situation, but in reality, in the scope of international adoption, the time-span we waited was not bad at all.  It just seemed longer.  One thing I can say about the process is, that with the adoption of both our children, once we had them in our arms any frustrations about the wait just melted away.  Whew!

We’re off to Korea!

Monday, we got the call of all calls that every adoptive parent waits for:  we were told we could go to Korea to get MR.  It seemed the waiting had become so never-ending that we’d kind of gone numb, and just as when we adopted YM four years ago, the call came at a time when we had truly resigned ourselves to wait and we’d really stopped talking about it much.  Now comes the mad dash to pack and prepare for the trip, and deciding what to bring and what not to bring; list, after list, after list.  Packing and preparing has been seriously set back by the worst heat wave in local history, with this week having temps running up to 109° F/43° C.  Temps are usually so mild around here, that in Western Washington state, most people don’t have air conditioning, so it’s been quite unpleasant and hard to accomplish much of anything.  This morning, however, I saw the temp had dropped down to almost half that high temp (59° F) and it’s blissful.  Now, on with the mad dash to pack and all. We are SO EXCITED to be going!

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve posted about much of anything.  The wait for the call was weighing me down, the high school reunion that I was on the planning committee for was keeping me a bit occupied, summer activities with my son, the long-running heat, and the list goes on.  The reunion was a big success, although we came out a little short on attendance, so we committee members have to pay an additional $25 along with our personal admission fees. I guess I’m going to keep the blog I started for my graduating class, since everyone really liked it.  The good thing is that that blog won’t keep me as busy now that reunion is over.

And now, some knitting content (sorry, no pictures)…

After having spent a good week trying to get the right gauge, I’ve cast on for Shawl Neck Cardigan, and I ended-up using US 2/2.75 mm for the pattern stitch and one US 1/2.25 mm needle and one US 2 needle together for the garter stitch parts, because the pattern calls for two different stitch gauges.  I’m using Elann’s Peruvian Quechua, which is alpaca and tencel.  I like the combination of the soft alpaca and the silkiness of the tencel, I just wish I didn’t have to knit the cardigan with such small needles. I tried knitting this earlier in the year, and realized that my gauge was off and that I messed-up on the pattern, not that I’d gotten very far on it.  I’m not sure if this is a project that will see completion this year, but it’s good for now.

I’ve also picked up Bird’s Eye Shawl, but I may end up making it into a small shawl, because it’s taking too long to finish and to knit a row on it, I need a good half hour to do that.

Also, I was recently encouraged to resume Grand Duchess, my attempt at an Medallion Square Orenburg shawl.  The encouragement came from my dental hygenist from Moldova, who after asking about it’s status, was shocked to hear me tell her that I didn’t think it was worth finishing.  She encouraged me to continue with the project, telling me that as a girl she used to watch her best friend’s mother knit Orenburg shawls, and assuring me that though they are very hard to knit, the shawl I was knitting was exactly as she remembered them. I just don’t know when I will ever find the time to figure out where I was on that project….

So that’s it for now and will probably be for a while, although I may try to squeeze in a post from Korea. We are so EXCITED!

A birthday wish.

We first learned of our son’s sister in November, and we’ve been in the “process” adopting her ever since. Adoption and waiting are two things that go hand-in-hand. With a child that you have given birth to, you have that 9-month plan, and you know that one way or another the baby will be born in 9 months or sooner, but with international adoption, the waiting becomes something indescribable.  Waiting can take 9 months or 2 years.  Of course, a good adoption agency can give you approximations, but it can still vary.  With MR, our case was a little different, and since she was already 5 months old in November, we thought that once the ball got rolling, things would fall into place pretty quickly, especially given the fact that we’d adopted before and that we adopted her brother.  The waiting is all part of the process of checks and balances, during which your personal lives are scrutinized, making sure the adoptive parents are eligible to adopt and that they fall within the acceptable criteria set by the child’s birth country.  Despite all the joy and thrill at the prospect of becoming parents through adoption, at some point, as an adoptive parents, when friends and family and friends of friends whom you barely know continually ask you about the status of your child, you begin to just resign yourself to the reality that milestones you’d hope to experience with your child will not be experiences you get to share with her and that you won’t get to tell her about those milestones from a parent’s perspective.

Today is one of those days for me, for it’s her first birthday.  I had very much expected, perhaps unrealistically, that we would spend this day with MR, and that our son YM would be able to experience it with her.  Of course, we will have so many more milestones to share with her and to witness as she grows, but anyone who has raised a child from infancy knows that a lot changes in those first 12 months.  With our son YM, even though we brought him home at 6 months, I was the first to discover his first tooth (on the day we met him), we celebrated his first birthday with him, we heard him call us O-ma (Korean for Mom) and A-ba (Korean for Dad), we introduced him to his first foods, and we witnessed his first steps.  It’s been only 8 months that we’ve been waiting for MR, and we have so much to look forward to.  We just don’t know when and it’s become tiresome answering people’s questions about when we’ll get her.  I find myself in a state of holding my breath and I’ve had to stop thinking about her much, even though her picture is the first I see when I turn my phone on.

So I go on and hope that maybe next month will be the month we bring her home.  That’s my birthday wish for you, my daughter.

Criss-Cross

When a friend said that she was headed to Orcas Island, I asked that if she saw any interesting yarn to buy me a skein. So she wandered into Poppies Fine Yarns in Eastsound and brought back a hank of Malabrigo Silky Merino.  Wow, what a treat that has turned out to be!  I have heard a lot about Malabrigo, and although I’d seen it in stores, I hadn’t bought any yet.  It’s so lightweight and warm and soft and it has a such a nice luster to it from the silk content, it promised to be wonderful to wear, but with one skein, it proved to be more of a challenge to come up with a pattern for.  That night I searched Ravelry and decided on Cashmere Neckwarmer.

It took a few false starts before I got the hang of the pattern stitch, which is really very easy, but I add these additional words of advice to those who want to make it:  on the knit side (right side) of the work, after the yarnover, hold the yarn in back of the work as you proceed to the next stitch, and on the purl side, after the yarnover, bring the yarn in front of the work (i.e., the side facing you) before proceeding to the next stitch.  Once I figured this out, the stitch pattern developed the criss-cross look it is meant to have, whereas before that, it looked rather odd and unattractive.  I guess I’m just one of those people who need everything written out for me.

I’ve finished the cardigan for MR and it looks pretty funky; I’m not liking it.  It’s so big it’ll probably fit her next summer.  Oh well, serves me right for trying to knit something for someone whom:  a) I’ve yet to meet, b) have no measurements on other than weight and length, c) who is 1 year old and probably growing like a weed, and d) for whom I have no idea when I’ll get to meet her.