Oogyknitter

It is the east! The Polar Vortex is still here, and the wind is wicked - but the sunrise was bright this morning and the sun was out most of the day as well, adding some much-needed warmth and cheer. I still can't find the Noah's Ark towels, but I'm unpacking a lot of other projects and proto-projects - enough to keep me busy, and then some!

I just realized this evening that we don't speak of Jack Frost after the usual holiday season. But, I can tell you firsthand - he is here tonight, riding along with the Polar Vortex that is parked over this part of the country bringing wind, snow, bitter cold, and surprising beauty: I took this pic from the inside of the house, looking north through the kitchen window.  Jack is here, and he sure is pretty (even if you have to squint at the glass and imagine the prism-like frost criss-crossing it!). Today's wildlife sighting: what must have been a very cold foxie, walking along the east side of the house in the forest - perhaps finishing his rounds for the day? The other good news is that this is perfect knitting weather, especially with the size of the Ruana Redux these days!

I had been looking forward to today's Up Helly Aa live web streaming from Lerwick, Shetland so that I could attempt another cast-on for the Fire Festival Hat .  While the connection wasn't the best (I'm sure it was me, with my newly-rural DSL), I had untwisted success: I'm also making White Bean Chicken Chili in the crockpot, recipe courtesy of Cook's Country : This morning I experienced what may be the record for the fastest job application rejection by a human: 1 hour, 12 minutes. On a more optimistic note, today's wildlife sighting was one of our foxies foraging in the field for varmints.  I hadn't seen any foxes or their tracks for a while, and was glad to see the floofy tail wandering about.

So during the course of packing and moving last month, we thought we had what was a pretty good system - mix heavy and light items in each box and label each box.  That way, regardless of where the boxes ended up in the new house, we could figure out where everything was. Uh, no. Case in point - these towels that I've been planning to make for my brother.  He has been renovating one of his bathrooms for quite some time now, and is in the final stages of completion.  I thought that some fancy-ish towels might be just the thing.  I had four of them (acquired years ago with him in mind actually).  They have all of these Noah's Ark pictures on them, which is super cute if you're into that sort of thing: I set to work with finding a grand letter "S" with which to monogram them in counted cross-stitch (I can actually do something more than knitting, lol): I had completed one prior to the move, and I just completed the second one yesterday (while not lis...

I'm not sure if I'm ready to commit to this being a weekly thing, but since today is Saturday and I've just come across a couple of really handy knitting hack suggestions (with thanks to the Mason-Dixon Knitting folks ), I will post them here. The first I might have tried to use with the Viking Fire Hat, but perhaps I made it too complicated (or worse, went in the wrong direction - I will blame that on the wine as well): Video: Fixing a Twist The second I'm going to use the next time I need to count rows.  I always arrogantly forge ahead thinking that I'll manage to track them all on paper, then something gets missed, and then it all goes to pieces: Video: How to Keep Track of Rounds In non-knitting news - today's wildlife sighting is of a red-bellied woodpecker .  Its black and white checkered cape distinguishes it from the red-headed woodpecker, which has a solid black back.  I believe I saw a male - their heads are all red (both crown and nape), whe...

I thought it might be fun to post a pic of the recent crop of baby mitts:  The yarn for the two pairs on the right was specially dyed for this purpose by Neuro!  (The purple yarn is left over from an earlier sock project.  The body of the mitt is made with Franklin - I go through about a pound of it every 14 months or so, and will be very sad if Webs ever decides to discontinue it!) I used to bring a pair to work each Monday and leave them with one of our actuaries, who is married to the head of our local NICU.  She in turn would bring them home and pass them along to her hubby; he would pass them along to the NICU nurses, and they would put them on the the babies.  I haven't yet figured out a good way to deliver these now that I'm not working there anymore, but in the meantime I will continue to make about a pair a week.

For some reason I had it in my head that haiku rules pertained to words, not syllables. Here is an updated version of yesterday's: No new pics just yet - Starting but no finishing. Must knit more, and now! This version is definitely more concise!

No new pics just yet - Too much casting on and no finishing. Must knit more and faster!

I'm pretty sure it's still snowing here, but it's hard to tell with all the wind and blowing snow.  It's also hard to tell how much snow we've had - there are drifts everywhere!  I usually take the "official" measurement they do at our airport, and add 3-5 inches onto that.  As of yesterday, the airport was 15 inches, so I'm going with 20 plus by the end of it all! January Hat is finished, along with all of its wee bobbles!  And I wouldn't have thought of the red-on-red furry pompom thing if I hadn't seen it myself. Who's next, you ask? I figure I spent so much time researching and writing about the Flint Water crisis that I should just extend the theme to knitting.  Even better that I came across my chartholder while rooting around in my yarn boxes this morning - look at all those cables!! I also decided to start the Viking Fire hat over again.  This time I'll hold off on the wine until I've got a few non-twisted rows co...

We're expecting a big winter storm here in the Northeast this coming weekend, so after ensuring that we had sufficient milk and bread (well, in my case it's wine and pizza!) I also needed to make sure that I had enough knitting to carry me through.  This required that I make some commitments. Firstly - I need to get over my hatred of bobbles, it will help me be a better person.  Some bobbles can be very helpful, and dare I say even attractive: This is January Hat , and the yarn is Northampton .  I've just started the first row of the pattern. but you can already see the occasional cable and the frequent bobbles.  This yarn is great and hats are done before you even know what's happened.  I've got a few more skeins of this yarn so perhaps future month hats may be in order as well. Given how much I've already done on the Ruana Redux, I feel like it's time to commit to the pattern - Veronika .  I've got a great design feature in mind once it all s...

I think these may count as the first finished project in 2019, even though I started them in December.  Pattern is Socks on a Plane , yarn is Fortissima Colori Socka Color (which I see is discontinued - how long did I have this yarn??). I wanted a toe-up pattern because I'd already used a bunch of the yarn to make yoga socks for a holiday gift (no toes or heels - this is a good pattern) and planned to use as much of the remaining yarn as possible.  There is a wee bit left - perhaps enough for a preemie mitt or two? I continue to wrestle with the Hawthorne and Ruana Redux projects, and there may be some other crafts making an appearance as well!

Many years ago now, I decided I wanted to make the Three-Scarf Ruana from the book The Knit Stitch, by Sally Melville.  I even went on a special Yarn Quest with Neuroknitter to find the ideal yarn.  (This was so long ago that it pre-dates our blogs by a few years!) I found the yarn - Mountain Mohair , by Green Mountain Spinnery , in Raspberry- it was perfect.  (During our Yarn Quest, we stayed one or two nights at the Putney Inn , which is right near the Spinnery, just off of I-91 and also within walking distance of a boat launch to the Connecticut River.  It was very lovely there!) I made the ruana.  I don't know how many 100s of rows of garter stitch there were, or how many 1000s of yards of yarn I ended up using (there were cones, and more cones - even some tossed down from their overhead compartment!), but I seem to recall zipping right through it. And - I never wore the thing.  It ended up being a little more than a large, complicated scarf, an...

Well, in this case the Hawthorne Challenge is a metaphor for my life!  New house, job search for a new job, getting the final project done for my latest masters degree... Last evening I cast on for Zigzagular Socks .  The yarn color, Poseidon, is showing darker and greener here than it does in person, but so far the gauge with 1.5s seems significantly more agreeable. One step at a time :)

Knit Picks and Valley Yarns both make superb yarns for extremely reasonable prices, and I'm a huge fan of both - particularly when a color is discontinued or there is otherwise a great sale going on.  Hawthorne is a beautiful, hand-dyed Knit Picks sock yarn, but it has stymied me once again.  It's a bit denser and more tightly wound than the fingering weight yarns I usually work with, but I grabbed my go-to size 0 double points for some reason thinking it would work itself into place magically. No such luck. I didn't take a photo, but I just ripped out about 1/4 of a completed sock that was the wrong gauge.  Why did I keep thinking it might loosen up with blocking??  I also selected a pattern (new to me) that didn't make sense either, so the whole thing called for a complete do-over. I remain inspired by Yarn Harlot 's recurring self-imposed sock club (see her 1/1/19 blog entry for the latest iteration).  I just finished a pair of ankle-height socks (to...