Oogyknitter

Hello on this spicy pork noodle bowl Sunday! I thought I'd take a short break from the slides today to issue errata. Specifically - what Neuro rightly pointed out in her comment on my last post - the link to The Naked Sheep store I posted is indeed to a place on Staten Island!  Which is alive and open these days.  So if you're in that neighborhood, you have at least one place to visit where you can get some yarn stuff! It looks like the store that used to be in Bennington, VT closed in 2009 or so - some time ago!   Neither I nor Neuro can remember visiting there, so it's likely we bailed on that and decided to spend that whole day knitting in Lenox instead! It's kind of like when had been planning (if you can call anything we did then planning) to visit Great Sand Dunes National Park on our way back to Boulder from Phoenix.  At some point we decided we'd had enough of the American Southwest, and just wanted a hot shower (not coin-operated), a flush toilet, and ...

Hello on this chicken fettuccini Saturday! The next slide in our deck takes us just over the border to a yarn store in VT:  Although I have absolutely no memory of being there, I'm somewhat relieved to see that The Naked Sheep is still open :) This might be a good time to begin the story of The Ruana.  I'd become obsessed with making this pattern from a new (at the time) book by Sally Melville, The Knit Stitch .  I thought our trip to several yarn stores was the perfect opportunity to find the perfect yarn for this pattern.  So, even though I did purchase some of the elusively lovely yet hateful to work with tinsel yarn, I was probably fairly focused on my search for Ruana Yarn.  So far, no major contenders.   What's interesting is that I can think of several possibilities right off the top of my head; this list includes what I eventually chose (more on that later), Brooklyn Tweed's Shelter , Fleece and Harmony's Selkirk Worsted , and perhaps even an...

Hello on this chicken tacos with homemade guacamole Friday!! The next page of our adventure has us wandering in and around Lenox on Day 2: We had indeed been to Colorful Stitches before, and they are still there today!!!  I don't recall if I bought anything there, though! We also tracked down and visited (all?  most?) of Sheeptacular .  This was when municipalities all over the place (it seemed) went crazy with a standard thing (sheep, horses, you name it), commissioned local artists to paint/decorate/disguise them, put them all over the place, and then in (some? all?) instances auctioned them off as a fundraiser.  Can you imagine having one of these in your garden?  That would be so awesome!! We had met up at Colorful Stitches prior to this trip - I think I was headed in one direction, and Neuro in the other (or something like that!).  At least one of those times we got lunch and sat in a park across the street(ish) from the shop and hung out there for a ...

Hello on this ginger pork and broccoli noodles Thursday! The next slide in our deck is a bit of a let-down, because we already know where we're staying and how it has changed over the years: As I recall, the breakfasts here were delicious and leisurely.  Our room was cozy but big enough so that we could put our jammies on early and knit all evening!  I don't recall there being a lot of other places to hang out in the main part of the house.  There was a porch but it had some cat odor issues (I wonder whose apartment that is today, LOL!!!!). I got a couple more rows done on Shawlography last night.  It feels like I've been working on this section forever, but at least it's turning out nicely! Stay safe and well!

Hello on this seafood curry Wednesday!  The next page in our slide deck anticipates our ultimate destination for Day 1: Lenox, MA is a lovely town in the midst of the Berkshires.  It's home to Tanglewood, the summer residence of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and an overall musical mecca.  I'm pretty sure it's one of those places that is a relatively small town but that swells exponentially in the summertime due to its many cultural and outdoor attractions. I didn't get very much knitting done yesterday, but I've managed to complete at least 6 rows of brioche on Shawlography without messing it up (too much!) again. Stay well and safe :)

Hello on this lemon asparagus orzo risotto Tuesday!  (You might be asking yourself - didn't we just have this recently?  Why, yes - probably 2-3 weeks ago now.  But I've finally found the Little Sweetie peppers that take this meal from delicious to amazing!). Next stop, still on Day 1: Um, wow!  I just googled this place and learned that not only has the yarn store closed, but the owner of the building was charged with arson after setting it on fire!  And there were some carbon monoxide poisonings in the building a couple of years ago.  So it's a wonder we survived!! When it was a yarn store, I'm pretty sure I purchased some fancy (read - expensive) yarn that was very fine but that also had random bits of tiny garland in it.  I thought it made an amazing shawl (there was a sample in the shop).  Of course it was an absolute pain to work with!! The Housatonic Riverwalk was lovely - an idyllic greenspace park right in the middle of town (and evident...

Hello on this chicken pesto pizza Monday!  We had some big rains last night and finally are experiencing some enjoyable summer weather - at least for today! The next page of our GNEYA has us headed northward, still Day One.  As I recall, this was a lovely and quiet drive. I have absolutely no recollection of this particular yarn store - but evidently it's still there!!!  I was speeding ahead on Shawlography when - eeek, a dropped stitch!!!  In brioche!!!  That took me a while to get back on track - I'm still becoming familiar with how all these yarnovers and slipped stitches formally interact in the fabric. I think one of the things I love the most about these MKALs is that they "force" me into doing something I might not choose to do otherwise (such as weird stitch patterns and/or crazy shaping!).  It's usually a fun challenge in the end, and sometimes I even do small victory laps when something horrifically complex turns out absolutely stunning. That may ...

Hello on this soon-to-be-stormy chicken flautas Sunday! Day One of the GNEYA has us traveling from an undisclosed location to a now-since-closed yarn shop: The restaurant has since closed as well.  I don't remember much about either, except that I might have purchased a fancy-yarn scarf kit (or I almost did). I think the weather for this first day was cloudy but otherwise unremarkable. What is remarkable is my sheer inability to get this brioche stitch right.  Let's just say I hope that the adjustments I'm making on this row won't haunt me on the next. Stay safe, cool, and well!

Hello on this very warm chicken quesadilla Saturday! Today I present Page Two of our GNEYA PPT: While the primary objective of this project was to finalize our itinerary (and help us determine the best travel path - this was way before GPSs and when we thought MapQuest was a miracle!), I figured since my parents wanted to know where I was every minute of the day when I was a teenager they might appreciate knowing where we planned to be during our yarn adventure!  (I think they were merely amused, but my mom did save this all these years, so there's something!) I seem to recall that Oogyhubby was also on a trip of his own, so perhaps Neurohubby enjoyed knowing our whereabouts during this time as well! So - interesting.  Walker House is now a luxury apartment complex (for an average of a cool $3,000 a month), and The Putney Inn looks about the same - drab on the outside, nice on the inside.  (For some reason this deck doesn't have any web links!) Two of my MKAL projects are...

Hello on this salmon taco Friday! I was trying to think of a good title for this post and for some reason a riff on the opening line of Charlie's Angels struck me as super funny. This adventure happened almost exactly 18 years ago.  Neuro and had I decided we would take a short trip around New England to visit several of the prominent yarn stores and other venues there.  We both grew up in NE and had frequented some of these places before; others were on a wish list of sorts.  A relative left me a modest amount of money so we decided to stay in Bed and Breakfasts instead of cheap hotels (keep in mind this was way before Airbnb and internet was still fairly clunky).  And buy as much yarn as we wanted.  And even have a restaurant dinner or two! We put together a plan (that was way more comprehensive than the plan we had when we hit the road for several days in Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico with semi-functional camping equipment and no cell phones!!!) and Oogymom ...

Hello on this Shrimp Linguine Thursday! I'm up to my ears in Mystery Knit-ALongs!! The yarn is all wound and awaiting the Casapinka KAL (I believe it's formally named "Sharon Air") that starts in the first half of August: She calls for #6 needles but I find that #5s work better for me with this yarn and her patterns.  Not sure if stitch markers will be needed, so will choose those once there's more info. I may have completed the tink-ing for Shawlography; if so, I'm ready to start the brioche section over again. There is a third and unexpected MKAL with Laura Nelkin.  It will probably be a small shawl or cowl, no idea yet.  The first clue makes a triangle, and the second clue just came out this morning. I'm also continuing work on I'm Not Who You Think I Am.  I've hit a decrease section, so perhaps I'm in a final stretch of sorts?  No idea, LOL!! Stay cool, safe, and well!

Hello on this tilapia fish cakes Monday! That sound you hear is me tinking back several rows of two-color brioche in order to get back to close to the beginning of that section (but not too far - there's a bunch of double YOs and kpk into the same stitch that I want to avoid!).  It's slow going, but it will definitely be worth it in the long run! I was a little astonished to reach the section in No Idea Who You Are (I change the name of this cowl each time!) where there are decreases!!!  I must be at some halfway point or whatever.  I've got 18 rows of garter so am happily humming along without much additional attention. We've had some much-needed rain today but it looks like some very hot weather is headed this way for the next couple of days!  We'll likely hide away in our various AC-cooled rooms and hope for the best! No pics today - but will try for some coming up soon! Stay well and safe :) 

Hello on this lentil fettuccini Saturday!! In Clue 3 of the Shawltopia pattern there is a section where the knitter can choose to do two-color brioche or two-color non-brioche.  I chose the brioche, and was trucking along just fine when my edges started driving me crazy.  There are increases there, but I thought I was following the pattern.  Now I just worked a whole row incorrectly.  So - I'm going to rip this back to the first part of this section and start over.  Right now it's in Time Out whist I contemplate those efforts. In the meantime, I may have gotten some yarn from Miss Babs for the upcoming Casapinka MKAL: The multi-colored one is sparkeley.  Zzzzomething new!   It doesn't help that Miss Babs and Casapinka are in cahoots with these things; Miss Babs always has lovely things but they've compiled dozens of combos specifically for this KAL.  Not inexpensive, by any means, but definitely a quality product! I have until August 16 to ba...

Hello on this Korean Tilapia Taco Thursday! I've managed to make some progress on my many WIPs, mostly because of the visit we paid to my parents this past weekend (mostly car and leisure time knitting). Some progress on the I'm Not origami cowl: I also finished the knitting on Criterion Cowl, and will take a pic once it's gone for a swim and is blocking. I've hit the brioche section on Shawlography and am finding Stephen West's instructions incredibly helpful.  Brioche is a bit like double knitting, where one stitch gets worked and the other slips by with the yarn out of the way.  I'm enjoying the process and really like how it's turning out.  (Note: I managed to obtain the link without looking at the pic - it's still a mystery to me!!) Also on the needles and somewhat active is the Owl Cowl .  I'm in the middle section of plain stockinette in the round.  Mindless and lovely. I've started a couple of other small projects in the meantime, but no...

Hello on this summery Thursday! Things here continue to be busy but mostly favorable :) I also continue to cast on new projects (see below), work a bit here and there on existing projects (mostly Shawlography and Criterion Cowl , and so finish nothing.  Perhaps one day I'll have 4,000 FOs to show you!! (I do need to attempt to clear the decks at some point because Casapinka has another MKAL coming up in a few weeks and it requires 1600 yards of four different colors of fingering weight yearn - egads!!!). In the meantime, I had a fun series of events happen when I started on the I'm Not Who You Think I Am  cowl (Neuro is also knitting this and may even be done with it by now!!). This cowl starts with an i-cord cast on, which I've done before but not exactly in this manner.  The designer provided a link, so I happily worked along with the video.  Only to discover, since I hadn't read ahead, that the video demo is for a larger cast-on than what the pattern calls for; t...