I am falling in love with Heidi Swanson’s Super Natural Cooking all over again. She just seems to know exactly what I want to eat for dinner. And lunch. This is the Big Curry Noodle Pot — simple, flavorful, delicious.
Also, I turned the (gusset) heel of my second Emerald City sock. Hooray!
Yep, this post is brought to you by the letter S.
Leftover soup is one of my favorite things. It makes for the perfect lazy lunch. This is carrot soup (from Heidi Swanson’s Super Natural Cooking) with smoked paprika on top, and beer bread (a fantastic recipe I got from Jodi, who found it here) toasted in the oven. I’ve made this bread three or four times already, and it is wonderful. After a cozy lunch at my yellow table, Boh and I headed out for a longer walk, thanks to the sunshine and slightly warmer temperatures.
Handknit socks in hiking boots — also one of my favorite things.
Sigh. (Also an S-word, if you’re keeping track.)
Boh made silly, sleepy faces while I did some reading, and then I made some serious progress on a toe up, gusset heel sock and my brother’s seaman’s cap. See?
Hope your Sunday involves (or at least invokes the spirit of) soup, strolling, sock-knitting, silly dog faces, etc. More soon.
Babies in handknits are adorable — but you know what is even better? The baby of dear friends, wearing something I made for him. LOVE.
It is already this kind of day. And I’m okay with that.
I started knitting my brother’s (now incredibly delayed) Christmas present out of my CMF superwash merino albatross handspun. You may be wondering why that doesn’t exactly look like a mitten. My little brother has been having some trouble with his back the last few weeks, and he isn’t really spending a lot of time walking outside. (You know, or standing up straight.) I wear hats inside to stay warm and cozy, but I rarely wear full on mittens in the house. So I cast on another seaman’s cap for him, and after four or five rounds, I am already in love with the way this yarn is knitting up.
Happy weekend!
This is the eternity scarf, knit out of my handspun (from two bumps of pigeonroof studios merino) on size 9 needles.
I may never take it off.
And I might need another.
I turned a page in the more-than-a-century-old book that I was taking notes from yesterday and discovered this: a flower, maybe a carnation, pressed between its pages. It made me smile.
Also unexpected: the way my pigeonroof studios merino handspun is knitting up, and I love it.
The yarn from my brompton grad school cardigan, hanging to dry.
New project possibilities: winding yarn for swatching. (Pictured above, Berroco Ultra Alpaca in yucca mix, I think, and Berroco Peruvia in chipotle.)
I read all your comments on my brompton cardigan, and I thought about what you said.
I thought about it while I made vegetable stock. I even asked Boh to think about it.
Boh thought about it, and then he thought some more.
When I got home from yoga this morning, I ripped out the progress I’d made on one sleeve, and tried it on again. Definitely too big. So this afternoon, I sat down and slowly picked out the seams connecting the basketweave button band to the body of the sweater, and frogged the whole thing.
Well, all but the button bands. I might hold off on those until I absolutely need that yarn, because basketweave in a sticky yarn like Rowan Felted Tweed is a pain to undo.
Later I’ll skein it up and wash it, and then it will be ready for a new project. I’m not giving up on brompton (still LOVE the pattern), but I’m not sure I have it in me to re-knit it out of this yarn right this second.
Thanks, you guys. Ripping out this project was strangely liberating, and I’m excited to start daydreaming about what else this yarn might become.
Yesterday I was feeling inspired by all of the “finish or frog” talk on ravelry, so I dug out my brompton cardigan and took some pictures. (I have to be honest: these are the good, hopeful ones. I have other pictures where it looks way too big.) See, I love this sweater. I cast on in January 2008 in Rowan Felted Tweed, imagining that this would be a cardigan I’d reach for often when I was in grad school. Fast forward two years: I am in grad school, I do wear cardigans, but this one isn’t done yet.
The trouble is, I really didn’t understand ease and sizing as well as I thought I did when I cast this on. Bottom line? This is essentially a 42″ sweater, with the body finished and the button bands both knit and seamed onto the sweater. (This would have been big on a 2008 rooster, and I am smaller now.)
I LOVE this pattern, love the yarn, and I don’t want to frog this, so here’s what I’m thinking: decrease as I knit the sleeves so that they are slim and fitted, and maybe only 3/4 length. The cardigan itself is light and drapey. I’ll never wear this all buttoned up because of how big it is, but I could see it as a layering cardigan. I may be able to sew closed some of the button holes discretely (because of the basketweave stitch) and either give it an asymmetrical closure or one bigger button in the upper half of the sweater.
Thoughts? (Are you with me? It’s okay if you’re not. I could really use some advice on this one.)
At long last, I sewed the buttons onto my garter yoke cardigan. I tried it on after the first four, just to make sure I liked the look of these buttons (which may or may not have cost me more than the Cascade 220 part of the sweater). I decided to do this late last night, so the pictures are less than awesome, thanks to the overhead lights in my apartment, but I think you’ll still get the idea.
I love this, and I’m especially glad that I knit this alongside Mick and Laura! I decided not to block my GYC, at least not yet, mostly because I am anxious that it will grow, and I don’t want it to get wider or longer. (Also, I’m lazy.) I’ll block it eventually… I’m still working on sizing sweaters, and I think I need to trust the idea of negative ease just a bit more, as I tend to knit my sweaters a little too big. That said, I’m very happy with this sweater, and I expect it will get quite a bit of wear!
Details:
Garter Yoke Cardigan, size 38, with a handspun yoke (out of 144 yards of Hello Yarn romney in Alpine) and a Cascade 220 body (814 yards).
I knit the yoke and sleeves on size 6 needles and knit the body on 7s, and I shortened the sleeves to 3/4 length.
Here’s an outtake — despite the blurriness and awkward angle, I like this one:
Hooray!
barefoot rooster 