another west side sunrise.

Posted on March 19, 2008 by barefootrooster

I dropped my first stitch (intentionally) in my Clapotis last night, surrounded by happy thoughts and perhaps some nervous empathy at knitting group. Due to dog circumstances, I haven’t found any time or space to knit over the last few days, so escaping from the madness and sitting down with a chai and knitting friends last night great improved my outlook on the week.

I’ll try to take some pictures of these dogs to share before I head back to my own bed on Friday. Boh is covered in slobber, and all three of the dogs are loping about with their tongues happily lolling to the side. Last night they spent almost an hour playfully fighting about who would be the one to run around the yard carrying (dragging) a stick larger than they are. These dogs are having the best time ever!

routine.

Posted on March 12, 2008 by barefootrooster

Woke up before my alarm today, which felt great. I’m sure I’ve said it before, but my morning ritual of making coffee, checking email, and then knitting or reading or at least crossing things off my to-do list keeps me sane.

Baked these last night — realizing that even though I still have a few months in this house, I need to make a conscious effort to eat the things that are here. Grains, tomato paste, corn starch, frozen meats and soups, etc.; these are the things that are easy to forget, and I don’t want to find myself packing boxes of food!

Happy Wednesday.

more progress: grad school cardigan

Posted on March 3, 2008 by barefootrooster

I’m still slightly nervous that the shoulders are a tad big, but because this is a looser cardigan that I intend to layer over all kinds of things, I’m hoping that won’t matter. I’m halfway through the side shaping — done with the waist decrease sets and into the hip increases. Here’s an arm’s length side view:

Yesterday was a day of recovery from the excitement of Saturday’s sunshine/rugby/Korean food/gelato. I spent it knitting, catching up on podcasts, reading at a nearby coffee shop with a pot of tea, and, of course watching more Flight of the Conchords while eating delicious homemade pizza with friends (Thanks, you guys!).

Spring is here — 71 degrees on Saturday, snow on the ground this morning. Here’s a shot of yesterday’s sunrise:

Hope your week is off to a good start. I’m going to pour my first cup of coffee. Ahh.

it may be sunny and 55…

Posted on February 24, 2008 by barefootrooster

but I am wearing a sweater!

(Boy, that mirror is dirty.) I can justify the sweater, though. Take a look at the mountains:

See? There’s snow up there! Also, I think there is some kind of rule that you have to wear your first sweater the second it is done. (Okay, not true. This isn’t exactly the first sweater I’ve made. Over the summer, I knit Coachella, but the neckline turned out a bit too low to be worn in most situations…More on that someday.)

Anyway, I spent much of last night finishing the ribbing. Here’s a shot of the shrug in vest form:

I spent all morning seaming. I was a bit unclear about how everything was supposed to line up — no schematic — so I ended up seaming most of the sleeve caps, looking at them, and realizing that I needed to seam a few inches more of the sleeeves to the body. This process created many ends to weave in.

Somebody was pouting. In all fairness, he did miss a leisurely Sunday stroll. (His life is extremely hard.)

A few more pictures of my finished Bolero Jacket:

The necklace I’m wearing, by the way, is made by Lisa Donald, a friend who also makes/sells jewelry. She has a great eye — this is made from a clip-on earring that feels very 1960s to me. How convenient that it matches this sweater perfectly!

Posting may be sporadic this week — a dear friend flies in tonight to spend 4 days playing with me and Boh!

normal, shitty loop.

Posted on February 23, 2008 by barefootrooster

I’ve begun sharing this space with dear friends from my “real” life, and their reactions are a lot of fun. (Hi, you guys! I’m glad you’re here.) One friend, whose lovely daughter was the recipient of the first baby bib I knit, wondered why it had taken me so long to tell him about my knitting blog.

“Are you worried about me meeting your knitting friends?” He asked.

Another friend took a look through the posts and told me that he was particularly intrigued with the magic loop method.

“I’m so glad you’ve learned how to do the magic loop — it is clearly much better than normal, shitty loop.”

That’s right. My friends are awesome. (I have some great pictures of you guys, but I’m not sure you want them on the internet…)

A few pictures of the beginning of spring here —

Screen door.

Rain clouds.

Black bean salad. (Okay, this is more of a summer thing, but I got a massive bunch of deliciously smelling cilantro in my CSA box, and this salad is a staple in my kitchen, thanks to a summer spent living in Minneapolis with a friend who is queen of these kinds of salads.)

Happy weekend!

U R GR8.

Posted on February 14, 2008 by barefootrooster

I helped frost some Valentine’s Day confections last night — conversation cupcakes, if you will. My friend Sheri has the photo-documentation. If I can get them from her this week, I’ll share some of our creativity.

Onward to this morning’s valentine:

While listening to an episode of This American Life, I worked a few more pattern repeats of Nutkin. I love how the colors are combining in this pattern.

Also, if you haven’t taken a look at this pattern, the cuff is very cool: you knit a band, do a purl row, knit some more, and then fold over at the purl row and by picking up stitches from the cast on edge and knitting together with the live stitches, you create a reinforced stockinette cuff.

Have a lovely day.

birthday sky.

Posted on February 8, 2008 by barefootrooster

Wow. I didn’t even see all those birds perched on the top branches of that tree in my neighbor’s yard. Clearly the universe knows that today is my birthday — what a beautiful way to begin the day!

No big plans over here: took the day off from work, crawled back into bed to lounge with the dog, having lunch and dinner with friends, hoping to get a nice run in this afternoon…taking a rooster day.

I do have some knitting progress to share with you:

It is official: I am a convert to the magic loop method. These socks are flying — and using a long circular means I am not searching under the couch for the needle I dropped. I also really like the way this pattern is working up. These are Schrodinger’s Twisted Tweed Socks, and I’m using Trekking XXL, the recommended yarn, which I happened to have. I took this sock with my yesterday to my Democratic Party Ward Meeting to elect delegates to the pre-primary convention, which was fascinating. The protocol requires that you have to sit for 30 minutes after the meeting has been formally opened so that each ward can confirm the voting credentials of the folks who show up. I managed to finish turning the heel, all while participating in the democratic (and Democratic) process. This pattern has a short row heel, and I think I need some advice. Take a look at my first attempt:

I am practically positive that I did the wraps correctly, and it looked very pretty before I put this on to take a look, and then these holes became evident. The pattern said that it didn’t matter how I picked up the wraps, so long as I was consistent. Maybe I should twist them? Advice on how to do this better on the next pair would be much appreciated. In the meantime, I am thinking that I can do some cheating on the inside at the end of this sock to sew up these gaps. I am approaching these as a “learning” pair of socks!

snow + handspun = mittens.

Posted on February 5, 2008 by barefootrooster

I left work yesterday afternoon and arrived home just in time to gaze out my windows and enjoy this:

I did what anyone in this situation would have done: I baked!

This is the olive oil orange cake from Apples for Jam, with pine nuts sprinkled on top. I listened to loud old music, watched the snow fall, and whipped my egg whites by hand. Meanwhile, Boh sat on the couch, waiting for his close up. This looks kind of like one of those posed middle school portraits to me. What do you think?

With the aroma of homemade cake wafting through my tiny house, I sat down and cast on a pair of Warmest Mittens, from Knitting Pretty by Kris Percival. After a few strikes trying to find the perfect pattern for the gorgeous homespun I received from Ami of SourCherries in the fingerless mitts swap, I settled on these.

This morning, I awoke to this:

I continued working on my mittens, and finished just in time to wear them to work. On my lunch/voting break, I managed to snap some silly pictures of this spontaneous FO, utilizing the timer on my camera.

Happy Super Tuesday!

FO: gathered scarf.

Posted on February 3, 2008 by barefootrooster

Gathered Scarf (Ravelry link)

US 7 and 4 needles

Blue Sky Alpacas Suri Merino, 3 skeins

I LOVE this: not a fast knit, due to all the needle changing every 5 rows, but well worth it.

This is not quite as shiny as it looks in these pictures; it is more that the yarn has a soft halo and a nice amount of depth to it. I was going to take a picture of it rolled up or in a pile, but I am not ready to take it off yet. The scarf is 7 or so feet long, and I anticipate that a bit of wear will stretch it out a bit, meaning I will be able to wrap this around my neck multiple times — an indication that this will get a lot of wear. I love feeling cozy.

We had another incredible sunrise today. I hope you aren’t getting sick of my sunrise pictures. I woke up just before my alarm, took the dog outside and began making my morning coffee. I almost dropped my mug when I glanced out my kitchen window:

I couldn’t pick just one to share. Enjoy your Sunday!

saturday.

Posted on February 2, 2008 by barefootrooster

This afternoon I opened up doors and windows and let the brisk air and sunshine sweep through the house. Boh and I took a run through the bosque, and I gave my home a thorough cleaning. A dear friend came over for dinner. No knitting progress to post, but I did want to share a few photos of my day.

The best I could get without a tripod — this is the moon in the sky before the sun rose this morning.

That was the beginning of my day. Here’s how it concluded:

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28

barefoot rooster

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