troublemaker singles.

Posted on September 20, 2012 by barefootrooster

Don’t be alarmed; that’s just what this colorway is called: Troublemaker. I grabbed this off the shelf because I wanted to be spinning something, anything really. No project in mind, no particular goal save working at my wheel. This mixed BFL from Hello Yarn felt like butter, and at least in my hands, it wanted to be singles, so that’s how I spun it. When I was just starting to spin, everything I read said that once I got the hang of this, that it would be really hard to spin thicker yarns, especially thick and thin singles. They weren’t wrong. I was going for something a bit more uneven, but these singles look a lot more uniform than I was intending. I’ll keep working on it.

Hangers on the heating pipe. (Don’t worry. I’ll figure out something else once I turn the heat on.)

And from the other side. I snapped these late last night, and the colors are so much more beautiful and vibrant than even that first close up shot. Stay tuned for FO pictures once these skeins are dry!

FO: peace fleece pinwheel.

Posted on September 15, 2012 by barefootrooster

A lot of Friday Night Lights went into the making of this Peace Fleece pinwheel blanket. I ran out of yarn with about half of one wedge to bind off, and managed to use some handspun in a similar color. I used up all of my remaining Peace Fleece in this colorway, and if I were to knit this again in the same yarn, I might consider going up a needle size, more for comfort while knitting than anything else. I’m really happy with the way this pattern looks in a tweedy/flecked woolly yarn. The weather is turning cold, and I’m excited to get this belated wedding gift in the mail!

Cool weather means it is time to break out the knitwear. I wore my whisper cardigan with jeans and a scarf for a lunch date with friends last week. I really like this sweater, and I’m thinking about knitting another in fingering weight yarn.

Aren’t the zinnias I picked at the farm last week lovely?

One more: Boh being silly under the porch table. I brought this weekend’s pile of grading out here this morning, and Boh insisted on keeping watch from this position while I worked. Happy weekend!

can’t lose.

Posted on September 10, 2012 by barefootrooster

I spent the whole weekend on the couch with Boh waiting out some food poisoning or a stomach bug. There was a lot I was hoping to get done this weekend that did not get done. But on the bright side, being a knitter means that even when I feel terrible, I can still make progress on something. My Peace Fleece pinwheel blanket is much more blob-like than it was before I got sick. (Can’t lose.) Plus, I finally let myself begin a full-on Friday Night Lights binge. It’s going to be sort of tough to get back into the pace of the week after a very quiet, sedentary, bland-food-filled weekend. Before I head to campus, I thought you might want to see a couple of pictures of just how sweet Boh can be when I’m feeling lousy.

He is such a good boy. Happy Monday, everyone! More soon.

plied yarn and peace fleece.

Posted on September 5, 2012 by barefootrooster

Exactly what it sounds like: the first bobbin of 2-ply Hello Yarn polwarth-silk in Kitsune, and another pinwheel blanket in Peace Fleece on the needles. Both of these things are making me happy today.

worst of all, you never call baby when you say you will.

Posted on September 4, 2012 by barefootrooster

Yep, I just found the song in my iTunes library to accompany this morning’s blogging. Just picture me sitting here with my cup of coffee doing the “wooowooo” section that comes right before the big build up to “Why do you build me up, buttercup baby, just to let me down…” It seems that I typed “butter” into the iTunes search field, so now we’ve got The Band doing “Mystery Train” with Paul Butterfield. I’ll take it. Anyway, despite the obvious connection to “Build Me Up Buttercup,” bits of the song do seem relevant to my feelings about this sweater. I’ve got lots of pictures today of me in the sweater in various stages of the rest of the knitting.

Here’s Buttercup after binding off the body. In this picture you can totally see when I put it away for several weeks — that line around my middle is not my shorts showing through; that’s a crease from where my circular needles lingered for all too long.

Here’s a close up of the neckline. I picked up stitches as directed, but knit a few extra rows to bring the neckline in a little bit. I love this neckline, and I think it is pretty flattering. The challenge will be what to wear underneath it because of how open some of the lacework is.

In this picture, I think I’ve got one of the sleeves finished, and I’m wearing the top over a black dress with a fairly deep v-neck.

Here’s a full length shot, over a long-sleeve tee. I’m hoping that blocking will take care of that wavy bit near the bottom, and I’m hoping to get just a little more length out of it so that the finished sweater will be in between a regular sweater and a tunic.

Yay! I like this one.

And here it is, blocking on the dining room table. I’m not really sure how this fabric will behave. I’m pretty sure I blocked my swatch, but such a small square of knitting doesn’t really offer a lot of certainty when I want to know how a whole sweater of cotton-linen yarn is going to act. I’m a bit worried that the weight of the sweater will drag down the neckline as I wear it. Have you guys ever put a cotton-linen blend in the dryer on low? If this opens up too much, I might attempt that.

I’m happy with the choices I made to knit a slightly more fitted version of this sweater, as I’m not sure I can pull off any more yellow. Also, I like a gentler A-line shape, and this way, I had plenty of yarn. I sort of can’t believe that this only took 6.5 balls of Cotolino. (I had 8, and was worried I wouldn’t have enough to knit the sweater as written. Each ball is 105 meters.)

Oh, and Boh says hi. Stay tuned for some FO pictures after Buttercup is blocked. Fingers crossed!

into the woods.

Posted on September 3, 2012 by barefootrooster

The wild flowers along the lakeshore looked particularly green and vibrant yesterday.

Boh and I veered off a regular loop we tend to do at a park near our house. Instead of crossing a lovely wooden bridge, we took a small set of stairs off the south side, and found ourselves in the woods!

Boh loved our detour, and so did I. I’ve been walking in this park regularly since we moved to the lake house at the start of last summer, and this is the first time we’ve wandered along this path. We’ll be back, maybe even this afternoon!

While Boh snored, I dug out my languishing Buttercup. I knew I was close to finishing up the body, so I tried it on. (I debated whether to post this picture of myself on the internet because the neck is still too low and the body not quite long enough — both of which will be addressed before I’m done with the pattern — but I think this is okay to share.)

After snapping this picture (and measuring to determine how much more to knit on the body), I added a few more increase rows and another couple of inches of knitting. This morning I’m planning to listen to podcasts and finish up the feather and fan border. I will wear this sweater this fall! (Famous last words?)

I’m not sure Boh believes me. Or cares. I haven’t been knitting a lot lately, and I want to change that. I really enjoyed working on Buttercup last night — so much so that I worked until my hands were a little bit sore. I wasn’t quite ready for bed yet, so I sat down at my wheel.

I finished up spinning the first bobbin of Kitsune, a polwarth-silk blend from the Hello Yarn Fiber Club. I started this ages ago — maybe at the start of the summer? I’m not sure if this will stay as singles or if I’ll spin the second bobbin and ply them together. Either way, this will probably turn into a drapey shawl or cowl.

Boh and I are planning a quiet Labor Day — some knitting, some work, and a nice walk. Hope you have a lovely day!

love in a jar.

Posted on September 2, 2012 by barefootrooster

I spent a couple of days at my parents’ house this week celebrating my dad’s birthday and canning peaches with my mom. We canned 37 jars (quarts and some 1.5 pint jars), and my mom let me have 18 to ~~hoard~~ savor here at the lake house. (We ate the contents of one of the jars with breakfast on Friday morning.)

Because we don’t have class on Labor Day (which hasn’t always been the case), I was able to hop in the car on Wednesday afternoon and be there in time for dinner! Boh and I returned on Friday for an afternoon meeting, and because I don’t have to get all of my grading and prep done for Monday, I still have time to enjoy the sunshine AND get both dissertation and teaching work done before Wednesday. Or at least that’s my hope.

Happy Labor Day weekend, everyone! (And stay tuned for more knitting!)

saep lai.

Posted on August 29, 2012 by barefootrooster

That means “delicious” in Lao, and that’s exactly how I feel about last weekend. A dear friend came to visit (long-time readers may remember him from this post), and it was the perfect way to re-acquaint myself with home after my month on the road and the whirlwind that is the beginning of the semester.

D. arrived on Friday, after a long bus ride. I took him straight to a Lao feast, complete (though you can’t see it here) with Beer Lao I picked up from our local beverage store. Tam mak heung, nem khiaow, khao niaow, and a red curry fish dish with a Lao name I can’t remember. Saep lai.

On Saturday morning I made pancakes and we ate them on the porch!

And then we went to the farmers’ market and on a short walk to these waterfalls (seen here in D.’s hipster-view).

On Saturday night, I made a tomato tart with goat cheese and about a quart of farm cherry tomatoes. (This is the one with the dijon mustard slathered on the inside of the crust.) That salad is all farm veggies, too: red peppers, grated beets, carrots, cherry tomatoes, and lettuce. D. brought a growler of a delicious amber brew from his home.

On Sunday morning, we drove to a neighboring lake to go out for a fabulous brunch on the deck. Cheesy grits in homemade sausage gravy, corn beef hash with poached eggs in a dijon hollandaise, rosemary potatoes…so good. Then we visited a distillery and tasted brandies, bourbons, gin, and rye. I was too busy enjoying myself to remember to take any pictures there.

And then it was time for D. to catch his bus home. It was a full (and tasty) weekend!

I enjoyed another glass of beer from the growler D. brought, and prepped Monday morning’s class.

I also ate these roasted vegetables. The eggplant was particularly delicious, and a nice way to conclude a fantastic weekend. I also started another pinwheel blanket (also a wedding present). Pictures of that soon!

FO: joyride.

Posted on August 27, 2012 by barefootrooster

This is my favorite of the pictures I snapped of myself wearing Joyride, the beret I test-knit for foxflat this summer. (Project details on ravelry.) You can really see the colors and the shine of the yarn, and I love the way the lace looks. This pattern is aptly named — so much fun to knit! Unfortunately, I’m not convinced that this style of hat works well with my overly fluffy head of curls. (Or maybe I need to develop some more confidence?) I’ve got some more pictures to show you, and I’m thinking that I might ask a friend with straight, longer hair to model this so I can take some pictures worthy of my gorgeous FO. Also, I promise to take them somewhere other than my kitchen.

Here you can really see the color progression. I absolutely love the way this knit up, and I think this pattern would be lovely in a solid, semi-solid, or variegated colorway. The lace pattern and the dropped stitches seem to pair well with the yarn I chose. If you want to make one of your own, you can purchase the pattern on ravelry here!

Want to see more pretty things? Of course you do.

These are my new tall shoes: cork wedges from Born (on sale at Zappos). I wore them to a meeting on campus last week and found them to be easier to maneuver in than I expected. (And they’re comfortable!)

Also pretty: a stunning bloom in one of the many campus gardens. Just what I needed on the first day of class.

project breakfast burrito.

Posted on August 26, 2012 by barefootrooster

I’ve begun joking that my second project, something that people often ask about on the academic job market, is a coffee table book on burritos. While my road trip involved plenty of dissertation research, I also managed to eat enough green chile (in all its forms) to warrant an academic application for all of this enjoyment of deliciousness. Not all of the pictures that follow are of burritos, but I think you get the idea!

My first real breakfast burrito in years. Amazing.

Site of the above burrito. So good.

Grilled pizza at the home of my wonderful hosts: marinara, kalamata olives and mozzarella, and barbecued chicken with onions and cilantro. Even tastier than I remembered.

Burrito number 2, from the burrito lady. This burrito contains carne adovada, ham, bacon, eggs, potatoes, cheese, and green chile. So good. Not overkill at all. Seriously.

This one I ate for breakfast and lunch. (Standard-issue diner coffee mug for scale.) I brought work, ate half of it, took a break and did some writing, and then went back to the burrito. Yum.