Tag Archives: cardigan

FO: snowbird.

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I love the pockets.

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The sweater is a little slouchy, but overall I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. And just in time, too. These pictures are from last month, but since then, we’ve had cold and snowy weather.

nov3

Sweetness.

nov7

Squash soup.

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A few pictures from the last good fall walk we took before the weather turned.

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This light. So lovely.

It’s been a very busy fall around here, folks. So busy that I missed my blogiversary! Six years and counting now, even though I’ve slowed down a bit recently. Hope you’re all well.

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a little more.

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Because the weather has been glorious, I’ve moved all of my dissertation writing to the porch. This means Boh has moved the majority of his lounging to the porch as well.

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You know, except when it is dinner time. He knows when that is supposed to happen, and has been waiting for me right here.

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I’ve been making slow, steady progress on Snowbird — the pocket stitches are on stitch-holders, and I’m working my way down the rest of the body. I think the sweater is going to be pretty slouchy in the body, but it fits well in the arms, so I’m hoping I’ll love it and wear it a lot.

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One more. Sweet Boh at a nearby waterfall. We’ve been visiting this one weekly, on our way to get vegetables from the farm I belong to, and Boh loves it there. Happy weekend!

breaking news.

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Nope, not the president’s reelection. Or any number of the meaningful choices made on Tuesday — including to send more women to Congress, to expand the privileges that come with marriage to more people who love each other. I’m totally psyched about those things. Lots of folks on the internet (well, the parts of the internet I frequent) have written smartly and thoughtfully about Tuesday’s events, so I’m focusing on savory leek bread pudding. Yep, you heard me. There were leeks at the farm this week (my second-last pick-up) and then I saw this recipe, so I made a special trip to the store yesterday. Yoga was canceled, so I had an evening to let things simmer on the stove and bake in the oven. Yum. I made this with whole milk instead of milk and cream, and I left out the chives in favor of more thyme. This is a wonderfully creamy, comforting meal. And this lucky Rooster is heating it up for breakfast right now.

Also, this. I do not get tired of Boh’s sweetness. I hope you’re not sick of it either.

More Snowbird, slowly but surely. Time to eat some leek bread pudding and get myself to the coffee shop to write. Happy Thursday!

forward.

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Forward, both for my Snowbird cardigan and hopefully, the nation. As I write this, I’m waiting for my friend M. (of Sexy Yoda fame) to pick me up so that we can go to our polling place to vote. I’m excited — 4 years ago I voted absentee, so I haven’t voted in-person since 2004, when I worked as an organizer for a non-partisan youth voting initiative. Today is the first time that most of the undergraduates at my university will get to participate in the electoral process. (Note that I did not say the democratic process, because I strongly believe that voting is one of many ways to participate in creating the democracy we want to live in.)

And now I’ve got some unrelated cuteness. Or maybe it could be related, if Boh were running for any sort of office.

Boh is a strong supporter of roasted cauliflower.

Also, handspun shawls. (I was using this one as a makeshift hot water bottle cover yesterday.)

And he yawns, just like everybody else. The sweetness. Happy Election Day, American readers! Please vote.

apple crisp.

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I love apple crisp season. You know what else I love? The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. If you’re a regular reader here at Chez Rooster, you already know that Deb and Smitten Kitchen are my go-to cooking resource on the interwebs. This cookbook is amazing, and totally worth the wait. I want to make (and eat) it all. The crisp part of the apple crisp I made (twice) comes from Deb’s apricot crisp recipe, and it is the best crisp topping I’ve ever prepared. I expect that lots of recipes from this book will find their way into my kitchen rotation. I’ll keep you posted as I cook from it.

And Snowbird is moving right along — I finished the second sleeve yesterday, and began working on the body. I’ve never knit a sweater that instructs you to knit the sleeves first, but it feels great to know that once the body is done, I’ll be pretty close to done knitting this sweater! I plan to alternate knitting with transcribing research photos this afternoon. (And tea-drinking.)

And then there’s this guy. I have no idea what he is doing with his tail in this picture, which is why I took it. This is how he was sitting on the couch when we came in from our walk. Now he’s snoring loudly, and I imagine he’ll be out cold for much of the middle of the day. Here’s to a cozy and productive weekend!

FO: kerrera. (also, fall break.)

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Actually, how about Fall Break first? I stopped to snap this picture on my walk to the coffee shop Friday morning. The leaves and the light are so lovely right now.

A lovely latte at one of my favorite places to work. I’m almost happy with my fellowship application, after lots of struggling and a two-week time-out.

Can you see that snake in the grass? Boh totally didn’t see it. (It was right in front of us on the paved path we walked on Friday, and then it slithered off to the side.)

Bright red leaves from my yard. Hello, fall.

Fall is for vests. Especially vests like this one, snagged from my mom, who wore it so well in the late 70s.

And here’s my Kerrera! I’m calling it done, even though the collar could use more of a blocking than the rest of it received this morning. (I put it in the bathroom while I took a hot shower and left the fan off.) The left arm is a little looser than the right between the wrist and the elbow, but I think I can live with that!

I absolutely love the length, and the way the double garter stitch edging hangs, especially in the back.

And of course, I love the patch pockets. I think this is going to get lots of use this fall as a cozy layer for working at home and as the perfect thing to throw on as a light jacket for walking Boh or sitting on the dock with a cup of tea! I think this is the most complicated knit I’ve attempted, and I’m really happy with what I’ve learned. This was the first time I knit anything with short row sleeve caps or patch pockets, and I think both turned out pretty well. (I also learned that I should take better notes — I clearly modified the decreases on one of the arms and did not write that down.) I used not more than 5 and a half skeins of Berroco Ultra Alpaca, which means I’ve got almost half a bag left — enough for another sweater!

Okay, back to commenting on papers. Happy Monday!

break out the alpaca.

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Also known as the answer to evening and early morning temperatures in the 40s. Fall is here, and to celebrate, I’ve been working on my Kerrera. I finished the second sleeve this week, and aside from realizing that I did something wonky on the first sleeve and should probably rip back the double garter on that one and do it again, I’m pretty happy with how it is coming along.

Can you see that the sleeve on the right in this photo has a shorter cuff than the one on the left? I can, so I’ll probably attempt to fix that. Here’s a side/back view:

Something I noticed while snapping these pictures: this sweater is pretty heavy, and the drapey gauge I’m knitting it at isn’t necessarily helping. To counter this — and to increase my chances of actually finishing this before another winter goes by — I decided to look for alternatives to the large hood. I found this version by ravelry user belletrism, and I really like the wide collar. I knit the first few hood increases and finished off with some double garter. What do you think?

I really like it, and I think it will be cozy and floppy once I knit the double garter band along the fronts and the outer edges of this collar. I am a little worried about the sizing, as the weight may cause this to really stretch out as I wear it, so I’m already thinking about tossing this in the dryer after I block it (and it dries completely) to snug everything up a bit. I’m nervous about the idea, but I’ve read that a lot of people do this with handknits. Do you?

I hope you all have a fabulous, cozy Sunday. If I can get everything prepped for my class tomorrow, I’ll be spending my afternoon curled up on the couch with Boh and my Kerrera!

swoon.

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Meet the newest addition to my kitchen: a beautiful turquoise-y blue 7 1/4 quart Le Creuset french oven. This arrived yesterday, an overwhelmingly kind birthday gift from my dearest friend, in celebration of my 30th birthday. I was so excited that I cooked my dinner in it, even though I didn’t really need quite so big a pot for this particular meal.

I made Deb’s garlic butter roasted mushrooms, and oh-my-goodness were they delicious. I can’t wait to make something else in my new pot today!

My WIP sorting a few days ago led me to pick up my Kerrera again, after months (maybe even a year?) away. I’d stopped after working the body and joining the shoulder seams. The next step was a short-row sleeve cap and the sleeves. I was a little nervous about the short rows, but the instructions for handling the W+T and the wraps on the following rows are very clear in this pattern, and that helped a lot. Now I’m working on the straight portion of the sleeve!

It feels fully like spring or early summer here, so even if I work diligently on this, I probably won’t get to wear it until fall, but that’s okay. It seems I’m always knitting out of season!

I’ve been enjoying my spring CSA greens every which way: on a sandwich with sprouts, under a fried egg, over rice — I can’t get enough.

And here’s a sweet shot of Boh, cuddling on the couch. He’s such a good boy. Alright, time to make a plan for the day. (I’m hoping I’ll get enough writing done that Boh and I can fit in a long walk.)

whispering?

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You know, the act of finishing off a whisper cardigan. I snapped these photos last weekend, before a super busy week of research travel.

I think I’m going to love this sweater. I bound off moments after these photos — just needed to make sure it seemed long enough — and then promptly tucked it into my knitting bag for safekeeping while I was away. On the list for this week? Blocking the bottom edge to reduce the rolling. And then, if it stays cool and gray, wearing it out of the house! (I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: I clearly didn’t give any thought at all to the placement of the mirror in my new home — I need to place one somewhere other than a dark hallway near the bathroom with yellowish light.) Also, I didn’t even need to break into the third skein of this Knitpicks laceweight yarn. Real FO photos to come once it is blocked.

Oh, and that blueberry crumble I posted about last week?

It was delicious. More soon.

shhh…

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Greetings, readers, from somewhere that is neither here nor there. I really have been meaning to blog, not least to share about the fantastic weekend I spent with blog-friends-turned-real-friends, Mick and Laura. (Would you believe that we didn’t really do any knitting or spinning because we were too busy talking, eating, and drinking?)

Anyway, I’m on a fancy bus pointed towards a city with a library that has some stuff that might be useful for my dissertation, and now seems as good a time as any to (a) try to get back into a blogging rhythm, and (b) learn how to use wordpress on my shiny iPhone. (I hate to admit it, but I do think the iPhone may be a factor in my recent blogging slump. The teaching definitely kept me super busy earlier in the summer, but I’ve also noticed that the camera on the iPhone is so good that I rarely reach for my regular camera, and I am not in the habit of daily syncing my phone with m computer. Bottom line? I’ve been slow to upload photos, and that seems to be disrupting my blogging routine.) I am going to try to be better- and maybe wordpress on the iPhone will help!

So, to connect back to today’s post title, does anybody recognize the knitting in my lap? That’s right, it’s my whisper cardigan, and it is almost done! I grabbed it because it is small and light, and at a place where the knitting is easy. Most of my WIPs are at stages that require more concentration than I have right now. I’m so happy to be knitting on this again!

More soon!