stella.

Posted on March 13, 2008 by barefootrooster

I made this without a particular recipient in mind — just wanted to check out the pattern, which I quite enjoyed. I was thinking that I don’t need another hat, particularly now that spring is here, but I do like this picture:

(Or maybe I am being tricky. Perhaps the recipient is an occasional reader here? Hmmm.)

Details:

Stella’s Hat by Knitting School Dropout

Size 8 needles, 16 in circs and dpns

Araucania Nature Wool Chunky in a bright, semi-solid green — 1 ish skeins (was using a leftover ball from the bolero jacket and needed to dip into a second.)

In the morning, I’m off to the Bay Area for just about 24 hours — a super quick work trip, but it should be fun. Back on Saturday afternoon!

adventuring.

Posted on February 28, 2008 by barefootrooster

I’ve been adventuring this week, sharing my home with an old friend. We used to share a house on the other side of the world, and it has been incredibly fun to explore my current backyard together. Take a look:

Mt. Taylor in the distance, covered in snow.

Chaco Canyon — incredible ruins, history and landscape.

Overlooking Pueblo Bonito.

Contemplating the view — perched atop an inactive volcano.

Popcorn preparation.

When we shared a house, the three of us (thinking of you, E) watched every Bond movie in sequence, pausing in the middle to prepare popcorn. Casino Royale had not been made at the time. Yesterday, our tradition continued, and the popcorn was delicious.

Because I am a morning person, and my house guest is not exactly one, I have made a slight bit of knitting progress this week. I completed my one row handspun scarf, and I really like the subtle transition from color to color. This particular pattern is wonderfully soothing — I highly recommend it.

One last picture: these are the mountains I photograph often from my front door early in the morning. This week’s adventures marked the first time I’ve visited these places with the knowledge that I will be leaving, and that it will be several years before I might have the chance to live here again. In many other places I’ve lived, restlessness has set in after about a year. Not so, here. This is home.

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!

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!

boy. i think.

Posted on February 1, 2008 by barefootrooster

I finished my second Boy Hat (you know, the one I thought might have to be a girl hat), and I am pretty sure this will work. It is just under 8 inches long (thus, a bit long on me), and the boy in question does not have big hair like I do. The hat is blocking flat right now, rather than in a stretched condition, because I don’t want the ribbing to stretch out too much. I did give it a few friendly tugs for length. Blocking is still a complete (and magical) mystery to me. Fingers crossed!

As you can see here, I did run out of wool. My photography skills leave something to be desired here; the color I used for the very top is actually a slightly lighter shade of green — something akin to a celery heather, if you will. I am satisfied with how this turned out, though after I bound off, I realized that the bulk of the hat is superwash, and that teensy circle up top is not. No matter: the boy who will be wearing this will likely never wash it…

I know there’s been a lot of dog here lately, but I can’t help it. He’s so damn cute. Exhibit A:

On an unrelated point, I’m feeling pretty good about myself today because I cleaned out (read: scrubbed drawers and shelves) my fridge AND removed leftover soups and black beans frozen at least 12 months ago from my freezer. February cleaning has begun.

same rules apply, champ. nothing to see here.

Posted on January 17, 2008 by barefootrooster

I really enjoyed making this hat — Malabrigo is particularly squishy in this k4,p4 rib pattern, and the way the decreases are incorporated into the ribbing so that the rib columns narrow to nothing looks fantastic. (Pattern: The Boy Hat. Yarn: Malabrigo Merino Worsted. Needles: US 7.) Here is a picture of the hat unstretched.

Now take a look at it on my head (a bit smaller than that of its intended recipient):

Apologies for the awkward camera angles. I love this hat. I might need one.

another FO!

Posted on January 15, 2008 by barefootrooster

Sometimes, while I sit at my funky 1960s kitchen table working on my laptop, the dog sits on the futon with a regal air that makes me wonder what exactly he is thinking. I had the camera handy yesterday, and managed to capture this:

I also finished yet another WIP: a simple garter stitch scarf made out of 2 skeins of very soft Patagonia cotton. Mel, of Pipe Dreams and Purling Plans, is also working on a garter stitch scarf, and her post reminded me to weave in the ends and tie this up with string for its intended recipient. This yarn was left over from a My So Called Scarf that I made for my mom last spring. I gave some of this stuff in an orangey colorway to a friend learning to knit, and when she turned it into a gorgeous garter stitch scarf, I decided to do the same with my leftovers.

This is a birthday gift for my landlord. She commented on how beautiful my mother’s scarf turned out, and I know she will really appreciate it. (I live in the back house on my landlord’s property, so I see them quite a bit and really enjoy being able to live by myself, but surrounded by the noises of children and chickens, and able to walk into the main house to catch up and have a cup of tea.)

I hope she likes it.

scorched wool smells bad.

Posted on January 14, 2008 by barefootrooster

Ask me how I know this:

On our snowshoeing adventure, my mitts got a bit too close to a barrel stove (read: I used one of them like a hot mitt to open the door), and it seems the fire (and handle) had grown incredible hot. This was great for my cold toes, and bad for one of my mitts. Luckily, I already had a pair of mitts on the needles. I got around to finishing these this morning, and I have to say, I love this pattern (Ravelry link) by Twinknit. This is the second pair I’ve made, and they are nice and long and they fit snugly enough to do things while wearing them (you know what I mean). Plus, the cables are simple and beautiful.

This may become my “go-to” mitt pattern. Here’s a classic coffee mug shot, though I could not position the camera in such a way to use the timer to get both mitts in the picture — and Boh could not be enticed to push the button.

I’m taking it easy today, doing some recharging after a very full weekend and working to stave off the beginnings of a cold/sore throat. I have some traveling for work coming up next weekend, and it will be much more productive if I am healthy. I will likely begin winding yarn and choosing a pattern for my next pair of socks. I am thinking about Schrodinger’s Twisted Tweed Socks, as I have some Trekking and the pattern is already written for Magic Loop (no extra thinking or converting necessary for my first attempt at this method). I’ll keep you posted!

Also, if you need some inspiration, check out this gorgeous cardigan over at slippedstitch. This cardigan has already sent me digging through bins of yarn to figure out what I could use to make this. I aspire to this kind of beauty in my knitted things — which reminds me — soon, I shall post on my knitting resolutions for 2008. The list keeps growing, and I will have to edit and prioritize in order to settle on something remotely attainable.

Tiger Socks!

Posted on January 13, 2008 by barefootrooster

Victory! I cast on for these, my second ever pair of socks, in July. Frustrated with how often I was dropping stitches when I tried to watch movies AND work on them, these ball band pattern simple merino socks (so named by me because this yarn is in the Tiger colorway) traveled everywhere with me for weeks without a single row of progress. I picked these up again right about the time I began blogging, and became determined to complete them.

In fact, this was the project in my (cavernous) bag the day I serendipitously came upon a group of friendly-looking women knitting at a coffee shop near my house. These socks made it possible for me to join them that evening, and I have been knitting with them on Tuesdays ever since.

I am very happy with the way these turned out. The second sock is better than the first, and I like that I can see the progress I’ve made. With the pair of socks in my hands, the kitchener stitch at the toes looks a bit messy, but on my feet, it looks much better. I’m excited to choose my next sock project — hopefully using the Magic Loop method.

By the way, it is quite difficult to take pictures of socks on your own feet, particularly if the “hold legs in air while sitting on couch” method allows far too much mess into the camera frame…

I’ll leave you with a shot of this morning’s sunrise. Have a great weekend!

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	29
30	31

barefoot rooster

cockadoodle-doo: one rooster's ramblings

Tag Archives: FO