Tag Archives: FO

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!

FO: peace fleece pinwheel.

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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!

FO: joyride.

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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.

FO: another wedding pinwheel!

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Pretty soon I’m going to have to make one of these for myself. I’ve actually lost count of how many pinwheel blankets I’ve knit. And I’m fine with that. I’m looking forward to putting this in the mail and sending it off to dear friends/newlyweds. Hooray!

This is what has been happening around here. Boh sleeps, I comment on papers. I’m into the last week of my summer TAing. Almost there.

Here’s where I ate my lunch yesterday. Isn’t it lovely?

Today I wore my whisper cardigan. It was cool this morning, so I wore it to the bus stop. And then I took it off, and thought to myself that I’d just been looking for an excuse to wear handknits, and that I didn’t really need it. And then it was extra cool in the air-conditioned library atrium, and I was happy to have it. (I realize none of that is really necessary information. Still, we all have those days where we  wear handknits because we want to, even if the temperature isn’t quite right. The chill in the library made me happy today because I had just the thing to put on!)

One more picture: A blurry self-portrait that I snapped because I wanted to text a friend to show her that I was wearing the earrings she gave me several years ago and thinking of her. Now that I look at this picture, I realized I’ve captured my favorite element of my whisper cardigan: the neck/collar section!

Okay…back to commenting on paper drafts! Happy Tuesday to you.

cup(pow) of lilac wine?

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Forgive me. I’m doing that thing where I try to link all the things I want to tell you about in a phrase. It’s okay if you want to roll your eyes. But when you’re done with that, look at this:

After I posted about recap mason jar lids for narrow mouth jars, blog friend dearmary offered to order me a cuppow coffee lid for wide mouth jars as part of an order she was planning. We met on Thursday, and talked for an hour. (And she not only brought me the cuppow; she also brought me a jar and a sweet, stripey handknit mason jar cozy!) All of this affirmed what I already knew to be true: blog friends are the best.  Also, the cuppow has my highest recommendation. I filled it with a latte right away, and when I was done, I flipped the lid inside out and put the regular mason jar lid disc over it, sealing in any remaining coffee drips and making it possible to toss the whole thing in my bag. I am going to use this ALL THE TIME.

I finished blocking my lilac wine cowl and snapped a few FO pictures.

I ended up using between 2/3 and 3/4 of my skein of Fleece Artist Merino 2/6 sock yarn. I could have kept going; I intended to, even, but I developed some sort of lilac wine fatigue last week and was ready to bind off.

I think I’ll get a lot of use out of this — in overly air-conditioned lecture halls and during in-between seasons, especially.

I took a few photos of the cemetery on my walk down the hill from campus. I’m captivated by the house-style mausoleums built into the hillside.

Can you tell we’re onto the random pictures from my iPhone segment of the blog? I’ve been eating strawberries twice a day this week. (I picked a gallon last week at the farm, and I’ve managed to eat them all. So good.)

More pesto, this time with garlic scapes and farm basil.

And then there’s Boh and his pile of paws. I’ll post photos of the weekend adventures that prompted such deep sleep soon.

FO: bronzed teal.

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Hooray for handspun! That’s about 450 yards of light worsted/worsted 2-ply, spun from Pigeonroof Studios merino in Bronzed Teal. Boh seems sort of interested, doesn’t he?

Yeah, maybe not.

Anyway, I’m excited! I have no idea what I want to make.

I’m not sure I can count on Boh to help me pick a pattern — what do you think?

One more Boh shot: lounging in the sweet spot of sunshine.

FO: floating down.

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Which, incidentally, also describes my back pain: floating down in intensity. I’ve got a massage scheduled for as soon as I’m done teaching tomorrow morning, and that should make it a lot better. Thank you for all of your kind comments. I’ve been trying to take it easy while still getting  my work done. It’s going to be another busy week… (I feel like I’ve been saying that a lot this semester!) Anyway, do you want to see some handspun?

I thought so.

This is Hello Yarn 75% BFL/25% Tussah Silk in Floating Down, spun as singles. I ended up with just over 400 yards of this delicious stuff. What should I make?

Boh is excited.

Or not. (Silly, silly dog.)

We took a long, slow walk with a friend and her dog on Friday, which seemed to help with my back twinge. Along the way, we saw this bald eagle! (Apologies for the poor photo quality — I took this with my iphone, and zoomed in as much as I could.)

We also saw this Great Blue Heron. Boh and Madigan were too busy focusing on all the Canadian Geese to notice.

I got sorrel in my CSA box this week, and sauteed it with butter and onions and leftover rice. It was delicious.

And last night, I made a big batch of Heidi’s Millet Fried Rice, from Super Natural Cooking. I’d forgotten how much I like millet — and how much I like this recipe. Basically, you cook the millet, and when that’s almost done, you make a super thin egg pancake, by melting butter with some toasted sesame oil in a large pan, beating a couple of eggs as if to make an omelette, and then pouring in the egg. You swirl the eggs around to get a really thin layer, and then fold the eggs over on themselves once they are cooked enough to let you do that. Shortly after that, you remove the egg from the pan, and then stirfry whatever veggies you’re using in a super hot pan, and then you add the millet, some soy sauce, and then you slice the egg pancake into strips and add that, too. I topped mine with onion sprouts and some canned roasted red pepper, both from my spring CSA box. I might have eaten this for lunch and dinner today, too.

Also, last night was Earth Hour, and I participated by turning off as much electricity as possible in my home, and lighting some candles to read by. While I believe that lifestyle activism on its own isn’t enough, I like doing this, and it is nice to remind myself how much I enjoy turning everything off for awhile. I certainly recognize my own privilege in all of this –and that not everyone has the power to make this choice. Still, this is about mindfulness for me. I didn’t really plan ahead, in terms of what I might read, so I was scrambling for something as the official time approached.

I ended up spending part of my hour reading some Mary Oliver poems. The book I’m teaching this week opens with Oliver’s “Wild Geese” as the epigraph, which I read to my students on Wednesday. It begins, “You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees/ For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.” It was nice to read it by candlelight.

Looks like today’s photos are all in pairs. I like it. Also, Happy April!

FO: snow drops and snap peas shawl.

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I did a lot of knitting last week (and Boh did a lot of sleeping). We spent a good deal of time in this position on the couch, and we finished the shawl with plenty of time for blocking and packing.

Here it is, almost done.

Blocking on the dining room table. (So nice to have a table that is big enough for a substantially-sized shawl.) Speaking of, I ended up knitting a size in between the medium and large sizes — I did one less overall repeat, just to make sure that I wouldn’t be rushing, and I’m really happy with the sizing. I do need to work on my blocking skills — I’m not so good with the long flexible wires for blocking a shawl into a perfect half-circle, as you can sort of tell. There are a couple of scalloped edges, but I aimed to make them symmetrical so that it wouldn’t look sloppy.

This lace pattern is gorgeous — and not too difficult to execute, which was perfect for this project and the timeline I was working with. I knit this on size 7 needles, using Shibui Sock in the Pagoda colorway. Right after I cast on, I panicked about not having enough yarn (I had about 600 yards) and so I ordered another few skeins, which was a great idea. For a size a bit smaller than the large, I used almost half of a fourth skein. And now there’s plenty of yarn for something fun for me — tall socks? My very own shawl?

Here’s a crappy mirror shot of me wearing the shawl, for scale more than anything.

And here it is, Snow Drops and Snap Peas, all folded up and ready to be packed and then gifted to the bride.

And here’s a glimpse of my maid of honor bouquet — so lovely. I don’t have any pictures of the wedding to share, but my head is filled with wonderful images of my dearest friend, radiant and happy, marrying her partner. The weekend was filled with celebration, and I’m so thrilled to have been able to be part of it. There’s something really special about getting to participate in your best friend’s wedding, and it meant a whole lot to me to get to support her in all the small ways (bouquet-holding, dress-bustling) and to get to write a toast for M. and her husband(!). I’m still on a bit of a high from the whole thing, even as I’ve been struggling to jump back into the pile of things that must get done.

Off to campus!

FO(s): lucy socks and shaking leaves handspun.

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First, thank you all for your kind blogiversary comments. I can’t believe it has been four years, and I hope I’m still finding joy in this space four years from now.

Yesterday I finished my Lucy handspun socks. I had a lot going on this week, and it shows in these socks: one of them seems a bit tighter than the other. I’m sure with a bit of wear the snug sock will loosen up. I’m fascinated by the way my emotions find their way into my knitting, by the physical (and often, subconscious) expression of things often kept inside, and by the porousness of boundaries. Stress in one area leads to tighter stitches in another. So it goes.

Also, I love these socks. So much. (And for future reference, they were 64 stitch socks, loosely based on the deeper heel flap option of the Knitmore Girls Vanilla Sock.) I did a less than perfect job of splitting my yarn, and I bet I could have added another inch to the leg of each sock. I tucked the leftovers into a bag of lots of colorful handspun bits and pieces. Looking forward to doing something fun with those.

Speaking of handspun, this gorgeous stuff has been patiently awaiting FO photos and a blog post. It is Hello Yarn Finn in the Shaking Leaves colorway, and I spun it as a 2-ply squishy worsted. I’m not sure what this wants to be: a hat? a squishy, simple cowl? It has been sitting here on the coffee table so long that I accidentally recycled the envelope I used to make my notes on the yardage. I think I’ve got somewhere between 140 and 180 yards.

Also, it has become fully fall here, which means I’ve been wearing my handknits. See?

The unfancy socks and terra. At the same time. Life is good.

Today, after a bit of reading, I’m picking up my dear friend H. and her son, and we’re heading to the orchard for cider doughnuts and maybe some apple picking. Later, I’ll be packing, as my last scheduled research trip starts tomorrow — back next weekend. I’m bringing both knitting and handknits with me, so I’ll aim to at least document them both in the wild.

FO: a pair of unfancy socks.

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I’ve finished a pair of socks, and it happens to be socktober. (How did I manage that?) I might like these so much that I’m going to cast on another equally unfancy sock or two. These are 64 st socks with 2×2 rib at the cuff, knit from the cuff down. I loosely followed the Knitmore Girls Vanilla Sock pattern after abandoning the Gentleman’s Fancy Sock I began with.)

Honestly, I wish I hadn’t finished knitting sock #2 quite so soon. See, I’ve spent my morning dealing with an unpleasant stomach bug, and all I’ve been able to do thus far today is sit quietly and knit. (No coffee, even!) I just ate some oatmeal, and so far, it seems to be staying right where I want it. (TMI?) I’m hoping to swap knitting for writing this afternoon — but I guess if working is impossible, knitting is the next best thing. And now I’ve got a new pair of socks!

Also, a new pair of glasses. What do you think? (Can this rooster pull off this look?)

Boh doesn’t seem to mind the new frames — so long as he can stay curled up on the couch. I’m happy to let him handle that part of today’s to-do list!