hip-hop-opotamus:

Posted on March 1, 2008 by barefootrooster

Best rapping name ever. Go rent Flight of the Conchords. You won’t be sorry. (I thought about saving this post title for when I attempt the pomatomus socks, but that may be a long way off, and I am laughing about this now.)

Meet my new teapot. My recent house guest knows me well — a funky teapot has been on my wishlist for a long time, and this is perfect. Also, it was accompanied by a bacon bar:

That’s right. Said past roommate and I used to make North American breakfast every weekend. As he says, “in Canada, we just call it bacon”. I bought extra for his visit, and I believe we are both shocked that with all of our exploring, we did not find time to eat it! I am very excited about this.

Lest you think I am no longer knitting, and instead just lazing about, watching silly DVDs, drinking tea, and eating bacon:

I am making progress on my grad school cardigan (Brompton) — into the shaping now. I love Rowan Felted Tweed. I have some cross-country airplane travel coming up this week and next, and I anticipate much uninterrupted Brompton knitting. Hooray!

Also, because of all the bacon talk, here is a picture of Boh being a complete ham. (I blame the hip-hop-opotamus for the corny humor I am employing here. I can’t help it.)

blocking.

Posted on February 16, 2008 by barefootrooster

Inspired by Mick at Much Adored — and by the arrival of a much needed weekend, I knit the last 5 rows (I know, I know, ridiculous that I left so little to complete) of the second sleeve of my Debbie Bliss Bolero Jacket, and began blocking.

The sleeves are looking a bit big to me (I say that like I’ve done this before) — but I’m intending for this to be a cozy shrug-sweater, so I hope it will be fine.

I let the pieces dry overnight, and this morning, though still slightly damp, I decided that the front pieces and the back were dry enough for me to seam the shoulders and begin picking up a million (okay, 226) stitches for the all-the-way-around ribbing that makes this sweater so cute. No pictures of that yet, but now that I have picked up said stitches, I am hoping to complete this before the cold weather leaves us entirely.

Lucky for me and my sweater, I woke up to a sprinkling of snow on the ground. I’m off to a place that likely has snow — and a crackling fire in the wood stove — for the rest of the 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.

monday morning baking

Posted on February 11, 2008 by barefootrooster

You know you’re a blogger when you bake blueberry muffins on Monday morning and debate over how to arrange them on the plate to take their picture BEFORE biting into one.

(They are delicious, by the way. I ate one while this photo was uploading.) The recipe is another of Mark Bittman’s, from the big yellow book (aka How to Cook Everything). I’m a huge fan.

A bit more sock progress to share as well –please disregard my severely chipped nail polish:

Thank you for all of your thoughtful advice on short row heels. I am looking forward to trying it again with my second Twisted Tweed sock.

Happy Monday — I’m off to eat more muffins.

garter st therapy

Posted on February 10, 2008 by barefootrooster

Sometimes you just need it. I cast on for this bib on Friday night, mostly because there was a chance we’d be going to the movies, and I wanted something that I could knit in the dark. I just kept working on it, enjoying and truly needing the soothing powers of garter stitch to help me take a deep breath and continue with my weekend.

It’s working. I’ve already cast on for a second bib. (These projects also have the added benefit of requiring a button, meaning I get to visit my LYS soon.)

Thank you for all of the birthday wishes. I celebrated with delicious meals and board games among friends, walks along the river and in the foothills with the dog, and many long overdue phone calls with those dearest to me.

The sun is shining brightly this morning– spring is slowly springing here. Hope you get some sunshine today too.

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!

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.

pears for crisp…

Posted on January 28, 2008 by barefootrooster

Recipe from Apples for Jam. (Self, you are so clever.) I know that I am super late to this party, but while I was in NYC, I found this cookbook by Tessa Kiros at Anthropologie for under ten dollars. No brainer. This weekend I made both the Pear and Berry Crisp (with pears, apples, and some frozen blueberries), and the Lentil Soup (with more liberal modifications based on the contents of my fridge and pantry). Balsamic vinegar with lentils is a brilliant idea, by the way, and here’s a shot of the crisp:

Boh and I went for a great run along the river on Saturday, which is my way of telling you that I am eating this for breakfast momentarily. Before I can dig into the crisp, how about a bit of knitting? Still knitting away on Brompton (so excited about this) and several other projects, but again, knitting time does not equal visible knitting progress. More on those soon.

I’m making serious progress on the Gathered Scarf. While not the quickest knit, due to all the needle switching and kfb/k2tog, this is a lot of fun. It doesn’t hurt that the yarn may be the softest I’ve knit with: Blue Sky Alpacas Suri Merino, for those of you just tuning in. In this picture, the scarf is not yet wrapped around my neck.

Last night I started my third skein, and I think this is going to be long and luxurious. This is a pretty substantial knit, and while I wouldn’t call the scarf heavy, I think it will stretch out considerably with wear. I absolutely adore superlong scarves, so I think this will become fast favorite. It is starting to warm up here in the afternoons, so I better hurry up and finish it so I can wear it before next fall!

I think I mentioned that I was in need of an unplanned, relaxing weekend. If this picture is any indication, we were successful.

Hope your Monday is off to a good start.

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: knitting