routine.

Posted on March 12, 2008 by barefootrooster

Woke up before my alarm today, which felt great. I’m sure I’ve said it before, but my morning ritual of making coffee, checking email, and then knitting or reading or at least crossing things off my to-do list keeps me sane.

Baked these last night — realizing that even though I still have a few months in this house, I need to make a conscious effort to eat the things that are here. Grains, tomato paste, corn starch, frozen meats and soups, etc.; these are the things that are easy to forget, and I don’t want to find myself packing boxes of food!

Happy Wednesday.

more progress: grad school cardigan

Posted on March 3, 2008 by barefootrooster

I’m still slightly nervous that the shoulders are a tad big, but because this is a looser cardigan that I intend to layer over all kinds of things, I’m hoping that won’t matter. I’m halfway through the side shaping — done with the waist decrease sets and into the hip increases. Here’s an arm’s length side view:

Yesterday was a day of recovery from the excitement of Saturday’s sunshine/rugby/Korean food/gelato. I spent it knitting, catching up on podcasts, reading at a nearby coffee shop with a pot of tea, and, of course watching more Flight of the Conchords while eating delicious homemade pizza with friends (Thanks, you guys!).

Spring is here — 71 degrees on Saturday, snow on the ground this morning. Here’s a shot of yesterday’s sunrise:

Hope your week is off to a good start. I’m going to pour my first cup of coffee. Ahh.

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.

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!

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!

saturday.

Posted on February 2, 2008 by barefootrooster

This afternoon I opened up doors and windows and let the brisk air and sunshine sweep through the house. Boh and I took a run through the bosque, and I gave my home a thorough cleaning. A dear friend came over for dinner. No knitting progress to post, but I did want to share a few photos of my day.

The best I could get without a tripod — this is the moon in the sky before the sun rose this morning.

That was the beginning of my day. Here’s how it concluded:

you make my day.

Posted on January 30, 2008 by barefootrooster

At first, I was going to tell you that this made my day, but then I learned that some blogland love had been sent in my direction.

Thank you, Hilary, for listing barefoot rooster as one of ten blogs that make your day. Here’s the deal: you share ten blogs that make you happy, and comment on their blogs to let them know. (Please accept my paraphrased version of the rules.)

I had no idea how much I would enjoy the blogging community when I began nesting here in my corner of the blogosphere a few months ago. Thank you for welcoming me — so here it goes (sans actual button, as I don’t know how to do that in wordpress yet!):

[note: I just sat down and wrote lots of nice things about why these blogs and their authors make me happy, but then I decided that you should just go visit them and find out!]

The Yarniad

SourCherries

Cosymakes

Pipe Dreams and Purling Plans

Slipped Stitch

The Knitting Philistine

I’m not much into memes, etc. but this particular (buttonless, in my case) button has been a great way for me to discover a whole slew of gorgeous knitting blogs. Boh agrees.

before/after

Posted on January 29, 2008 by barefootrooster

Short, early post today, folks. This guy, also known as the animal (must insert photo pronto)

woke me up in the middle of the night with a horrible rrrripp-ing sound. That’s right, he was yanking the polyfill out of my sleeping bag, while I slept in it. He has been in close proximity to this particular sleeping bag for the last several months, and apparently, last night the temptation became too much for Boh to bear. Luckily, I had some ripstop patching tape handy, so out of bed I leapt. I switched on the light, cursed a bit and got to work.

It’s not knitting content, but it is crafty. The blues are a better match than they look in this picture, and the hole was by no means a clean job. He must have been gnawing on the nylon for awhile before I woke up. Sigh. Onward to the before/after pictures I have for you:

This is yesterday evening’s sunset — thick, reddish clouds hovering over the mountains.

And this is what I awoke to — the second time. We haven’t had snow on the ground in the valley since before the holidays!

Alright. Off to work on generating some visible knitting progress and listen to the latest episode of Stash and Burn before work.

if your name is champ, and you want to be surprised, mark this item as read and continue on with your day.

Posted on January 16, 2008 by barefootrooster

Seriously. I figured that since you know I am making you a hat, I can post about it here, but on the off chance that you do not want to be aware of my progress on it until it has arrived, I am giving you the option to walk away. You’ll have another moment to think about it, because this morning’s sunrise was quite red, and I managed to hold the dog’s leash in one hand and the camera in the other. (These efforts yielded one non-blurry photo.)

Alright. Make up your mind, Champ.

Decided?

Good.

So, one of my favorite people who lives far, far away is due for a knitted item, and he has requested a hat. I’ve been looking at patterns on Ravelry for a few weeks now, and yesterday I settled on the boy hat (ravelry link). The pattern is for a 23 inch head, give or take, and the boy in question has a 23.6 inch noggin circumference. Perfect! I particularly like the way the decreases are incorporated into the pattern. I’m using a green/blue colorway of Malabrigo, and I love the way the colors are showing up in the ribbing.

Have a great Wednesday!

gorgeous morning.

Posted on December 11, 2007 by barefootrooster

Here’s what I saw when I stepped outside with the dog this morning. I can’t think of anything that calms and readies me for the day the way this kind of sunrise does. (Well, sunrise AND coffee.)

Last night I reheated that curried soup and it was even more delicious the second day. Another picture, because I put it in one of my bright Le Creuset vintage pots — total ebay score.

Last night, I cast on for the Montego Bay Scarf, by Amy Singer (Ravelry link). I’ve been planning to make this for my mom, but was a bit late in ordering the yarn. It arrived yesterday, and I’m hoping I can get it done before Christmas. She has this fabulous bronze dress that looks incredible on her, and I think the Mineral colorway of this HandMaiden Sea Silk will complement the deep bronze of that dress. (We have a bunch of family weddings to attend in the coming year, and I’m hoping that she can wear this scarf with the dress.) Also, my mom has a wool allergy, so finding things to make for her can be a bit challenging, just because non-wool fiber is unfamiliar territory for me.

What do you think — can I finish this in time? Happy Tuesday!

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barefoot rooster

cockadoodle-doo: one rooster's ramblings

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