freakin' muggles

Um, that is so not a Fair Isle sweater.

baby surprise jacket

This is the second one of these that I have made, and between Ravelry and the Zimmermaniacs blog (both linked to in the sidebar) I must have seen a jillion of them, but this?

It never gets old.

Add some cuffs and buttons, and voila!

The specifics:

yarn: Baruffa Maratona - I loved it. A very smooth and springy merino, yum. Unfortunately, it seems to be pretty impossible to get any more, ever. The store closed and apparently it was the only store outside Italy to carry it, or to have even heard of it. Old Friend had bought not-quite-enough for a baby sweater - let's just say that sweater will have striped sleeves.

needles: size 8 Addis

pattern: EZ's Baby Surprise Jacket. Mine is in the Knitting Workshop.

mods: the ribbed cuffs, and I omitted one buttonhole.

buttons: made out of the kids Shrinky Dinks! I kind of had to guess just how much they'd shrink, and I thought it would be a little weird to make a "gauge shrinky dink." Not that I didn't consider it.

And a garter-stitch project that didn't work out so well . . .

Eh, they can't all be winners.

Avast! I be postin' on National Talk Like a Pirate Day!

The seas around here have been calm lately. I've been mostly stayin' close to my home port, catchin' up with the deck-swabbin' I skipped last week. Aargh, ye can't be travelin' around and ignorin' the way the dishes be pilin' up for long.

There be some knittin', though, finishin' up Wee Lass's BSJ. The magical castin'-off-and-foldin'-up part's been done, and I be now addin' some length to the sleeves. Without it, once the winter wind starts a-blowin', her little arms would be colder than a witch's teat!

I'd like to say I've been talkin' like this all day, but I'd be pullin' yer leg. Really, ye can only keep it up for so long. Aargh!

I get around.

I've been all over the place the past week or so, and for once I am not talking about my mental state. Happily, all of it was fun and sometimes fiber-y stuff, no boring bits like dentist visits, etc. So, to round it all up:

Last weekend we went to the Family Fun Fest at Slater Mill. There wasn't as much there as last year, but we did get to hear storytelling by Mark Binder. He did a nice job; the boys thought he was really funny. I must admit I was a tad distracted because it was held on the second floor of the old mill and there was all this equipment for spinning? weaving? in the back of the room. I pulled out my camera to get a picture of it only to find the memory card was in the computer at home. Booger.

Thursday while the boys were at school Old Friend and I drove out to a yarn shop in Middleboro, MA that her grandmother had recommended. It's called the Wool Patch and the owner, Miriam Hobart, officially has the sweetest deal ever. Her yarn store is cute and cozy and separated from her house by a little gravel parking lot. There's also a shed and a paddock with a llama named Omi. Hi, Omi!

Omi was not particularly interested in us.

The yarn in the store was lovely; she had a very good selection for a small shop. I really liked the sock display:

I was pretty well behaved - I bought a couple of skeins of Cascade 220 for Christmas gift-knitting, and a, um, cough skein of kettle-dyed sock yarn cough cough.

We also got to go to knitting group the same night, which is always a good time.

And on to this past weekend, which was just ridiculously packed. First there was the Arts Festival at Slater Park, with all sorts of local artists displaying and selling their wares. Much of it was really beautiful - photography, jewelry, woodworking. Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of this event either. This time I forgot not the memory card but the entire camera. Yeah, I rock.

One of the vendors at the park was Jonne of Manmade by Jonne, who was totally not helping my growing desire to take up spinning by sitting there with his spinning wheel and drop spindle kits and colorful roving. My inner voice is telling me I don't really have time for another hobby, but it's a bit rusty, perhaps from lack of use. Don't worry - I didn't buy a spinning wheel. Yet.

On Sunday, J ran in the CVS Downtown 5K in Providence. He came in #1107 - sounds kind of pathetic, but there were over 7000 runners. Way to go, babe! I foolishly took the advice of the race's website instead of my own common sense and found the highway exit I took completely blocked off. So the kids and I watched mainly from the car. Still, the sheer volume of people running through the streets of downtown Providence was pretty impressive. And I didn't mind sitting in the car; I had my knitting.



Not surprisingly, J was a bit tired for accompanying the kids and I to our last outing of the past week: back to Slater Park to see a performance of the RI Philharmonic. I go to this park at least a couple of times a week and I have never seen so many people there:


Oh, did you notice the sweater on the lady sitting in front of me? Yeah, me too.

Pretty. The orchestra was pretty good, too. :)

I thought it was thrilling to hear such full and lovely music in an outdoor familiar setting. The kids thought it was thrilling that they performed the theme from Star Wars. Something for everybody.

The next few weeks don't really show any signs of slowing down. I've got a family birthday, a baby shower, and another event coming up. The event, for anybody local and interested, is a celebration of National Spinning and Weaving week at Slater Mill on October 7. There will be a lot of people (duh) spinning and weaving, but also activities for kids such as felting and using a drop spindle. Although I have tried a drop spindle myself and I think that may result in some pissed-off kids and broken drop spindles. Maybe that's just me. Anyway, it should be fun. Maybe I should rest up first!

monkey bread

There was a distinct chill in the air when we woke up this morning. I'd left the windows open most of the night so the house had gotten down into the mid-60's, and it smelled like fall. Definitely time to make monkey bread.

The kids and I love making monkey bread on weekend mornings. Especially when it's chilly, a warm breakfast is great. Plus it makes the house smell like cinnamon. I also like it because I'm not much for baking and the recipe, such as it is, is very loose and unscientific. And easy.

1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Put a little bit of oil in the bottom of a pie pan (lined with foil if you are lazy like me). Mix some sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Maybe about a half cup of sugar and a teaspoon or two of cinnamon. I don't know, I never really measure it. You can always put in a little more if you run out.

2. Take a pound of bread dough (made yourself if you are ambitious like that; at least I buy mine from a local bakery). Tear off small pieces and roll them around in the sugar and cinnamon, then drop them in the pie pan. The kids usually do this part. Add some chopped apple or raisins if you feel like it. Here's this morning's:

3. Put it in the oven. Today, instead of my usual keep-checking-it-until-it-looks-done method, I timed it. It took about 25 minutes. When it comes out it looks like this:

Yum!

book quiz

You're To Kill a Mockingbird!

by Harper Lee

Perceived as a revolutionary and groundbreaking person, you have
changed the minds of many people. While questioning the authority around you, you've
also taken a significant amount of flack. But you've had the admirable guts to
persevere. There's a weird guy in the neighborhood using dubious means to protect you,
but you're pretty sure it's worth it in the end. In the end, it remains unclear to you
whether finches and mockingbirds get along in real life.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

*ETA: Big Brother was The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Little Brother was Juarssic Park. Damn, this thing's insightful. :)

hemlock ring blanket

Lace + big yarn + big needles = fast and fun knitting!

pattern: hemlock ring blanket, the giant-doily-turned-lap-blanket brilliantly interpreted by brooklyn tweed

yarn: Reynolds Blizzard, a super-bulky alpaca/acrylic blend

needles: size 15 circulars

mods: Well, technically the whole thing is brooklyn tweed's mod of the original doily pattern. I did use different yarn and needles than he did, though.

This thing is so soft, if a bit sheddy. Oddly, the white sheds but the tan does not. I actually finished the knitting over the weekend but it took forever to block - it just did not want to dry. Baby Sister helped me block it. :)

Mine is a bit different from the original. Since the yarn and needles I used were even bigger, the blanket grew really quickly. It's supposed to have the flower section surrounded by a lot more feather and fan, but I had to stop early because I was running out of yarn. Still, it ended up about the right size.

My favorite thing? It's a gift that looks way harder to make than it actually was. :)