Raspberries

It’s been a long time since I posted. There’s been a lot going on here… end of school (lots of homework help with French), trying to start redoing B’s room before the end of the month, and other (good) things I can’t blog about right now. I have been knitting, but not that much, and I haven’t taken any in-progress pictures.

The wild black raspberries near my house are in season. You can’t really tell from the picture because we already picked all the ripe ones.

Usually, only a handful are ripe at a time, but this time B and I picked a huge bowl of them. So we decided to make jam.

Four cups of berries made three jars of jam, although one is already in the fridge.

Last night, I took B to a soccer game (semifinals for the US Open Cup). The game was delayed because of rain and thunder and lightning, so after a few hours the game finally started, and the New England team won 3-0. We were back really late.

Yarn Shopping

We went for a drive today for Ingi’s birthday, and went to a park called Devil’s Hopyard.

On the way back, we saw a yarn shop and stopped in. They were having a sale on their locally raised and dyed yarn where if you bought a certain amount of regular-priced yarn, you could fill a bag with sale yarn. So… I ended up with a whole lot of nice sale yarn.

Gardening Weekend

I finished both fronts of the wrap sweater. Now I need to make the sleeves and puzzle through the instructions to understand how to make the ties.

The sweater is modeled on my wisteria bush. I love the purple blossoms and the scent of them. Beth has posted about her struggles with her wisteria bush (which she finally eradicated). This one was there when I moved in like hers. It vines up along the side of the house and into the front garden, and we are constantly cutting it back. Ingi hates it, and I understand why, but when it blooms it is just so wonderful. I wish there were an easier way to keep it controlled.

This weekend I put in a whole lot of bushes and an apple tree. I planted redcurrants, aronia berries (which I read about on Hilde’s blog), blueberries, and rhubarb.

I have been doing some reading on biointensive gardening so I wanted to try out the double digging technique out in my vegetable garden (since my soil is so heavy and rocky and I can never properly grow root crops). My wonderful husband helped me dig out a big section today (even though it’s my hobby, not his), we must have dug out about 40 rocks.

Stalking the elusive husband

I finished the Cobblestone Pullover, but between Ingi and I both working late and the weather turning warm (I am very proud at bringing this nice warm weather by finishing that sweater ;)), I have not been able to photograph the finished sweater on. Hopefully this weekend we will have a chance.

It’s amazing what Google can tell you. I picked up an old project when I finished Ingi’s sweater, the wrap sweater from an old Rebecca magazine (I forget which number, 20-something).

I decided to Google my old blog to see if I could remember when I started it. I remember working on it on the plane to Iceland at some point. So I found an entry from August 2005 where I finished the back of the sweater, which I started on the plane to Iceland earlier in the month. Then I found another entry from June 2006 where I took said project on the plane to Iceland (but I ended up knitting Jaywalkers instead).

So yeah, it’s pretty sad that this quick and easy project has just been hanging out waited to be knit for almost 3 years. I think my excuse is that the mohair yarn is kind of a pain if you make a mistake and need to take out stitches. In fact, I ripped out the entire front piece I was working on, thinking I did it wrong, and then as I cast it on again, I realised I had indeed done it right in the first place. Arg. I guess it was annoying enough 2 years ago that it traumatized me from wanting to work on the project. And the fuzzy yarn seems to make my eyes itch… I think little fuzzy bits float off into my eyes. (Or maybe it’s just dusty because it’s been sitting for SO LONG!)

Not-quite 101 Birthday Yarn Ideas

Now that I have all this fun yarn, I have to figure out what to do with it.

I actually started using the Hjertegarn, I am making the last round’s socks (Big Basin Socks) from Six Sox Knitalong. I was going to show a picture of the socks in progress, but it’s too cloudy and the purple yarn just comes out looking like mud. I’ll take a picture when there is more sun.

I am trying to figure out something for that cool Lorna’s Laces Shepherd’s Worsted yarn. There is a kind of cute little bag here from 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders, so I borrowed the book from the library. I could also make the Broken Rib socks on p.138 of the book.

With the 2 skeins of Drops Alpaca, I could make Guilty Pleasures Socks (from p.88 of the book), or I could make socks from Garnstudio’s site, or crocheted Mary Jane slippers if I am feeling very daring.

With the 3 skeins of Rowan Kid Classic, I could make the Simple Mistake Rib Vest (from p.103 of the book).

With the 2 skeins of Sandesgarn Kitty, I could make the Garter Stitch Loop scarf (p. 90) and the Lacy Beanie (p. 94), or I could make Tiers-of-Waves Beaded Scarf (p. 118), which would let me play with beaded knitting. Or I could make Helleboros

And of course, the yarn from Sonja, I think I will just use her siggestion of Branching Out, since it’s the exact yarn from the pattern and everything.

Any other ideas? Votes? Although I am going to finish something in process before starting something new, but it’s fun to plan.

5 Year Blogaversary

Wow. My knitting blog has been going for 5 years. My first entry was on the 9th of April, 2003, at my old location. It’s really odd to go back to read my early entries there, my life was in such a different place. A lot of things happened over the last 5 years. My office at the time was closing and I was one of the last people working up until the end, and then I was freelancing for a while until I got another full time job. It was before I met my soulmate. My ex-husband was still around, and things were just starting to really go downhill.

I’d say that things are a whole lot better now than five years ago.

Now, I wonder how many knitting projects from five years ago are still waiting to be finished.

Oh la la

A while before Christmas Ingi and I were shopping and he saw a sweater he really liked (rare for him) which was overpriced and made in China. It reminded me a little of Cobblestone so when I got home I showed him the pictures. He liked Cobblestone even better. So I ordered some acrylic yarn from Bergere de France (their acrylic yarn feels like wool, it’s amazingly soft) and got the free pattern book for the year with my order. There are some amazing designs. I also ordered Tricot Baby which has some really cute stuff in it (including the hat from this post). Has Interweave Knits gotten better, or are they publishing fewer magazines to create an artificial shortage or what? I had to hunt to find a copy of the issue with Cobblestone in it (a certain LYS had a few copies), since that was out of print, and also picked up the magazine with Central Park Hoodie in it (also out of print).

Anyway, here it is so far, I have gotten to the yoke section, which is a little confusing because it has short rows in garter stitch in the round, so every so often I realise I’ve knit when I should have purled and have to rip out.

The weather here is absolutely lovely today, it is warm and sunny so I finally had an opportunity to take a picture of this black sweater in progress.

Gleðilega Páska

Garnstudio had some great Easter decoration patterns, and I couldn’t help knitting a few Easter eggs:

One of my friends is from Sweden and she always did great Easter tree decorations. I thought it was so fun, maybe next year I will make some more eggs.

We also dyed some brown eggs, experimenting with some different techniques.

The beautiful blue on the left is from red cabbage. About 4 or so cups chopped red cabbage and a tablespoon of vinegar, simmer in a litre of water for a half an hour, then put the boiled eggs in the liquid (strain out the cabbage) and let them sit in the fridge overnight. The one on top we used a rubber band to make a stripe.

The second one from the left in the front is the same technique but with spinach. Not as interesting a colour. Then the other blue, green, and red ones were food colouring, vinegar, and water. We tried a marbling technique on some by adding a few teaspoons of vegetable oil to the dye. They weren’t that interesting patterns, but the third from the left in the front row we spooned over with leftover bits of all the dyes with oil mixed in and that one came out really neat.

I have to go spice my lamb now or we won’t be eating dinner tonight.

RIP Matt the Rabbit

31 March, 2002 - 16 February, 2008

He wasn’t the most friendly Angora rabbit, he never got entirely used to people, and when I groomed him, he would bite holes in my pants (he ruined a skirt this way once). But he would always come over to take treats from me when I fed him and he will be missed.

I’m down with OPK

The good news: the mittens actually made it to Iceland (I was a little worried when they had not yet gotten there yesterday). The bad news: my sister-in-law’s hands are bigger than mine (which I did not expect because she is shorter than me). The good news: my niece loves her new mittens. The good news: I have an excuse to make new mittens. (I am hoping she will go for a slightly different pattern, since there were some really cool designs in Hugur og Hönd that I wanted to try anyway).

So now it means that pretty much everything I am working on currently is Other People’s Knitting. I resigned myself to putting aside Juno Regina for a bit, so below I have a sock for Ingi (it was misplaced and then found again), a sleeve for a sweater for him, and a doll sweater for my niece. And the second sheep mitten, since it’s nice to work on at least one thing for myself.

I’m thinking, maybe the way to get through all these projects for other people is to allow myself to work on one thing for myself, but it has to be a UFO. So maybe when the sheep mitten is done I can go find something else to finish. But when I finish Ingi’s sweater, I am definitely starting one for myself. (And I keep coming up with more ideas for other people, like I want to make the Poetry Mittens from Piecework for my mother for Christmas, and Ingi wants a new hat, probably will need one for next winter, but these things can wait for summer I think).

Monday was B’s birthday and of course my kids have the challenging cake requests. The husband is easy, he likes carrot cake and I have The Best recipe for that. And I usually like chocolate cake, which I can make in my sleep and often default to my grandmother’s recipe, or I experiment with something fun that I find in a magazine (one year it was raspberry filled cupcakes). But B asked for a yellow cake. Up until now, every yellow cake I have tried has been dry and flat and just awful. I don’t know why they are so hard for me. Anyway, this recipe claims to be the best yellow cake the submitter has tasted, and I have to agree. (If someone wants a translation let me know). I made a double recipe, and put custard in the middle, and then ended up making a vanilla buttercream frosting (there was some confusion from the child about whether or not he wanted whipped cream or frosting, and then after I thought I had it sorted out, he asked where the whipped cream was as I frosted the cake. Kids. He got over it.)