Flossie's socks

After seeing my knitting socks for the boys, Flossie took the opportunity to persuade her mother to knit socks for her. After nearly a year Julie decided that sock knitting was not for her and handed them over to me to finish.



The yarn is the very pretty Regia 4-fadig color in colour 5025. Regular sock recipe knitted on 2.25mm needles over 48 stitches.

A brand new...

...wolf cub.


Adam joined the boy scouts this week. He had been about to burst with excitement before the first meeting, and was constantly taking every opportunity to point out ways in which he was already acting like a boy scout.

Today the local pack did a fund-raising popcorn sale outside a local supermarket. Adam went along for one shift and had, apparently, a wonderful time. Now he is counting the days until the first scout camping trip.

Lizard progress

I have continued to work on my lizard ridge patches. I am loving how the colours develop through the pattern.

I have 16 squares done out of 24 required. I have 4 balls of Kureyon left and I think I will also make some patched out of the scraps from the other squares. It's nice mindless knitting, but with the short-row pattern being enough to keep my attention. I can do a square an evening, so progress is pretty quick...but I dont want to finish this just yet so will be starting another project shorly.

The first in our new series: Large Vegetables

These came in the farm box this week - the boys though they were hilarious!

Yoda hat: more of the same (and pattern)

There is no point having a mother who knits, if she can't knit you both Yoda hats...




Knitted Yoda Hat
Finished size: 18-21” stretched to fit child or small adult (fits me!)
Gauge: 22 sts/4” on 4.5mm dpn or circulars
Yarn: Rowan Pure Wool DK in Shade 020
Quantity: 1 ball (125m /126 yards)



Hat:
Cast on 88 stitches and join to knit in the round.
K2p2 rib for 1.5”
Knit every round for ½”
Knitting the forehead wrinkles - this is “freeform” . I knitted 3 ridges as follows:
Row1 and 2: purl 22 stitches knit rest of round
Row 3 and 4: knit round
Row 5 and 6: knit 2 purl 18 knit 2, knit rest of round
Row 7 and 8: knit round
Row 9 and 10: purl 22 stitches, knit rest of round
Knit all rounds until hat measures 5” (more if you have a bigger head!)
Start decreases as follows:
Row 1: (k9 k2tog) repeat
Row 2: knit
Row 3: (k8 k2tog) repeat
Row 4: knit
Row 5: (k7 k2tog) repeat
Row 6: knit
Row 7: (k6 k2tog) repeat
Row 8: Knit
Row 9: (k5 k2tog) repeat
Row 10: (k4 k2tog) repeat
Row 11: (k3 k2tog) repeat
Row 12: k2tog repeat
Row 13: k2tog break yarn and thread through remaining stitches. Secure.




Ears - Knit 2 the same. Following a suggestion of some of the knitters I knit the latest ears with the yarn held double which made them stiffer:
Cast on 11 stitches leaving approx 12” tail.
Knit every stitch working back and forth.
Knit 3 rows
Next row increase by knitting into the front and back of the first and last stitch
Knit 1 row
Next row increase by knitting into the front and back of the first and last stitch (15 stitches)
Knit 7 rows
Decreases as follows:

1. Knit 6 k2tog knit 7 (14)
2. knit
3. Knit 6 k2tog knit 6 (13
4. knit
5. Knit 5 k2tog knit 6 12
6. knit
7. Knit 5 k2tog knit 5 11
8. knit
9. Knit 4 k2tog knit 5 10
10. knit
11. knit
12. Knit 4 k2tog knit 4 9
13. knit
14. knit
15. Knit 3 k2tog knit 4 8
16. knit
17. knit
18. Knit 3 k2tog knit 3 7
19. knit
20. knit
21. Knit 2 k2tog knit 3 6
22. knit
23. knit
24. Knit 2 k2tog knit 2 5
25. knit
26. knit
27. knit
28. Knit 1 k2tog knit 2 4
29. knit
30. knit
31. knit
32. Knit 1 k2tog knit 1 3
33. knit
34. knit
35. knit
36. Knit 1 k2tog
37. k2tog break thread and draw through stitch to secure. Hide thread by weaving through purl bumps

Finishing
Weave in ends.
Use cast-on thread from ears to secure to hat at sides. I sewed the ears with a slight fold so that the top of the ear was slightly forward of the bottom of the ear to create a floppy appearance.

May the Force be with you.

If anyone knits one of these I would be interested to hear about it!

The hat: finished it is

Following extensive preparation during Clone Wars, and various viewings of the Star Wars DVDs, I have finished the Yoda hat. Here is Finlay being like Yoda...


I made up the pattern, and it took me one afternoon and evening to knit it - which is good as I have at least one more in my future!

Its knitted in 4.5mm needles in Rowan Pure Wool DK in shade 20. The hat took 1 ball with a few yards remaining.

So, now to cast on number 2!

Lurid socks

Very lurid socks for Finlay. The usual recipe with a rib cuff and plain feet. The yarn is Regia 4-fach Ringel color in shade 5048. I got this at the yarn swap with the Knitting Meetup.

Despite it being over 95 degrees outside Finlay is insisting on wearing them!

End of summer

We had friends over for a BBQ so the boys made lemonade with the last of our lemons.



I still can't get over having my own lemon tree - there was one outside the rental I lived in when I first came the the US and it seemed so exotic. I had tried to grow citrus in my conservatory when I lived in the UK but never with any success - so was thrilled to find a tree loaded with lush lemons in arms reach of my porch. When we bought this house almost the first thing we did was plant a lemon tree and an orange. The lemon is doing better and we get a reasonable crop these days so I almost never have to buy a lemon.

Klaralund complete

I finished my Klaralund sweater and I thinkI'm more pleased with this than I have been with any sweater for a while. Of course the lovely Silk Garden yarn helps, but the fit and style of this make it a really wearable garment...or at least I think it will be wearable once fall arrives here!


I started knitting this in the UK on vacation, and had finished the knitting before I came back - so total knitting time less than a month. I lightly steam pressed the pieces before sewing it together. Although the knitting is mostly stockinette I dont seem to get bored of knitting it in the lovely colours. The sides have actually matched up pretty well although I made no effort to match them. I did have concerns about the horizontal stripes, but I chose a more delicate colour of the Silk Garden to minimize the stripiness, and I think that worked well.

Details: The pattern is Klaralund from the Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton Book Number 2. The pattern comes with an errata which I found rather confusing because although there are additional sizes, they are replacements for the original sizes rather than additions. I actually knitted a combination of the 41" and 42" sizes. The pattern is really straightforward and easily lends itself to modifications.

The yarn is Silk Garden in colour 268 and used a tad over 11 balls (rather than the 12 called for in the pattern). I seamed with sock yarn as the Silk Garden is rather breakable. I spit spliced the joins so no ends to weave in.

A resounding thumbs-up for this sweater.

A ride in the woods

Over the long weekend we discovered a new (to us) bike trail. We drove out to Pescadero Creek State Park and rode the Old Haul Road Trail.

The trail is an old logging road that runs five miles between Portola Redwoods State Park and Pescadero Creek Park. The trail is quite hilly and we made it half-way there before turning back. When I say "hilly" I mean for small boys who found it rather hard work, we had to walk up quite a lot of the uphill grades, but they did enjoy the downhills!

The trail is shady and was pretty cool, we didnt see much wildlife, but given the noise the boys make that is probably not surprising! There was not much other traffic on the trail.

The whole area was logged until the mid-1970s and there is a lot of evidence of logging.

On the way back we stopped at one of the view points off Skyline:

A large part of the area off the West side of Skyline Blvd is Open Space preserve, and various state parks.

What I knitted on my holidays

I did get some crafty time during our vacation. On my day out with Ingrid, we met at Liberty of London.





Sadly, the neither the wool, nor the fabric departments were what they once were. I did buy some Tana lawn for a top for me but I saved my yarn purchases for my day out with Christina.

Christina and I went to John Lewis in Oxford St and spent a couple of hours looking at the new Rowan books, and the samples. I bought the book and yarn to knit Lamour from Rowan Magazine 44 in the Grand colour of Rowan Wool Cotton.

Christina set me up on her wheel and I produced this:




I knit some socks for my Grandad, whom we didnt get to see this time. I hope he likes the socks - usual recipe, Austerman Step.




I also managed to turn the silk garden into this:




More on this to follow.

Another first

This week saw the first day of school...

and Finlay's first day at Kindergarten.

He had a lovely day, made some friends, and really likes his teacher.

He was also thrilled that we can all cycle together to school.

What I did on my holidays (loads of pictures)

Ferretworld just returned from it's vacation and blogging break. We spent nearly a month in the UK:







While we didn't go to the UK for the good weather...we did have terrible weather while we were there...



but there were many sunny moments!

The boys got to spend a lot of time with their cousins:

In fact they saw all their cousins this trip - but we didnt get a good photo of the scottish cousins!

We took a side trip to France with Eileen, spending a few days in the seaside town of Wimereux.

We also passed a rainy day in Boulogne exploring the walled medival town and chateau.

We did manage some eating and drinking, but the highlight for the boys was meeting a couple in this restaurant with a ferret on a leash! (No photo of the ferret).

I fitted in some culture: spending a day with Ingrid in London, culminating with a performance of Timon of Athens at the Globe.

I spent a happy day with Christina, hanging out in John Lewis, knitting, and learning to spin, but sadly failed to take any photos.

We did some sightseeing and made a trip to Legoland in Windsor and were able to compare this...

with the real thing!

We also absorbed some of the history - We took the boys to Winchester to see King Arthurs Round table,

which they could compare with the knights at Legoland,

We visited Hollycomb Steam Fair where we got to ride on a variety of steam-powered fairground rides

and followed this up with a trip to The Science Museum in London where we saw Stephenson's Rocket among other things.

The boys had a great time at the hands-on exhibits while Nigel and I went to see George III's collection of scientific instruments.

Despite all this activity we still had some time for hanging around...

...a lovely holiday.

Socks for Penny

Apparently Penny had complained that she was the only family member not to have hand-knitteed socks, so for her birthday, I redressed that.


Short socks knitted from Tofutsies using the 'Foot the Bill' pattern which came with the yarn from Green Planet yarns.



Wool socks knitted from Opal yarn, using my usual recipe.

On the needles: Lizard Ridge

The Lizard Ridge blanket was supposed to be a background task...for when I dont have anything else to knit. And although I've got this:

waiting patiently to be turned into a Klaralund sweater I seemed to have knit a load of squares!

So far I'm knitting number 9 - this is the first 6 drying after a soak. I've nearly finished all my bargain Kureyon wool and have to buy some more. I love how the colours are coming out - I'm just leaving the colours random, although I did pull out a black-on-black section I managed to create.

I was planning to knit 24 squares (6 x 4) for a throw, but Nigel is asking whether I can knit a cover for our queen bed...I'm going to see how I feel after 24 squares as to whether I want to go on to 30 or 36!

Last day of pre-school

Friday was Finlay's last day at his Jr K program. They ended the term with a play; "The Three Little Pigs". Finlay was in the choir.

The play was followed by a picnic in the playground. They had a face painter and a balloon maker...the balloon guy said he had never been asked to make a balloon weasel before!

Lambtown USA

Yesterday we went to Dixon, CA to attend Lambtown 2008. It's a small-town agricultural show in a rural area. Its a 2-hour drive from us, but made a nice day out.

We got to see some of the sheep entered in the competitions: Here Finlay and Adam quiz the owner of these lovely St Croix sheep. These dont need shearing as their fleece falls out in the summer - a side-effect of living in the caribbean I suppose.

Here Finlay poses with some tired Jacob's sheep.

We spent some time watching the sheepdog trials, and talked afterwards to the woman competing with this dog. Her dog was 10 and approaching retirement - the dog was enjoying a bucket of ice cubes while we chatted.

There was also an angora rabbit competition. This is a thistledown breed...I think you can see why. One of the other breeders let the boys pet some baby rabbits.

I had a little wander around the yarn/fiber shed and made a few small purchases, including some alpaca yarn from an alpaca called Fernando... I talked to the breeder...its nice to know exactly where your yarn comes from!

We had a great day out - managed to eat some lamb (the boys would not!) and headed home for a swim. The central valley was a mild 93 degrees when we left - usually I think the temperature is a good 10 degrees warmer this time of year so we were very lucky to meet such a mild day.

Sunny San Diego

I spent a few days last week in San Diego. The conference was small and less frenetic than some of the events I have been to recently. I loved the balmy weather and the views from my 12th floor room in the hotel:

I did manage to sneak a few moments sitting on the balcony with my knitting.

Liberty lawn

I made a dress a few weeks ago. The pattern is Simplicity 3831. I used some Liberty lawn that Christina gave me.






The dress is hard to see in this photo (which is what happens when you ask 7-year-olds to take your photo), it looks rather stiff. In reality it has quite a nice drape.



The style features an empire waist, slight under-bust gathers, a shaped skirt, split flutter sleeves, and a back zip. It is self-lined, but I didnt have enough fabric to line the skirt so I sewed the bodice facing down at the waist and left the skirt unlined. I changed the bodice; replacing gathers with darts and added a single pocket in the side seam.


Interestingly I found the pattern extremely confusing. It was written in both Spanish and English and I felt that the quality of the explanation was poor. Each step in the process was also not illustrated, and it took me some time to understand which way to insert the sleeves for example. I think if I had been a beginner dressmaker it would have been a very difficult pattern to follow, which is a pity because the pattern achieves a nice style with little effort or time.

Lizard Ridge

I've started a new project, and rather unexpectedly, it's a blanket.

I always insisted that I would not knit a blanket (called Afghan by Americans...no idea why) and could never imagine that I would have the patience to knit something that large and boring.

Then Rachel knitted her Lizard Ridge and began to see the appeal of it. The pattern is built like a patchwork of blocks, I'm knitting mine as shown in the pattern in multiple colours of Kureyon. The idea is to buy the yarn when I see it on sale, and knit the blocks as they come. Here is the first one:

Noro Kureyon in colour 102. The eagle eyed will notice that its knitted with too few repeats - what is especially galling is that I knitted the 4 repeats (as specified in the pattern) then ripped out the 4th due to an incorrect reading of the pattern. I have since printed a version of the pattern in a large print so I dont have to keep putting on my glasses to read it while knitting.

I think this is a good solution to my desire to knit the beautiful colours of the Noro yarn, without really having a need for any more handknit sweaters ever!