A houseful...

Our guests arrived and we have been busy. Busy with bike rides, barbeques, shopping, and of course swimming. The children all seem to be getting on, most of the time at least, and here shown playing in the fountain in the Plaza.

L-R: Nancy, Adam, and Finlay. Ned of course too small to join in yet. He does not, however, consider that he is too small to join in with the soccer, lego, or other potentially dangerous activities!
The weather co-operated with a week of glorious sunshine. This has disappeared (temporarily I hope) behind a veil of cloud.

There has been a little knitting: more socks, in this case big black socks for Ms Hemstreet's son.

My usual sock recipe extended to fit size 11 feet in boots. I researched that boot socks must be at least 12" tall. The sock on the right is one of my own, for scale. These were knitted from Regia Silk with reinforcing thread on the heels. The Regia Silk is lovely to knit with and makes a really soft sock.

I consider that knitting these socks was an anti-war effort - in the spirit that we can support individuals without being in support of the war. I had planned to knit for Socks for Soldiers but when I heard that Eric was headed for Iraq it seemed more sensible to knit for someone specific. Anyway, I hope that he can wear them.

My lace knitting project is on hold as I can't knit that and talk at the same time!

If I knew you were coming...

...I'd have baked a cake. Well, not exactly a cake. To welcome our guests (arriving Tuesday) Finlay and I baked some cookies.

Of course the best part is licking the spoon

and scraping the bowl!

On the needles

By popular demand (Christina) I am exposing what's currently "on the needles". As I'm not a competent HTML programmer I am not going to create a side-bar for this, but will do an occasional blog entry on in-progress knitting.

Im knitting some BBS (big black socks) for Ms Hemstreet's son who has been recently posted to Iraq. The are indeed big and black, but I made good progress on my flight from Puerto Rico.

In Puerto Rico I also cast on for the Estonian Garden Shawl in a gorgeous Claudia's handpaints yarn (part of my birthday sale shopping in Yarndogs). It's on hold for the moment while I await some Knitpicks needles. Ive ordered some 3.75 tips for my interchangeable cords as the Addi's are really too blunt for the fine lace work.

The yarn is a lovely subtle olive colour, I am trying a more solid colour for this complex lace work, rather than my usual combination of busy yarn in a complex pattern!

Ferretworld in the Isla de Encanto

I just returned from a trip to Puerto Rico, I stayed at the Westin Rio Mar Resort and it was just lovely. Here is the view from my hotel window.

I particularly enjoyed the beach and spent many hours floating in the bath-water-warm sea. One day I took a snorkeling trip on a big Catamaran. We went to this place - no idea where it was, but it was certainly pretty. I didnt really see much of Puerto Rico apart from the beach and boat trip, but I was only there for 2 full days. It seemed rather built-up and I would probably choose to return to a different island.

Funnily enough I did get some knitting done, largely on the 9-hour flight each way. I also finished off the silk scarf I had been knitting. This is the striped scarf from Victorian Lace today, knitted in Seasilk. I blocked it on the hotel floor...

...and then dried it on the balcony....
Then wore it to our final gala dinner!

Nancys socks

I knitted these socks for my canadian friend Nancy. It is my old faithful generic sock pattern. The wool is Knitpicks Simple Stripes, now discontinued.

I love the colour of this yarn, and its superwash wool reinforced with some nylon, which is just about perfect for socks. Its not terribly soft, but does soften with washing. But, and this is a big but, Knitpicks colour management is lousy. Both times I have knitted with Simple Stripes I had had problems with the colour sequence - Ned's sweater used 3 balls, one of which was in reverse sequence. This yarn was even worse, one of the balls had a break in the yarn, a large knot, and then the colours started again in the reverse sequence! I had to rewind the ball to preserve the stripes and as you see, I did make an error where I re-joined. I hope Nancy likes the socks anyway, but I dont think I will buy Simple stripes again!

Ferretworld goes to the beach

We just had a trip to the beach for Spring Break. We spent a few days in Cambria at Pelican Cottage . Just down the hill were several wonderful bluff-top walks with lots of rock pools.

We went to Cayucos beach and walked along the long beach towards Morro Rock.
There was more rock pool exploring.
We went to San Simeon beach for Adam to try out his new Boogie Board. He spent his saved pocket money on this mini board, but there was some apprehension before he actually went into the water...
He had a great time and was very pleased with himself. As you can see the waves were pretty big. At one point Nigel got knocked off his feet by a 10' wave which was quite spectacular - but luckily the boys were not with him at that moment.
Finlay of course refused to go into the water - but entertained himself pretty happily.

We had a lovely time and left wishing we could stay - which is always the best way to end a vacation.

Blog birthday

Its a year since I started this blog so I did a quick review of my creative efforts in the last year and I was astonished by how much stuff I had knit:

• 12 pairs of socks


• 8 scarves and shawls


• 7 pairs of gloves/mittens


• 6 sweaters

as well as 3 hats and miscellaneous other small things. I also sewed 2 dresses and a skirt. I do spend a lot of time knitting, probably 1-2 hours a day, but it is something I do when otherwise I would just be watching TV (of course I am still watching TV but knitting at the same time). It is still surprising how productive it is - I must have knit miles of yarn!

I should have a competition like the big bloggers do...but since that would probably just result in my sending yarn to Christina, I could probably just skip the whole competition element and just send her some wool!

Here is another quick finished object: this time dog-walking mittens for my hairdresser Christina.

The ubiquitous fetching pattern, knitted in Noro Silk Garden. Despite all the drawbacks of this yarn (splitty, lots of vegetative matter in the wool, not machine washable) the long colour runs are just so beautiful that I always enjoy knitting with it.

Birthday roundup

I celebrated my birthday at the weekend - and with boys who think anyone's birthday is exciting (even though they cannot comprehend my enormous age) - it really was a celebration.

The morning started with tea and an enormous bunch of flowers in bed. I then opened my lovely gifts and cards. I got some really nice presents.


I then nipped out to our LYS as they had a 20% sale...perfect for a birthday treat, especially as I received a copy of Victorian Lace Today from my sister. This book, by the way, really lives up to the hype.

We then took our bikes out to Wilder Ranch State Park for a ride to the beach where we had a picnic.

It was a really windy day, but the views are glorious.

We came home for cake (icing on the cake banana cake) and more tea, followed by a swim.

It was a lovely birthday! Thank you to all who made it so.

1Q roundup

Its the time for 1Q results - an indication of how one is performing against expectations. Here is my 1Q review of how I did with my New year plans...

1. Knit the felted clogs - if they work well, knit more out of the pile of non-superwash Cascade I bought in a misguided moment. I did knit a pair and although I didnt like knitting the pattern, I did like the result and will probably knit more.

2. Socks - got yarn for socks in my stash that I should start knitting up, mostly its pretty unexciting wool though which is why it's been languishing. I plan to knit some plain socks for Nigel, and he has also asked for cotton socks. I did knit socks for Nigel, but not out of stash yarn, also for my father. I did knit a pair for myself, and am knitting a pair from stash currently...but then again I have also bought more sock yarn.

3. Ive got some Elann Canapone hemp yarn - I bought this to knit a shawl, I am wavering between knitting something like Icarus, or River. I think the Icarus would look nicer, but River might be more useful. The only disadvantage is that the River I already knitted is in the same sort of neutral colour. Maybe my mother would like it? Must remember to ask...and of course, got to knit it first. My mother did like the River, so instead of knitting another I gave her mine. This is still on the 'possibles' list.

4. Ive been sitting on this bag of Como for a year - I think it needs to become a sleeveless jacket. I want a long knitted cardigan/coat, but probably not in bright orange. Looking for a pattern for this. I cast on to knit a coat in this but I really am not keen on the knitted fabric. I put it aside for next winter - but need to find another pattern, maybe one designed for the yarn.

5. I want to knit some Fetching mittens and I have a ball of Cashmerino aran. If the pattern is nice to knit I can see me knitting more than one pair. Well I have knit 5 pairs! 3 were gifts, one for Finlay, and one for myself.

6. Christina and I are planning a knitalong for the IK Swallowtail shawl, and I already have the Misti alpaca that the pattern calls for. No reason not to do this - apart from I'm already overloaded with shawls, however pretty. Maybe this would be a nice thing to knit for Eileen? Still planning to knit this, although now I have the Victorian Lace Today book there are so many more appealing patterns in there, Swallowtail is slipping down the list.

7. I just bought some Elsebeth Lavold silky wool to knit the cabled cardigan in Vogue Knitting this month. Its the only pattern in the entire magazine that I like, but it calls for a 100% cashmere yarn...I like silky wool so I'm hoping it will be a good substitute. Little cardigans are actually knitwear that I will wear a lot. I knitted this into the Bonsai tunic - and am very pleased with the result.

8. Got 800 yards of this linen/cotton mix, probably be a summer top for me. Still in the plan, probably the v-neck sweater out of the Rowan Summer Tweed book.

9. Got to knit something out of the stuff I dyed - maybe mittens - but again, if I dont do it soon will not be needing mittens for a while. Yep, this became 2 of the pairs of fetching mittens.

10. I bought a nice pattern for a lacy scarf - Ive got some nice yarn that would work for it - but cant decide which. Hmm....patterns for lacy scarves seem to have proliferated recently, along with yarn in which to knit them...I forsee a lot of lace this year.

11. Been sitting on this Artyarns Supermerino for a year (was supposed to be my tank top but I did that in Shepherd Sport in the end. Not sure what to knit it into - Ive about 600 yards so not enough for a sweater. Maybe another clapotis? I wear the Noro one enough. I think this might be nice knitted into this: http://www.chicknits.com/catalog/ribbycardi.html

12. Got some Malabrigo to knit into a hat for me, again, if I dont do it soon, wont be worth it until next fall. Its warm already - shelved until next winter.

Immediate next thing on the needles is going to be a camera case for Adam, and that has not even made it onto the list! I did knit the camera case, but Adam dropped the camera, so it has not had much use.

So, what is added to the plan?

A knitted scarf from VLT in Seasilk that I bought at Stitches.
The Estonian Garden shawl, in Claudia's handpaints silk
More socks!

Bonsai Tunic off the needles

I finished the Bonsai tunic and am very pleased with the result. I wore it all day today.

The pattern is by Norah Gaughan from Spring 2007 Interweave knits. I knitted it in Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool. I did modify the pattern to eliminate the waist shaping (!) and I left out the belt. I also finished the sleeves with a crochet edging rather than the 3 row knitted edging.

It was a quick and easy knit, although I did make a mistake in the front that I didn't notice until much later, and as a expedient knitter, decided that as I had not noticed, neither will anyone else. I anticipate that it will get quite a lot of wear.

ps eagle eyed observers will have noticed our new compost bin behind me :-)

Farve's socks

While my parents were visiting I knitted socks for my father. I got the wool at Stitches, and once that met with approval I cast on for some basic stockinette socks.

The wool is Fleece Artist superwash merino in the Cosmic Dawn colourway, and again, the Fleece Artist will is so soft and an absolute delight to knit.

Since despite much talking about photo shoots, I didnt actually take a photo of Farve modelling the socks, here is a photo of him wearing them.

Well, you cant actually see the socks - but look at how pleased he seems with his comfortable feet! The photo was taken on East Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz when we all (6 of us) went for a bike ride.

Spring is sprung

Our visitors have gone and our life has reverted to it's usual slow pace. M&F may feel that their visit was also at a slow pace - but these things are relative right?

The boys continue to be thrilled with their garden, shown below are green beans and pumpkins. They have been good at remembering to water them. Adam has also been good at performing his 'chore' which is taking kitchen scraps to the compost bin...another M&F legacy. Since he did composting at school he is delighted to be doing it here and he cant wait for the worms to move in. At that point I will be even more pleased that Adam is in charge of the compost.

Finlay has also been productive. This is the bee trap. In fact it is a trap to catch wasps, but allow bees to thrive. The idea (as you can probably see) is that the wasps slide down the stick and bang their heads on the stones at the bottom. It really needs some water added as it seems to have evaporated. The water is then to drown the wasps - but the bees can escape in the pistachio shell boats. Simple but genius.

The only downside of this inventive trap is that so far, not a single wasp has actually been trapped. I'm sure its just a matter of time (so is Finlay who checks it daily for wasps)

...about that spinning

I mentioned previously that I bought a drop spindle at Stitches West.

Its a Shacht spindle which can be used as either a top whorl or bottom whorl. Im using it as a bottom whorl at the moment. I also bought some pretty roving to practise with.

My spinning is pretty poor, but its fun, and quite relaxing to do. I cant see that I will ever spin anything that is actually usable but I have already got my full money's worth from this spindle! ($16).

Adam's class are studying Fabric at the moment. Last Friday I went into school to show them knitting and spinning. The knitting part was less interesting as the children could not really try it at all, but they all had a go at the spinning. Its a pity I dont have any photos of this event - but I had great fun - and while I am a pretty bad spinner, I am better than a class of 6-year olds.

The best part was that in the classroom they have a display including a home-made spindle with some unprepared fleece attached to it, to try to minimize the queue around me spinning Adam's teacher asked Mammie to help. Although she had never picked up a spindle before, she gamely used the classroom spindle with some of the children! So between us we had 20 children spinning yarn on Friday morning.

One of the mothers was talking to me about it later and relayed that her son had come home from school telling her that they had made string with a thing that twirled around...she was completely mystified. It was great fun to go into the classroom and be able to do something that was apparently so interesting to the class.

Kung hei fat choi *

*"Congratulations and be prosperous".

This last weekend Nigel and I took advantage of my parents as babysitters, and went up to San Francisco for a couple of days. We stayed at the Hotel Adagio near Union Square.

We had a great time. The weather was terrific, so we were able to walk all over town, as well as eat our lunch on the harbour-side. We visited the Ferry Building for the first time which is delightful, we ate fresh crab in the sunshine. The building is fairly recently restored and is now a foodie-winey paradise!

We also managed to get to see Beach blanket babylon which was a riot. I saw this show about 20 years ago, and didnt get many of the jokes, which are topical, and often local. After 10 years living in the Bay Area I found I was able to laugh at many of the comic references, and also at the unabashed silliness...what's not to like in a show that climaxes with the wedding of Madonna and Elvis!

Our weekend was planned to celebrate my 10th anniversary of moving to California (March 1st 1997) but also co-incided with the Chinese New Year parade. Along with 500,000 other people we lined up along the parade route.

The parade actually lasts several hours, but we didnt stay for the entire time, but we were there long enough to see the SFPD Lion Dance team!

We also made time to visit the wonderful ArtFibers store. They sell only their own yarns, but what lovely yarns in such beautiful colours. Because all the yarns are unique to their store, the provide a swatch for every yarn in every colour, and also balls of yarn for your own testing. I came away with a single skein of recycled sari silk, but with a silent promise to myself to return once I've knitted up some of the Stitches wools.

On the needles: Bonsai Tunic

I'm currently knitting the Bonsai Tunic from Spring 2006 IK. The designer is Norah Gaughan, and Im knitting it in Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool.

I'm loving knitting it; the silky wool is a perfect colour for me, its quick to knit, and feels lovely. I bought the wool for a little cardigan, but I loved this tunic in IK and had to cast on immediately. I saw a sample knitted at Stitches West in the recommended yarn (Bamboo) and it looked great - hope it looks so nice on me.

Big update

Some of you know that my parents are currently staying with us. This means 2 things; lots of days out, and limited blogging.

They arrived last week, which was also half term, so we took advantage of the time for a trip to the Chabot Space Center in Oakland. We had a great time - the planetarium had a child-appropriate film which was great. Would of course have been better if Adam had not been so afraid of the whole 'sitting in a huge room in the dark' experience.

They also have a load of hands-on exhibits which we all enjoyed. Adam has been doing the Moon at school and was particularly thrilled to see a piece of moon rock. They both enjoyed this replica space capsule, as well as the space suits, we enjoyed the view and the old telescopes.

At the weekend we went over to Moss Landing State Beach to inspect the tide pools.

Its our favourite rock-pool place and we always get to see lots of activity in the pools, as well as the Harbor seals sunning themselves on the reef of rocks.

Combined with fish-and-chips in Princeton it makes for a perfect day out (until someone treads in the seal poo).

Stitches swag

I went to Stitches West on Friday with Mammie and Finlay. (by the way, Finlay had the option to stay home with Grandpa and Adam, but chose to come to 'the knitting').

We (well, I) had a great time - we only went to the Marketplace - but spent several hours shopping for wool. Finlay managed to entertain himself petting wool, admiring the pictures of wild animals (muskox, cashmere goats, camels), and picking up scraps of yarn.

I concentrated on buying wool that is not made of wool. From the left:

Ellens Half pint farm wool and tencel (served by Ellen herself), Blue Moon Bamboo (100% bamboo - with pattern for scarf underneath), Handmaiden Seasilk (silk and something made from seaweed), and some superwash wool sock yarn from Peace Fleece and Blue Moon. I have already cast on the Peace Fleece for socks for my father. We also obtained samples of some sock wool made partly from chitin (derived from crab and shrimp shells).

I also bought myself a drop spindle and some roving....but more of that later.

First swim of the season

I think this was a record for us...we swam on Saturday 17th February. The temperature was about 80 degrees, although the pool was only heated to 65 degrees. It was a little cool for us, but we still all swam for an hour or so before taking refuge in the 100 degree heat of the spa!

Both boys were pleased to realize that they had not forgotten how to swim over the winter.

More extremities

There was some wool left over from my fetching mitts so I made a mini pair for Adam's friend Emma - she is perpetually clad in pink and orange. (In fact if I thought I could get away with it I would dress exactly like Emma). I adjusted the fetching pattern over 30 stitches, with only 2 cable repeats.

I persuaded Finlay to model the finished mitts, and now he has demanded some for himsef - but not in pink. At least these are a quick knit.

I also finished Nigel's socks. Again my generic pattern, in this case I added a tiny rib down each side which splits at the heel. The cuff is a 2x2 rib.
The wool is Austermann Step in colour Cobblestone and it was lovely to knit with; the wool is infused (not sure whether infused is the exact technical term) with aloe vera and jojoba oil which meant that instead of drying my hands out to knit, they were soft and moisturised. I will look out for more of this wool - the patterning is pretty uninspiring, but the texture terrific.

Valentine's day concert

Adam's class had a valentine's day concert today. It included some classics as "Turkey Tango" and "Abraham Lincoln".

Adam looked terrified throughout - fortunately we had already had a private performance of all the songs, so I knew that he did know the words.

After the concert they all exchanged their (home made) valentine's cards, and gave us huge cards that they had made for their familes.

Here is Adam with his friend Matthew, and Matthew's brother Michael.