Cast on: Jess

For my birthday Eileen sent me some Rowan Baby Alpaca. It's delightfully soft and I'm guessing it will be very warm. With some forward planning I cast on for a cardigan for next winter.



The pattern is Jess by Martin Storey. The colour is more of a true red than this photo looks to me - it looks less pink in reality.

On the needles: Citron

Don't know what happened there...impromptu blogging break: things at work are busy and school is winding up for the end of term.

Christina sent me some yarn: Knitwitches mohair and silk laceweight in a citrus green colour. I decided it was perfect for a Citron Shawl




So far it's easy TV knitting - and the increase/decrease rows for the ruffling pattern are manageable at the moment.

Lizard cushions

Now we are using our new living room the Lizard Ridge blanket lives in there. I thought our new sofa needed some cushions and when Kerstin and I went to IKEA last time we bought some valentine's themed cushions for $1.99 with a view to using the inserts.




I used the leftovers of Noro Kureyon, along with some additional balls to make these cushions.

I followed the Lizard Ridge pattern, with 5 'bubbles' and knitted until it seemed big enough! I sewed them onto a brown denim back with an envelope closure. The denim has been in my fabric box for an eternity - I think I bought it at John Lewis which would make it at least 13 years old.

Off the needles: Buttercup

I finished the Buttercup top. This was knitted in Garnstudio Drops Silke Tweed yarn that I got from Duncan for Christmas.



I am not thrilled with the outcome this project: the neckline is very wide and I knitted several decrease rows across the back neck - it is still too wide to wear without a t-shirt underneath. And of course it's also too low-cut to wear without a t-shirt. The yarn grew in length quite considerably during blocking - and I may try to block it again to tighten the stitches. The yarn is lovely, quite nubbly, and knitted at this tension it's very drapey - possibly too drapey.

I think if I knitted this again I would knit an even smaller size to get a better width across the neck and shoulders, and would not pick up any stitches at the underarms. I already knit a size smaller than I would normally chose because of the width at the shoulders - but I think this is a perennial issue with top-down raglan construction. It would be better with narrower shoulders and short-row bust shaping on me.

So - on balance, a nice pattern, but in need of more customization for me. I will see how much I wear the tunic and maybe re-block. Otherwise the yarn might be destined to become something else!

Fibre to fabric

The reason I bought the loom was to use some of my handspun. I bought some merino bamboo fiber (Meribo) from Purlescence yarns at Stitches, and some carbonized bamboo fiber from MC Mercantile on Etsy.



The merino blend is on the right - it came out with a lovely shiny finish and a nice marled effect. The carbonized bamboo was very soft but I didn't enjoy spinning it as much - it was rather sticky. It also made a very matte single.

I spun each of these as a fine single and plied them together.



I was pleased that the merino mix retained it's shine and the yarn was very soft.
I warped the loom with a Habu laceweight in 100% bamboo. It is colour 3 which is a very deep purple.



I made sure to use paper between the layers of the warp as the yarn was so fine. It was harder to warp than the sock yarn I had previously used and I did have to make some adjustments for tension.

I wove about 6.5' and cut off the warp. I tied the warps in groups of six to make tassels.



Nigel seems pretty pleased with his new scarf.

First yarn

I did a lot of spinning over the weekend with much attention from Fin. He kept asking to "have a go" but as I was in the middle of a project I could not really let him and fobbed him off with "when I've finished spinning this yarn".

On his arrival home from school he immediately cornered me, demanded the status of my spinning project, and insisted it was his turn to use the wheel.

We sat down with some fiber and I started to teach him the rudiments of spinning. After a few minutes he announced "it is harder than it looks"! (As I discovered on my first attempt at spinning with Christina).

He did persist and wanted me to wind his yarn off on the niddy-noddy (he liked that name) and make him a little skein.



Now he wants me to teach him to knit!

First weaving

I finished my first woven item. This is a scarf for Lamar. I discovered that this sort of plain weaving is called "Tabby".

I used wildfoote sock yarn in black for the warp and Noro Kureyon sock in colour S95 for the weft. The warp and weft were pretty well balanced so the black colour is still quite visible. I warped about 7.5" wide before I ran out of yarn, the warp length is about 7' - the finished scarf about 5' after wastage. My weaving pulled the width in to about 7". I used about 75% of the Kureyon sock.



I did cut out the most lurid pink colours from the yarn because it's intended recipient is male. I also did a twisted fringe for a more masculine look.

I learned a lot about weaving with this project - the first thing is that it never occurred to me that as I wound the shuttle I would be reversing the colour transitions. In this scarf it's OK to have a more stripey look - but I had imagined preserving the Noro transitions in which case I would have to wind off sections of the yarn before winding onto the shuttle.

I also improved my weaving technique as the project progressed. I have Davenports "Hands On Rigid Heddle Weaving" book which has some useful tips which I tried to follow. The main area that could do with improvement is my selvedges which are not too neat - but, as I discovered, it's harder than it looks to keep the edges even!

Red letter day

A very special letter arrived at the house today. They both read it together.



The letter was in response to a letter Fin wrote to President Obama with his views on the environment (please plant more trees).


He was thrilled - lets hope he takes the advice to work had at school to heart!

Weaving

I have acquired a loom. Its a 16" Kromski Fiddle rigid heddle loom. My intention is to weave some of my handspun yarn. I am glad I chose the 16" - the weaving area is 15.5", but the loom itself is just over 20" wide. I would not have had space for a wider loom.

It came with a 10 dent heddle and so for practice I decided to start weaving with some sock yarn. I used a left-over partial ball of Wildfoote sock in black to warp.



I had read a book on weaving with a Rigid Heddle loom and was quite daunted by the explanation of warping with a warping board. The Fiddle is drilled for use as a warping board but I didn't have any suitable dowels to use as pegs so I did some searching on the Internet and discovered the concept of Direct Warping.

Since I'm unlikely to need to weave anything longer than 6-7' I think direct warping will fit my needs. I set up the warp from one end of my desk to the other - which created about a 6' warp.

The warping process took me about an hour or so and then I was off with the weaving! I used Noro Kureyon Sock as the weft yarn - cutting out the most lurid pink colour once I decided that I would weave this for a friend who was hospitalized last week.

I was impressed by how easy it was to get started - I completed the weaving in a week - photo of finished item to come.

Fight; Love; Live.

I celebrated a birthday last week; 29 again of course. I had the day off work and messed about all day with no particular agenda - it was lovely! I spun the rest of the meriboo fiber and listened to the radio, read my book, and of course, ate cake!



On Friday I went with Fin's class to Filoli Mansion. The name is derived from the original owner's motto: "Fight for a just cause; Love your fellow man; Live a good life."

The class had a nature hike, each small group with a docent.



Our docent, Dave, was great - and the children were really attentive and well-behaved for the whole 2 hours we were walking around the grounds. At the end of our nature hike we walked through the formal gardens which were a riot of colour:



Fortunately the rain held off until after our walk - then it chucked it down!

Charlotte

Charlotte arrived in our home this weekend. She came from the Santa Cruz Animal Shelter. Adam and I went over there to meet with some cats and choose one - after 5 minutes Adam announced "she is my cat"... and she is.


Her name was Charlotte in the shelter, and Adam felt it suited her. He has naming rights for this cat so Charlotte it is. (Adam tells me that her middle name is Sydney!).

She is a delightful little cat - about 2 years old. She loves to play but she also really seems to like to sit quietly on your lap and purr really loudly.

We have not had a cat in the house for 4 years or so, since Tiddles, and it's really nice to have an animal about. She has already eaten, and used the litter box, and also started to explore the house. She also spends quite a lot of time watching out of the window - so I'm guessing she was once an outside cat. It's odd, again, to know nothing about our cat's past life - she had only been in the shelter 10 days or so, and they picked her up in Ben Lomond.

If you are looking for a pet I can strongly recommend the Santa Cruz shelter - the folks there were all really helpful and made adopting our new pet a pleasant experience. (Also no long list of references, statements of future care for your cat etc). They had several really nice cats too - but none as nice as Charlotte.

Albert Einstein

"Mummy, when other boys were playing with their lego, Albert was reading a book."

Fin loves to do 'experiments'. Sometimes he uses his chemistry set which requires adult supervision, and sometimes he creates his own experiments in secret, often in the garden. You know about these when you find a plastic pot containing a foul smelling concoction and a small label instructing you not to touch.

One day: two belt loops

This weekend we took the boys to a scout family day camp. We signed up for a morning of archery. The camp is located among the redwoods in the Santa Cruz mountains. Its was a lovely, if cold, spot.

The day started with a safety briefing and instruction on the parts of the bow and arrow, with a quiz to make sure everyone understood.


Finally the boys got their hands on the bows and were able to try archery. It was harder than they expected - they both found it difficult to pull back the bow string far enough.


However after some practice they both managed shots on target.

This qualifies them both for an Archery belt loop (cub scout badge). After lunch we stopped off for long-overdue haircuts - which accounts for the short hair in the next pictures!

Finlay has cooked dinner for us several times with some assistance and really seems to enjoy it. We decided he could have a go at his Nutrition belt loop which requires the cub to explain the components of a healthy meal, and then prepare one.




We reviewed the contents of the veg box and decided on pasta with garlic, tomatoes, and red chard. Fin did all the veg preparation and then the cooking. (I set the table as he pointed out that when I cook - he sets the table).



It was delicious!

Not what I expected: part one

We always planned to have a 'feature wall' of wallpaper in our bedroom. So we didn't have the wall textured, although we painted it in the short-term.

Finally, on Friday I got around to putting up the paper. The paper is Linda Barker 'Adorable' in chocolate and metallic. It took me all day (it's been about 15 years since I last did any wallpapering) and I'm not sure about it...


I like the paper; the colour goes well with the walls and carpet; and it's exactly what I ordered. However I'm not sure I like the effect in the room: previously our room was calm and plain, and now it's rather busy.

Hmm, well I guess it's going to stay there a while now I went to the effort of putting it up, but I'm wondering whether a less bold paper, or a less dramatic colour would have worked better.

Cast on: Buttercup

I have cast on a new project: Buttercup (Ravelry link)



I'm using yarn that my brother, Duncan, sent for Christmas: its Garnstudio Silke-Tweed in a lovely wine colour. Drops has good pattern support for this yarn - but this sweater jumped out at me and I thought it was a good combination with the yarn. Nothing too fancy so the tweedy effect of the yarn shows off best.

Champions!

Adam's basketball team won the local district basketball tournament at the weekend. Adam actually scored a point in each of the 3 games during the head-to-head shots - he was delighted!

All aboard!

Last weekend Nigel and Adam had an adventure with the cubs: they went to an overnight camp at the Balcutha, moored in the Maritime Museum in San Francisco Harbour.

They checked in at 7pm and were put to work raising sails, hauling water, swabbing decks and so on. (Nigel was pleased that only the cubs had to do all this work - the accompanying parents just had to look on).
Here are Adam, Jacob, and Logan raising the sail. In the background you can see the lights on Ghiradelli Square. The slept in sailor's bunks


In the morning they were roused at 6am to swab the decks with water they hauled from the bay:



They had a great time!
Fin and I joined them in San Francisco and spent the night at the Argonaut hotel which turned out to be an inspired move. Nigel and Adam joined us for breakfast (and a much-needed shower) when they left the boat at 8am.

Ski weekend

We spent last weekend in Bear Valley. It poured all the way there on Friday - which was not fun to drive in - but meant we had about 1' of new snow on Saturday. It was surprisingly cold but clear and sunny.



Adam had a lesson in the terrain park and learned the do a 'grab' (when you make a jump and hold onto the edge of the board while airborne). Here it is in progress:


Adam was delighted that Nigel also brought out his board instead of skiing this time. While they were boarding Fin and I went off to ski together.

Fin decided that he had watched enough olympic skiing now to attempt moguls so we headed off to the backside slopes to try to find some. The moguls were not really too big - but enough to slow me down. I could not keep up with him:


He managed surprisingly well and insisted that when he gets to the winter olympics moguls might be his sport (!).

A great time was had by all.

New path

Work is progressing outside as well as inside. We decided to save money by re-laying the pavers that formed our old back patio to make the new side path.



The pavers are set on sand, not concreted in, to give good drainage down the side. We previously had the patio on sand which worked out really well, and made it easier to re-use the pavers. I am seriously hoping that this is the last time that these pavers are laid...it's the third time they have been used so let's hope that the third time is lucky!

Nigel has been working on this with help from Fin.


If you look closely you can see that not only is he working in his bike helmet, but he also has a good application of camo face paint thanks to a Christmas present from his uncle!!

Mittens and slippers

I have actually been doing some knitting: These slippers for Adam use the felted clog pattern knitted in Cascade 220 left over from other projects.



I bought suede slipper bottoms for these which work better than the puffy paint I used on the previous pair. Now I think I need to knit some slippers for myself.

These mittens were knitted for a colleague who helped me with my big project last week. They are knitted out of Noro Silk Garden out of my stash and are the Fetching mitts.

Karen lives in Chicago so hopefully will still get some wear out of them this year!