Mostly knitting, most of the time, Ivete’s knit blog

Over the last few weeks I’ve had small projects on the brain, namely small projects that take up a sock’s worth of yarn . . . because I happen to have LOTS OF socks-worth-of-yarn amounts, and a bursting sock drawer. Over the summer lots of bloggers were making cowls using sock yarn so I thought that was an appropriate way to go, but I started with a lone skein of Colinette Cadenza that was sitting in the stash without a mate instead of jumping into the prized sock yarn stash.

For my little experiment I decided to “stretch” the feather and fan pattern to see what it might look like if it were less wavy, and quite liked what I saw:

One day’s worth of knitting and I’d reached the end of the ball . . . unfortunately the cowl wasn’t actually DONE, even thought the yarn was:

(yes, I’m much too short)

So, now we know that one skein of Colinette Cadenza does not a cowl make. Please take my experience and use it to avoid such a non-project in your future. Thanks.

Not to be deterred, I started over again with some random Kersti that also lived in my stash, but this time I knew I had 3 balls hidden somewhere (of course I can only find 2 of them at the moment). I did the exact same thing on the exact same needles, and 2 skeins gave me a perfect cowl. When I get it photographed well and write up the super-simple instructions I will post it, promise! Hopefully that will happen this weekend. It’s about time for a new pattern out of me, and even a simple one will do! Everyone likes a free pattern anyway, right?

So we found an apartment!!! It’s at the absolute upper end of our price range but we’re getting SUCH a dramatic upgrade compared to our current apartment that I am really looking forward to buying less yarn so I can afford the rent. No, really!

Our current place is a 3rd floor walkup in a building that’s barely maintained, with a surly super who never smiles, laundry facilities that require you to go down three flights of stairs AND outside in order to reach them, and our apartment gets absolutely no light (we have to turn on the lights no matter what time of day it is). Not to mention that we have no kitchen, just appliances in one corner of the living room . . . and yes, this is representative of how many, if not MOST, New Yorkers live!

The new place? Full-service doorman building, elevator (actually there are 2, the real one and a service one, how fancy!), huge laundry room that’s reachable by elevator, tenant garden behind the building, and our unit has a real kitchen, gets tons of light and a good breeze, and it is literally 2 times as much space as we now have. I’m ecstatic!

We’re working out the details of the move but it’ll be happening sometime during Labor Day weekend . . . which has turned out to be a bad day to ask friends to help us move, because everyone’s got plans for the holiday! Looks like we’ll be hiring movers for the first time ever . . .

In preparation I’ve already started to weed out and organize the knitting stashes. I am probably going to put a few things on her to destash, at the very least I want to get rid of some old magazines I never use and maybe some books. Looking through the majority of my yarn yesterday I realized that there’s very little in there that I don’t LOVE . . . looks like I finally learned how to be descriminating in my yarn purchases! If you remember 2 years ago when I moved here I got rid of TONS of yarn. It’s nice to know I’m doing better, even if I spent just as much (if not more) money over the last 2 years than I did before that. At least now my stash is full of yarn I want to keep!

I also have 2 projects to show you but haven’t gotten my act together to photograph them. To tide you over until I have knitting content to show, here’s a food meme I found through Not an Artist:

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The Omnivore’s Hundred is a list of foods the gastronomic Andrew Wheeler thinks everyone should try at least once in their lives.

The rules of the meme: bold those you have tried, strikethrough those you wouldn’t eat on a bet.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho (I hate anise)
13. PB&J sandwich (I hate peanut butter!)
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (Ditto! I’ve had cognac and I’ve had a fat cigar, just never at the same time)
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly (most of us call this a Jelly Shot!)
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian (I saw that episode of No Reservations!)
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake (hah, I’ve eaten all of these! some of my favorite things!!)
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill (wouldn’t eat it raw . . .)
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Wow, I did even better than I expected!! It’s funny that I crossed out so few things and one of them is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches . . . ;o)

So I promise to give you way more pictures once I get them, I swear! Right now I only have access to some pictures that friends took and sent to us because we received a new AWESOME digital camera as a wedding gift (thanks again guys, if you’re reading this!), so we took that one to Hawaii . . . and I still haven’t gotten my old one back from my parents, or seen the pictures they or the rest of the family took (yes it’s killing me!). So here are two of the best ones that we have so far, please excuse the low quality! Professional pictures will take at least another month to come back . . .

Here’s my chuppah being carried in:

People kept asking us if we planned for the sunset to add to the beauty of the ceremony . . . and I keep joking that it’s built-in when you’re having a Jewish wedding on a Saturday! (You are not allowed to be married on the sabbath, so we waited until sundown when the day ends)

The chuppah came out very well although it didn’t lay quite straight when set up, but it looked like I intended it to hang that way so no one but me knew it was’t quite right! Of course now all of you know, too, but it’s OK because I ended up liking the way it looked. I asked the photographer, Laurie Rhodes (her website is down right now or I would link to it), to take some extra shots of it, so hopefully there will be some awesome professional shots of it that I can be really proud of. I of course took it down and have it saved, so will probably take some pictures (with the new camera!) myself as well . . . at some point.

The ceremony was wonderful, although I almost lost it and started bawling several times (big surprise, I’m sure). And the party was a huge success! Here’s us dancing the first dance:

Everyone loved the band and we danced ALL NIGHT LONG — my feet were seriously aching already by the end of the ceremony, so I had to get bandaids to put on my blisters even before the dancing started! Once the party was on the way I barely felt my feet at all though . . . and yes, I ended up wearing flats (I even broke them in before the big day), but I still had terrible blisters after only a few hours! The next few days I couldn’t wear anything but flip flops actually, it was kind of unbelievable. I guess I walked a lot that day!

I was really worried that I wouldn’t be able to “enjoy the moment” what with all the crazyness, but I can honestly say that I did! I was totally present and enjoyed myself immensely . . . but I keep telling everyone that I really wish I could have been a guest, I was too exhausted and wired up to eat much or even look around a lot! What I really wish is that I could have tasted all the food — we put so much thought into what we picked and I barely ate any of it!

It’s really hard to believe it’s over, actually. I still catch myself thinking, “Oh, I should call the bakery about XYZ” or “I should look online for such-and-such” and then I have to stop myself and go, “NO! It’s done!” I was in super planning mode for so long it’s weird to have it all behind me . . . although my next “project” has already presented itself:

Finding a new apartment! We’ve already looked at about 10 apartments and there’s one we really like but that’s a bit more than we wanted to spend. I have more appointments scheduled for this week, hopefully we’ll find something by the weekend! Wish me luck!

And I leave you with this, and a link to the Hawaii album (shot on the new camera, of course!):

Me on Waiki beach!!

So I come back from my wedding and honeymoon (I promise pictures and stories later!!) to find that Twist Collective has launched, and therefore I can now show you the socks I knit for Cookie A! Here’s the FO shot I took when I sent them off to her:

The sock pattern is called Maelstrom and the pattern is available for $6.00 through Twist Collective.

These socks were really fun to knit and flew off the needles (I knit them in about a week since I knew I was on deadline!), and they really weren’t hard at all. The stitch pattern is a simple, short repeat that really looks complicated after it’s done but is actually really easy to memorize and “read” as you go. I especially love the diagonal line across the foot, such a distinctive Cookie A design feature!

As always her pattern is impeccably written and fun to follow, I always recommend her designs to anyone who wants to knit a “special” sock . . . I may have to make myself a pair of these to keep!

Project specs:
Pattern: Maelstrom by Cookie A
Yarn: The Knittery Merino Chubby
Needles: US size 1
Started: March 31, 2008
Finished: April 9, 2008

Tomorrow night the wedding celebration starts . . . and I won’t be around the blog for two weeks at least since we leave for our honeymoon in Hawaii the day after the wedding!

I’ll see you on the other side, with lots and lots of pictures and stories to tell!

So last week I had a dinner date with Lidia, my ex-coworker from String. I met her at the store, and of course had to take a look around at all the new stuff . . . and I literally squealed when I saw this little crochet flower scarf kit:

(anyone else notice the typo in the title?)

It looks cute enough from the front, but wait until you see the back!

How could I possibly resist all those tiny skeins of cashmere!?!?! There was no way it wasn’t coming home with me.

I was so captivated and excited I didn’t even read the details on this thing . . . so I was kind of shocked to open it and realize I had just bought a crochet kit using laceweight yarn! I had never really seen the laceweight version of Artyarns’ cashmere, so when I saw this I assumed it was the worsted weight . . . I probably would still have bought it if I had known this fact, but I wouldn’t have gotten such a shock when I started winding the little skeins! This is the “Pastels” version of this kit (it apparently also comes in a Jewel Tones, although I’ve never seen it) and the colors are gorgeous. This picture really does them no justice whatsoever. They’re all tone-on-tone solids, but some of the colors have more variegation than others. Together they positively sing!

I have done one row of flowers so far:

(this shot is much better for color)

But I have to say, this isn’t easy. The yarn is SO thin, and cashmere is SO delicate, and you change color after every round . . . it’s a very fiddly project. To put it mildly. And this is gonna take a long time.

And frankly, as is the case with most of Artyarns’ patterns I’ve ever read, this pattern is poorly-written and hard to understand. I am an experienced crocheter so I figured it out, but I probably could have done just as well working from a picture as I did working from their instructions. And their explanation of how to do the color changes and how to order the different motifs leaves much to be desired, too. I find it much more annoying to have badly-explained instructions than to just have it say “change colors randomly as it pleases you” — even though writting the latter is less instruction, at least it is crystal clear!

In any case, I’ve decided to do the color changes in order from left to right as they are presented in the chart (if you buy this you’ll know what I mean), just so I don’t have to think about not repeating colors and hopefully don’t run out of any color too soon. Although I have no faith in this system assuring me I won’t run out, it at least lets me keep going without second-guessing every color choice . . . and if I’m going to follow someone else’s design I would like to worry/think as little as possible, thank-you-very-much.

So if this completely mixed-bag review has made you want one for yourself, here’s what I know about the kit: It is brand new and apparently only a few shops have it now, so I appologize if posting this drives you as crazy with desire but you end up unable to get your hands on one . . . I believe String is supposed to get more in soon, but I know I bought the last one they had last week!

My favorite flowers, in my preferred colorway. Sitting on my desk at work, just looking at them makes me feel calmer.

I’m not quite done with the 2 secret sweaters, one of them needs 3/4 of a sleeve and the other is only half done, but I couldn’t remain monogamous any longer. Last Saturday I started a new lace shawl design, and after a few false starts I am really in love with what I’ve come up with now:

(sorry for the crap photo, I can never seem to remember to take pictures until nighttime)

I’m using Cherry Tree Hill’s sock yarn, a yarn I rarely use but actually have a decent stash of (weird how that happens). My idea was to make a triangle shawl, knit the traditional top-down way, but to have it include baby cables all over it. The first two versions had YO increases bordered by garter stitch edges, but then the AHA moment happened where I thought, “Why do I have to make the edges boring!?!? I should throw some cables in there!” and ripped and started over again. You can see in this photo that the horizontal top edge (shown on the bottom of this picture) is a cable, and the cable is repeated, then flipped over and mirrored, down the center back where the other increases are. I am pretty sure I’ve never seen this done in any other shawl before (please correct me if I’m wrong!), and a quick search through Ravelry didn’t reveal anything to the contrary . . . so I’m pretty darn proud of myself!

I’ve been pretty dedicated to this shawl since I started, so much so that I’m past the half-way mark already. I have an idea of how I’m going to deal with the bottom, but I haven’t worked out all the kinks yet. We’ll see how much ripping out that takes, there is always a lot of that in any new design!

Unfortunately there is no way this is getting done before the wedding, so I’ve put it away in favor of the sweaters, which are completely mindless knitting and need to be done ASAP. I’ve been so stressed out the last few weeks with all these wedding issues that keep being thrown at me . . . let’s just say I’m really looking forward to the honeymoon!!! Thankfully the toughest decision I have to make about THAT is what knitting to bring . . .

I just got home from spending a few hours with my friend Debbie talking and, of course, yarn shopping. She took me to her LYS, a new (to me!) store in Hillsdale, NJ called Creative Knitworks. It was a really nice store and the owner was really friendly, and I had arrived with the intention of buying yarn so I was definitely not leaving empty-handed! I had a dentist appointment this morning that left me numb and traumatized (don’t worry, nothing bad happened, this is the way every dentist appointment goes for me!). Anyway, apparently I was in a pink mood today because this is what I left with:

The variegated on the left is Malabrigo Laceweight in color 92, which is called Little Lovely. The chunky stuff on the right is Araucania Limari in color 506, which is the perfect semi solid petal pink. I will probably knit myself a small cardigan with the Limari, something quick and simple (and probably top-down, no frills).

The laceweight is another matter: I had to have it because of the color, but some of you may remember that my hands are pretty much incapable of knitting with such thin yarn. I was thinking recently that my hands have been doing so much better this past year that maybe I could try knitting with laceweight yarn again . . . so if after trying it works out, I will probably knit a small shawl with this stuff. I do have a rather large stack of shawl patterns in my “one day” list . . . or I may even design my own, who knows.

I haven’t been knitting that much over the last week or so but I’ve actually gotten a lot accomplished. I have two secret sweaters due at the end of July and one of them is about 2/3rds done already, and the other is about 30% done. I really can’t show them to you but here’s a picture of the first sweater’s sleeve, just as a tease:

Exciting, no?

Wedding plans are cruising along, I am so happy to be mostly done with all the running around! There are still things left to do, of course, but most of the decisions have been made and now it’s just the details. The jeweler who has resetting my grandmother’s ring called on Thursday to say it’s ready, but he’s on vacation until the 14th so I haven’t actually seen it yet . . . but it’s good to know it’s going to be ready in time! Less than one month to go! Yea!

The other day I found myself without any mindless knitting close at hand, and after digging around in the projects pulled up my nearly finished Bubble Pullover. I had sewn it together, knit the bottom band, and then mysteriously put it away lacking for only a neckband. Now it looks like this:

Funny how little work it takes to get almost done with a project if you put it away 99% finished anyway!

Unfortunately, this is about the least useful item I could be working on right now . . . after a few days that reached almost 100 degrees, the weather settled down into the seasonable 80’s, which is still WAY too hot for a cashmere pullover. It’s a good thing sweaters keep until the winter!

I actually already bought buttons which match the color of the sweater almost perfectly, so all that remains to be done now is weave in the ends, block, and sew on the buttons. I plan to wet block the finished sweater both to soften the yarn up even more (it’s really amazing what some shampoo and conditioner does for cashmere, you should try it sometime!) and to hopefully block the body a bit wider than it currently is — the strange shape of the armholes means that they’re a little uncomfortable as they sit right now, but adding about 1″ of ease should hopefully fix that right up by moving the armholes out from the shoulders a bit. I’m also planning to block the bottom rib a bit looser, because even though this is a “bubble” shaped sweater I don’t really like the look of the ribbing being skin-tight around my hips.

Of course in the meantime I had to start yet another mindless project . . . and it’s actually another cashmere sweater! Knit in the round in stockinette so it’s absolutely perfect mindless knitting, and this one is actually due next month, so it feels much less silly to be working on. Well, it’s about as un-silly as knitting cashmere under the air conditioning unit is ever likely to get, anyway.