Tall Gal Knits and Spins

In the dark of winter there are bits of light

New England in January, February and March are dreary, cold, uninviting and downright miserable if you are not a winter person.  The nights are long, the sun sets around 5, although it is getting lighter sooner and DST is starting in 3 weeks....

My feet have been chilly, even with my down booties on, they've just been cold.  So the other day in a fit of not wanting to do my stats homework and needing more warm socks I went stash diving.

Something soft and warm, yet reflective of "my winter of discontent"...

Malabrigo!  Its so very, very soft and warm and a quick sock knit on #6 needles.  There is dark blue and grey-black with a bit of spring green and light blue poking out every so often.   I did this just goofing around here and there for 30 minutes for the past week.  Basic 2x2 rib and a regular heel.  I tried it on last night and my foot was toasty warm...now I just need to make the other one.

The spring green in this made me remember that I have other malabrigo in the stash...and I felt like I needed something very bright to help me see the spring light at the end of the winter....my shawl is progressing along, just started the next pattern section, but I needed/wanted something brighter..

Now this is Spring Green!  Apple green to be more precise...

This turning into Anya from Ella Rae #13.  Its going to be my spring wandering around town sweater.  The back is almost done.  its a simple knight, with the "fake" cabling , just a nice boxy sweater...i love fitted things, but sometimes its nice to just have a comfy sweater to wrap up in.

Bits of light..bits of green...spring is on the way!

A little bit of spring green early

Winter in New England....not my favorite time of year as anyone who knows me will agree.  Winters usually look something like this...

 
and the roads look like this

Some people find this a grand time of year...full of skiing and cold adventures up north.

I personally find this a time of year to hunker down with all that lovely wool, alpaca, silk and blends there of that I own and knit..under a blanket preferably.  This winter has been gray early and often, there's about 18" of hard pack snow on the ground, a sheet of ice under my car.  So what does the knitter do when she needs a bit of spring in her life sooner than mid March??

She starts a new lace shawl...

In spring green...Classic Elie's Silky Alpaca lace!  This is one of the nicest lace Alpaca/silk blends I've felt.  I am in love with this yarn and in fact I am considering getting more...even though I have enough lace to last two lifetimes...it is soft, warm, pliable and will drape beautifully will blocked out, I'm positive.

 This is Anne Hanson's Bee Fields Shawl.  I love Anne's work and blog..I've had several of her patterns queued up in my Ravelry Q for a while.  I looked at my 4 skeins of the lace and just decided that it wanted to be this pattern.

I'm particularly loving the fact that the edging is done at the same time...saves time in the long run. 

I'm almost most finished with the first pattern motif..I'm not working on this as fast as I could, there are 6 more weeks before the clocks turn back and another 8 until the equinox...this shawl will be my "Spring" until mid march...when hopefully little sprouts of green blossoms will start to appear..

Spring semester starts tonite...3 nights a week, 7:30 to 9:30 class each night..ugh. 

Think Spring...

New Year, New Hope, New Beginnings for all of us

For everyone...yesterday marked a new era for those of us who are in the US.  I am cautiously optimistic that our new president will make things better, with time, as long as we give him the opportunity.

Since I last posted...yes that was an extremely long gap, many things have occurred around here as well.  The semester from hell is finished, for which I am eternally grateful.  I am on a new beginning as well, both for school and personally. 

I did not get much knitting done, but here's a short parade of what I did manage to get done, most of which in December during the holiday break.  If you are on Ravelry you can see more pics here.

A long over due scarf...started back when it was warm...the Manitou Scarf, a lovely reversible cable scarf.

I did this in some stash yarn!  Foxfibre's Cormo Silk blend.  I still have 1-1/2 skeins left of this lovely yarn.  I'm sitting on it for now.  Maybe a hat or really toasty warm socks later on....

I also did Bad Cat Designs November KAL..Autumn in New York.  Andrea does wonderful work..the shawl was  a breeze to do..minus papers and quizzes!

I used some sport weight Merino Hand Dyed that I got from M a while back..its a nice shawl to take the chill off...

Socks for a friend..generic ribbed socks.  Knit Picks Imagination alpaca blend sock yarn.

And Finally the first finished object for 2009...a little something sparkly for me.  A nice quick knit.

Simple wristlets made with a delicious yarn. Artyarns Beaded Mohair and Sequins.  Warm, gorgeous and dresses up jeans and a sweater beautifully.

I've got a new lace shawl on the needles, but more on that in a day or two...

New year, new beginnings for everyone...take a deep breath...

Welcome to the Jungle

This is what I'm looking at for the next 16 weeks.  29 books, 3 classes, 8 papers, multiple midterms and 2 finals.

I was quiet all summer...kinda went into hiding, reserving energy.  I'm sure you can understand looking at that pile

This is what one of the cats thought of it..
Yep..he thinks I'm nuts too.

I'll try and post...we'll see if I do anything besides drink a lot of coffee to manage this.

Summer life has its pleasures and its annoyances

Its summer time...the weather is mostly cooperating, and the creative juices get flowing...trying out small projects just to try a technique is always fun....

For example, I'm taking great pleasure in making this felted bag...

A combination of a knit then felted bag and needle felting.  I've felted a knitting project before.  Sometimes I love it, sometimes I don't.  This black bag is made out of stash yarn, some Cascade Pastaza that I've got tons of lying around here.  The flower (which I have been told resembles a lady slipper) is from roving that I have around the house.  The stem is twined sock yarn that looks like stem material.

This was a quick easy project to do...I need to go buy bag handles for it this weekend.  Its just the right size to be another project bag, as you can never have too many of those, or to be a small tote bag for lightweight shopping. We'll see what handles I come up with.

And then there is the annoyance of the summer...and normally I don't share things like this, but this one just irritates me...summer time equals sandals, some new some old.  I bought a new pair over the weekend, the DH and I walked into Harvard Square for dinner the other night, its about 1 mile from our place, easy walk, one we do all the time, literally.

Halfway home the other night I had to take off my new summer sandals because I had rubbed a blister on the top of one of my feet.  No biggie, I've done it before, will do it again.  Went to bed and the next morning woke up to this...

it had cracked and bled...and has done so again today...this drives me NUTS!  I have never had a blister do this to me since I was a kid in Iowa in the freezing winters and my hands would crack...

Now it is covered in antibiotic cream and covered with a gauze bandage for a few days.  Its bad enough it is probably going to leave a scar, no matter how much vitamin E lotion I put on it.  So much for cute feet for a few weeks!

I'm off to go do something else crafty...I cast on a sock for the Summer of Socks for the DH (since I'm obviously not wearing any for a while) over the weekend...should have a progress picture for you soon!

It must be summer..I have time to do something besides sit at the computer....

Its been a busy few weeks since the last little sweater update....but not so much that I couldn't make another EZ sweater for Caterina!

I love Elizabeth Zimmerman's patterns...not only are the easy to do once you read through the whole pattern but the designs just make sense.  This is the Baby Surplice Sweater, a little wrap sweater that you an adjust as the baby gets bigger by moving the buttons along.   Buttons, that I will be purchasing this afternoon....

Yes, I am enjoying knitting girl baby clothes!  Not that I don't love knitting for the two nephews and my Godson as well...but this is a nice change of pace.  Actually, I have two more EZ sweaters lined, up one for C and one for her big brother that I'm planning on starting in July...

And the best bit..I'm using up Stash Yarn!  I've actually been extremely good this year.  No sheep shows so far , although I am planning on going to Rhinebeck, school allowing, in October and I'm only getting my bimonthly dose of STR from the club....I just may actually be able to buy some yarn this fall and not have to pile it up on the floor in front of the cubes!

This adorable sweater isn't the only thing I've done.  I finished my quilt block of the month, which I am also going to turn in this afternoon....

Not bad for not touching my sewing machine in 6 weeks!

It is summer time...and with less brain power being abused by school...I've picked up some lace, I've joined the Summer Sampler KAL over at Bad Cat Designs.

These are the first 2 patterns, one a week, and I'm running a week behind...go figure.  But I'm enjoying this as a chance to explore new lace patterns and its just a fun little stole to knit.  Its an open KAL so check out the link above if you think you want to join in.

And just because one lace project isn't enough....

Can you guess what this is the start of....its one repeat of a border pattern for a specific shawl....

No I'm not going to knit it entirely over the summer...the goal is to have the edging "hopefully" completed before classes start up again mid September.  Then try do a few rows every week.  This was my treat to myself for surviving the semester and getting into Harvard officially.  The yarn is the Gossamer Cashmere Silk blend from Heirloom Knitting in yummy burgundy!

Tonight is the summer solstice and tomorrow is my wedding anniversary...we're heading to Portsmouth NH for the day tomorrow...there's going to be some fabric stash enhancement I'm sure and maybe even a little yarn too....

Have a wonderful weekend..I'm off to buy buttons!

I did fall off of the face of the earth again....

But managed to crawl my way back up! 

A fact of life for me while taking classes is that nothing is set in stone about what I can keep up with while classes are in session, aside from work and school.  This is something I need to get used to.  Everything came to a standstill after vacation.  I had a few priorities that had to be taken care of, so I did nothing creative or crafty until the end of classes.

But school is out for the semester, I'm not due back until mid September and now I've got a few things to show you...projects I've completed since classes let out.

These two projects are for my friend M, who just had her second child, an adorable baby girl who I'm going to visit tomorrow....

Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket...easy, quick knit.. Cast it on the day Caterina was born, finished it up earlier this week, sewed the buttons on it this morning. 

And a blankie for the new little one...she's been given many blankets already, so she will have one more to add to the warmth pile.  Fiber Trends Thermal Blanket

This one has become one of my favorite baby gifts....

I'm trying to clean up some old projects...I've pulled out the Spring Shawl by Sharon Miller, I need to figure out where I left off on that and I've started the Summer Sampler Project from Bad Cat Designs.  She is doing it as weekly installments and she's using some of the Japanese stitch patterns, so I'm using this as a testing ground to see if I want to go ahead and pick up the books.

Still quilting and spinning, just haven't gotten to them yet..trying to decide if I want to pick a quilt to do for the summer for the house as a wall hanging or maybe abed quilt...

Hopefully the summer will lead to more regular posts...I am going to be posting some pics from Hawaii on my Flickr account if you'd like to see over the weekend..follow the link on the side bar.

Sure signs of spring

Yellow daffodils and

painted toes!!

The daffodils are staying here...the toes are leaving for Hawaii early tomorrow morning!

Looking forward to some sleep,  sun, more sun, and some quiet time knitting before and after sunning!

See you after the 1st of April!

Look...she really does something this week!

Thanks for all the congrats about becoming a matriculating student.  I've gotten my head wrapped around it as much as I'm going to until I talk to advisor in a few weeks, which must be why I actually got some stuff done this week.

One of the nephew's birthday is in early April, his 1st birthday this year.  I wanted to do something a little nicer for him than the usual stuffed animal and sweater, and I wanted to learn a new quilting technique - flying geese.  Combine the two and we get -

A Beatrix Potter quilt! 

Its just the right size for his car seat and stroller, its going to be 35" once its finished.   The wonderful bit is that a friend has agreed to do the quilting and put the binding on for me.  Not because I can't, but because I'm going away for 9 days and don't have time and can't take it with me. 

The other thing I've worked on is Juno from the Fall 07 Knitty.  (by the way...the spring issue is out!)

I'm using the Atacama Alpaca that I brought back from Scandinavia a few years ago...using the stash!

And I started a sock...with the intention of its going with me on vacation...Veil of Leaves from Cat Bordhi's new book -

So far its a fun little sock to knit...hoping to have a matched set when I get back...where am I going?

To the gloriously warm, wonderful island of Oahu!  For 9 days, no work,  no cold, no rain (I hope).  I'm going to visit a friend and hide for a bit...still figuring out what I'm taking to work on..maybe I'll know next week!

Hi...i'm alive and some news

As I fall of the face of the earth again....I'm alive. February is one of the worst months for me...I hate winter, its cold, dark and miserable and I just lose all my motivation to deal with anything outside of school and work.  I don't think I've honestly knit anything since the last post...not joking.  I've barely done any quilting and what I have done is just because I have to finish something quickly...

March is a little warmer and I'm soon heading for a warm vacation, my outlook is improving a bit.  So while I have nothing to show you today, I'm hoping next friday I will.

So my news is that after 8 weeks of what seemed like interminable waiting and probably the reason for part of my funk the past month - "The Letter" dropped from Harvard yesterday.  As of 3/4/08 when they wrote the letter I am officially a Harvard Bachelor's Degree Candidate through the Division of Continuing Education (i.e. night school for people who have to work).  Between what they transferred and what I've taken I have 40 credits left to complete, 10 classes.  Theoretically I can be done in 3 more semesters and possibly 1 summer school session.   I've emailed who they assigned to me for an advisor and I'm planning on meeting with them in april at some point to figure out exactly how this is going to work.  I need /want to do this as efficiently and quickly as possible without going totally nuts.  From what they sent me I don't have think I have enough wiggle room left to do a special concentration for the bachelor's, I've got classes like foreign language, ethics, logics/stats, and writing intensive courses and a few other "requirements".  I'm sure there's a way to combine it down, but I'll need help figuring it out. 

Its a full fledged Harvard University ALB Degree, just done at night.  Having it will go a long way if necessary down the road. My immediate  goal is to finish this, then the next semester start a master's program through the extension school the next full semester.  I can do this at night as well, if I decide to go for a PhD, then I have to switch to day school.  That's a ways away, but still tucked into the back of my head...as that path means a lot of changes for me with work and personally.

I didn't think they were going to:  A) really admit me and B) give me as many credits as they did.  So I'm still reeling a bit from this.  I'm thrilled and relieved but now also a bit terrified.  Its now gone from taking classes because my brain is melting from boredom to I'm really doing it, again.  I'll be fine in a little bit, but for now I just need to get through this semester and have a game plan for the remaining time. 

So after all that I have a silly picture to lighten the post...

Cauliflower sheep! 

Off to let my head spin a bit...hopefully real knitting content next week!

Midnight blues seemed to be my colors this week

Might of had something to do with the dreary weather we're having.  Its been basically cloudy and grey for a week.  Not my favorite weather.

Since things are slightly calmer this semester I've been trying to take one day a week to do some spinning...this week I was on the lovely Drudik wheel...with some hand dyed merino top.

definitely enjoying spinning on the Drudik.  Right now I'm guess this yarn is going to come out somewhere between a fingering and a DK  once plied.    Definitely dark blues, but there are some lighter shades in there as well.  I've got 8 ounces total of this roving, I've split it into 4 ounce balls, we'll see how much there is when I'm all done.

My other dark blue of the week is Ice Queen from Knitty!  I absolutely loved the way this looked on the model, but light blue is not a good color choice for dark brown hair and pale skin, I went with....midnight blue Kid Silk Haze from Rowan and A#11 seed beeds.

You can see the highlights of the beads, they're a bit more subtle than the larger beads the pattern calls for. I chose them mainly because they are what I had in my bead stash.  If I decide to make another one, I think a trip into Beadworks in Harvard Square may be in order.   The pattern was quick to do once the set up was taken care of and using the cotton for the provisional cast on made it extremely easy to pull out afterwards. The DH is debating on whether he'd like me to make one for his grandmother without the beads for Christmas...are we already thinking of Xmas gifts?

With this little project done I'm thinking of what I want to do next...I need to make socks for the DH, I'd like to make myself a sweater, but I also have a few non lace UFO's to think about.  I also have a couple of quilting projects on the burners...I feel a case of startitis coming.

A fascination with bags

This past weekend I felt like doing some sewing, I did my block of the month quilt square but I felt like doing something else too, but not a quilt per say.  A few weeks ago I had made this bag, from a pattern I picked up at Quilter's Way in Concord ma.

Is a patchwork bag..I love the sandcrab in the middle.  It adds just a little bit of funk to it.  This is a very soft bag, its been lined and quilted around the fabric squares.  These are Kofu squares, slightly heaver printed japanese shirting fabrics.  The bag I lined with with some cool grey/red/black dragon fabric I had stashed.  And its just big enough to hold a large sweater project or several small ones

See?  So i had fun with this, and I learned something new.  So i decided I wanted to do something else, smallish just to see how it would go.  I ended up making two things..a little zip pouch and a small clutch.

   

very cute...and i learned how to sew in a zipper!  Not bad for the first one.  I was so pleased by this little experiment that I decided to go a bit bigger and made this clutch for myself.

Stash fabric and a stash button!  One I had picked up this fall at Rhinebeck.  Its just a little different and  think adds to the bag.  You can see the deep crimson red I used for the lining.

Both of these projects came from this book...and I would recommend it to anyone newish to sewing and looking for small projects but instant gratification.  There are some larger ones in here to do, like some more bags...We'll have to see how much trouble I can get into to.

On a side note, I'm going to start trying to post on Fridays/weekends once a week. With school and work its just too hectic for me to do so more regularly until June..we're aiming for starting this weekend...maybe with some beaded knitting pictures if the weather ever clears enough for me to get good shots!

 

 

 

we're calling january a wash...

Usually at the end of a semester I'm wiped, but this time I was really wiped out and just kind of became an unfocused puddle for the remainder of the month.  So January is a wash and almost over..I'm still feeling pretty beat but the spring semester started last night so wonder woman is back in action again.  I did at least decide to only take one class this time...with a professor I adore and admire (and who actually remembered me and seemed to be pleased I was in his class).  While there will be a bunch of work....like i need to read "The Tain" by next tuesday, I'm looking forward to it.

I did finish up two simple projects.  One was J's scarf for christmas. It is 8 inches wide, because that is what he wanted.  The scarf is a bit heavy in the handle because the herringbone weave makes it dense.  But it is also warm and he's wearing it all the time, so I guess is a good thing.

Started:  Dec 2007

Finished Jan 2008

Yarn:  Classic Elite Inca Alpaca Red, 6 skeins

Needles:  #5 circs.

I also finished up a scarf for me that has been hanging around since October and Rhinebeck...my Quivik Scarf.

Very simple lace pattern, the softness of the Qiuvik makes the scarf.  I need to steam it to make the edges lie a bit flatter, but this will be nice to dress up some of my button downs and basic "nice" tee's.

Started:  Oct 2007, Finished Jan 2008

Needles #6 circ's

Yarn:  Windy Valley Musk Ox, 100% quivik

Pattern:  Little shell scarf, free with purchase of yarn

The other constructive and necessary thing I did was evaluate what I had lying around here as a UFO and decide what I was going to do with it. There were 12!  One is a sock, the Pomatomous socks, those are going with me on a plane at  the end of march to get done.  The constant twisting of the stitches is killing my hands but the second sock will be completed.  Another is FLAK, its  not going to the RIP pond, but I am going to pick it up next fall to do and finish. Just not in the mood right now for it.  I've got two lace shawls sitting...Melanie and Spring Shawl both from Heirloom Knitting.  the spring shawl can sit, the wedding i was going to wear it to has been postponed at least until 2009 (couple realized paying for school and wedding at same time bad).  My hope is that once I come out of the fog later in the spring that I'll want to work on both of them again but for the next few months they're going to wait.  I ripped out two other projects that had been sitting and obviously were not thrilling me.

A few other have been hanging around less than 6 months, so I'm not ready to decide about those yet.

Then there's the promenade shawl...garter stitch, garter stitch, garter stitch.  Mindless (good) but boring (bad).  I just have one side left to go.  I will finish it this year, but again I'm just not in the mood right now.  Yep, January has been a drain on the ole creative juices here at Tall Gal..

I did try several times to start a sweater for me, note the word 'try'.  I even did gauge swatches, washed and blocked, got gauge there, but when knitting commenced, gauge changed....reason why - my hands are killing me this winter with the up and down cold and the work load.  For small amounts of time I can maintain gauge, but then it goes either up or down, mostly loosening because I can't maintain the tension.  I'm not happy about this right now. 

J is getting a sweater - one where my hands seem to be behaving - Jared Flood's Cobblestone.  Good old Bartlett yarn comes to the rescue again.  It's hiding the minor variations in my gauge well, much better than the more refined, thinner yarns I prefer for my sweaters. He's a boy what do you expect...I put him in cashmere for a sweater and he'll felt it or do something else weird to it.

Bartlett is a man's best friend.... and mine right now till it warms up.  I hate to say it, but looks like worsted weights or better are my yarn of choice for the next month or so.  I will make my self a sweater, but I think until the weather gets a bit warmer and my hands aren't quite so tight, we're going to work on other projects...

By the way, grades are out...

yep...that's me

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End of Year

Wow, another year has gone by, hard to believe.
Here's a photo wrap up of the xmas gifts.

Godson's fair isle vest for christmas

J's Christmas socks

comfy sweater for godson, perfect for snowy days

my warm comfy blanket..its folded in half for the shot, but is about 5' long and 6' wide.

And last but not least....J's xmas scarf, its still on the needles, the first time in 11 years I've had to give him a gift on the needles, but he loves the pattern, its about half done.

finals coming up soon, so sparse posting for a few more weeks, then I can breathe again.

Have a wonderful New Year everyone...