It's a cold and rainy day, which to me is a perfect time to sit down with a cup of coffee and a new knitting project;
This is the beginnings of Shibuya, from Berroco #308, in Berroco Vintage DK (color, Cork).
It was also a great day to bake chocolate chip cookies.
Now it's time to start working on my backlog of sewing projects that are in various stages of completion. I hope to be back later this week with some of those new garments, as well as a newly finished knitting project.
I've been hoping all week that the weather reports were an early April Fools joke, and we weren't really going to get a foot of snow on the first day of April. Sadly, the reports were correct, and we did indeed get a thick layer of new snow to cover up the grass that had finally begun to show again. I have been ready for spring since November, and this latest storm was most unwelcome. Fortunately, the ground had already begun to thaw before the snow fell, so it won't stick around too long, but it's still demoralizing to see this weather when I'm ready to pull out my summery dresses and sandals.
But when life gives you lemons (or in this case a snowstorm and yet another snow day for the kids), you make lemonade, right? Actually, lemon squares. I'm not sure where the recipe is from, it's written on an index card in my recipe box, but it makes for a delicious, tart lemon treat.
Lemon Squares
2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1/2 cup confectioners sugar (plus more for dusting)
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
6 large eggs
3 cups granulated sugar
Grated zest of 3 lemons
1 cup plus 2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 7 lemons)
1. Heat oven to 325ºF. In a medium bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups flour and confectioners sugar. Using a pastry cutter, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Gently pat into a 9-by-13" glass baking dish, and bake until crust is golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool.
2. Reduce oven to 300ºF. Whisk together eggs, flour and granulated sugar in a medium bowl. Add lemon zest and juice, and combine. Pour filling onto baked crust, and bake until filling sets, about 40 minutes. Refrigerate until well chilled before slicing, 1 hour and preferably overnight. Dust with confectioners sugar, slice into pieces with a sharp knife, and serve.
Since there were two rather impatient children waiting anxiously for the lemon squares to finish, I didn't follow the advice to chill the squares. I made a batch this past weekend that had been chilled overnight before serving, and while it looks prettier when the squares are cut, I think they taste better when slightly warm.
I have no idea if there is anyone still out there, because it's been so long since I've actually blogged. I lost interest last year, not long after Travis returned home from that brutally long 15 month deployment. The last time I posted was March 2008. Several months ago, I decided that I probably wasn't going to post anytime soon, and was tired of paying for a blog that I wasn't using, even if it was only $5 a month. So I deleted my blog. Almost instantly, I began to regret it (especially when I discovered that someone else took my blog name and used it for advertisements). I looked around at the free blog services, but I couldn't get the blog url that I wanted. Recently, several people contacted me, asking how I was, and why I wasn't blogging any more. That made me realize how much I miss the interaction of reading and commenting on blogs, and decided to start again. I checked Typepad, and found that my old blog address was once again available. I haven't restored things exactly to the way they once were, but I did import my old posts. Lots of the photos have been lost, because I used to use Typepad to host my images, so I'll have to weed out the old stuff, but that will all be done in good time.
Last week, I was so happy to see winter end and spring begin. We've had a mild winter in the area of Germany that I live in, but just knowing that it's officially spring somehow makes me feel better. Unfortunately, Mother Nature has decided to play a cruel joke on us, making it snow every single day since spring began. No snow all winter long, and now suddenly my crocuses, tulips and hyacinth blooms are hidden under a white blanket. Boo.
I know I shouldn't complain, because many of you have been buried under several feet of snow all winter long, but if it's going to snow, it should at least do so in the proper season, don't you think?
I was getting all geared up to start some spring knitting, but I've decided instead to work on finishing up some of my long-standing projects so I can start anew. A knitter's spring cleaning, if you will. The projects would really like to finish are my Tangled Yoke cardigan, Isabella, and the Victoria shawl (Ravelry links).
I don't know what my deal is with Tangled Yoke, but I just do not want to work on it. The bottom half of the body is completed, and I'm on the sleeves. I chose to knit both sleeves at the same time, in hopes that it would encourage me to finish faster, but it seems to have the opposite effect. I really should get to finishing this one up, because it would be great to have it to wear this spring.
I started Isabella last June, and finished up the back pretty quickly. Then I screwed up the front, ripped it out, stuffed it in a knitting bag, and forgot about it. I picked it up again a few days ago, and I'm making progress on the front. I really need to get moving on the Victoria shawl, because I would like to give this one to my mother for Mother's Day. I'm halfway through the knitted-on border, and it's boring and tedious. I will persevere, though. I think my mom could really use it in her overly air-conditioned office.
Even though I should be focusing on those old projects, I'm still tempted to start something new. Lately, every sweater I've swatched for hasn't worked out, so I find that I'm sticking to sock knitting. It's portable, it's reliable, and it's still cold enough to have to wear wool socks, and new socks always make me happy. These bright striped ones, especially.
Pattern: basic stockinette socks with picot cuff
Yarn: Vesper sock yarn in Aquamelon
Needles: 2.5mm Addi circulars
Time to knit: March 14 to March 24, 2008
Notes: Love the stripes! The bright colors make me happy.
I've also been doing some spinning lately. I had stepped away from the wheel for a couple of months, but now I'm back in my spinning groove. I had a commissioned spinning job that I finally finished up last weekend, and now I'm working on some brightly colored stuff for spring.
Some of the yarns pictured were actually finished up months ago, I just hadn't gotten around to taking photos and measuring the yardage. The details are all on the Flickr pages, if you're interested.
As if that isn't enough, I've been hitting the dyepots again, as well. I'm waiting on a shipment of base yarn, which should be here soon, so I'll be dyeing up new colors in the near future. Today, I dyed up some rovings, and a couple of custom orders, and it feels good to be playing with color again. I'm hoping to have a shop update the first week of April. For now, though, everything that is currently listed in the shop is 15% off!
Well, it's been a while since you last heard from me, hasn't it? The past month has been crazy, but in a good way. Travis arrived home safely the first week of February (a week later than anticipated), and everyone has adjusted extremely well. He's gone back to work this week, so we're settling into a new routine of normal once again.
While Travis was on leave, we took the opportunity to travel to Paris. It's a fabulous place to visit, and I was so excited to be able to travel again. It's been hard, spending fifteen months in Europe without being able to really go anywhere. I suppose I could have, but I'm not really brave enough to set out on my own with a 5-year-old and a 2-year-old in tow. Flying back to the United States for Christmas was enough for me :)
In Paris, we saw the usual tourist attractions:
The Louvre
Surprisingly, the kids held up to several hours of walking around the museum. We saw the Mona Lisa, which, frankly, was a disappointment. It's so much smaller than many of the paintings in the museum, and it's all by itself on a wall covered with glass. There was a very large crowd in front of the painting, and the glare from the overhead lights off the glass made it hard to see. Oh, well, I guess at least we can say we've seen it!
From the Louvre, we walked down the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe. It was quite a long walk, which involved much whining from the Princess (Zippy got to ride in the backpack on Travis' back). She was fairly excited to see the Arc de Triomphe, however, and had a good time chasing the pigeons that were seeking shelter beneath the Arc.
We visited Notre Dame du Paris
as well as the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur.
And of course, we couldn't visit Paris without seeing the Eiffel Tower.
There were also two days spent at Disneyland Paris, but clearly that part of the trip was more for the kids than for us. I could have done without going there, but the kids had a wonderful time. We figured that after dragging them through Paris, we had to do something to keep them entertained as well.
There has also been knitting happening over the past month. Mostly socks, because they are portable. I finished up several pairs, including a pair that I started last August.
You can go to Flickr to get the details on each of these projects, if you so desire. I'm too lazy to repost the details again here :)
I've noticed that a lot of bloggers are doing this WIP Wednesday thing, and I think it's a great idea, so I'm going to join in. I'm hoping that this will get me to post more frequently, and to not just pop in with a finished object from time to time, then fade into the background again.
This post is full of old WIP's that have recently been put back into the rotation after months of sitting in time-out. I've been in an early spring cleaning frenzy lately, and it has extended to my knitting. I went through my sock yarn stash a couple of weeks ago and decided that though I really love the colors of handpainted yarns in the skein, I rarely love how they look when knit up. I knew it was time for a destash, and Ravelry came to my rescue. I sold or traded almost all of what I wanted to get rid of, and that made me feel so much better. I also went through my knitting baskets, and unearthed several projects that I had completely forgotten about.
First up is the Victoria shawl that I started last June. I found it crumpled up and buried in the bottom of a basket. I was knitting this for my mother, because the office she works in is overly air-conditioned, and she's always looking for something to keep her warm. I thought a shawl would be a nice thing for her to keep at work, and throw over her shoulders when she needed it. I have no idea why I set this aside, because it only took me a week to finish the body of the shawl. There were five 16-row repeats completed, and I had to knit twenty more. I enjoyed every stitch. I couldn't wait for my quiet evenings (you know, that precious time of day after the small people are snoozing happily in their beds) so I could curl up in bed with old Seinfeld episodes and my lace knitting. It doesn't look like much in the photo, because taking a picture of lace in progress is always a challenge, but it's coming along quite nicely. I finished the final body repeat last night, and began the border.
Next, the Winding Cable knee socks that I started last summer, but abandoned halfway through the foot of the first sock. Again, once I picked these socks up, I couldn't figure out why they were set aside. Well, the drunken cable part on the front is fun, but the twisted rib isn't quite as enjoyable. Still, I know that the first sock fits great, so that should be an incentive to get cracking on sock number two.
I am also working on a few baby knits for a friend who is due to have a baby girl in a few short weeks. I started knitting Elizabeth Zimmermann's February Baby Sweater from the Knitter's Almanac, but I ran out of yarn.
So I ripped, and started again, adjusting the sizing and gauge, and skipped out on the lace pattern because I couldn't get my numbers to work quite right, but still fell short of a finished sweater. Boo. I was disappointed, because the yarn is buttery soft handspun merino (from gorgeous roving that Keri sent me several months ago), but the four ounces of yarn that I have just weren't cutting it. That tail you see at the bottom of the photo is all I had left, with two inches of sweater body to go. Instead, I think I'll use this yarn to knit a soft, warm hat or bonnet, and maybe some little bootees. Tiny pink mary janes, or something. I still haven't had the heart to rip it out, but I did face the facts (not to mention the impending due date), and started a new February Baby sweater.
This time I used some leftover Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece (color: Pink-a-boo), and will have plenty for this sweater, as well as a pair of Saartje's Bootees.
That's it for this week's WIP roundup. I do have some other projects that I'm working on here and there, but these ones have been my main focus. Things have been crazy around here. I spent Sunday evening getting my shop updated (there's still lots of good stuff available! I'm not above shameless self-promotion, you know), and I've been trying to get various other things taken care of before this week ends. It's funny, because we've had so much to do here this week, but time feels like it has slowed to a snail's pace. It was expected that Travis would return sometime next week, but he called today and told me that there was a possibility that he could be home this weekend. I'm trying not to get too excited, because I've been through this before, and I know that sometimes travel arrangements change, or weather holds things up, or whatever. It's difficult, though. I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much, but it's tough. It's funny, Travis returned from his last deployment on Super Bowl weekend, just in time to watch the Patriots win. Here we are a few years later, and he may be home in time to watch the Patriots play in the Super Bowl again. Well, I'm probably the only one who finds that amusing, but that's OK ;)
I highly doubt I'll get much in the way of sleep over the next few days, but I'm sure the blogging will be sparse, once again. Y'all are used to that by now, though, aren't you? I hope to stop in from time to time over the next month or so, but I have no idea how much knitting I'll even be able to get done. My regular schedule will probably continue for the first few weeks he's home, but only because he has to go through the whole weeklong "reintegration" process the Army has after returning from a deployment, and he also has to prepare his application for grad school (which, of course, is due at the beginning of April, and he hasn't been able to take care of it while deployed). It's mildly annoying, but I know that it won't last long. We'll still get to spend time together as a family (and I plan on hiring a babysitter so he and I can have an evening out, as well), and we also have a trip to Paris at the beginning of March to look forward to!
Again, I've gone more than a month in between postings. Well, the holidays were thrown somewhere there in the middle, as well as a trip back to Maine to visit with family, but I still should have managed to post. It's not like I didn't have anything to write about, it's just that I didn't have the desire to sit down and write. I wish there was a way that I could have a mind-reading dictation and transcription system, because my ideas for blog posts usually come to me when I'm nowhere near a computer. Ah, well, I don't think that will happen anytime soon, so you get silence instead. I actually did start a post last night, but wouldn't you know it, the power went out, erasing my post in progress!
I know the holidays were a month ago, but I do hope that you all had a good time. The kids and I flew to Maine to be with family. I was freaking out about flying overseas with the kids, but it turns out that most of my fear was for nothing. There were a few incidents that made the trip a little more difficult, but nothing major. The worst part was that airport staff (in every airport we were in) were terribly rude, and completely unwilling to help. Luckily, fellow passengers were quite helpful, so we made it through. I guess the frantic-looking mother with two kids and many suitcases in tow looked like she needed help :) The actual stay in Maine was also somewhat stressful, mainly because both my parents and in-laws live in the same city, so I was constantly badgered by one side or the other about who I was spending more time with. So much fun. Overall, it was nice to be back home, and for the kids to see both sets of grandparents, as well as their great-grandmother. They also got to play in the snow, which is something we haven't been able to do in our part of Germany in the past two years.
Now that we're back in our own house, and have returned to our normal routine, things are much easier. We've been pretty busy with school activities and birthday parties (why does it seem like there is one to go to every single weekend?), though this month still feels like it's dragging. Travis is due home sometime in February, and these final weeks of the deployment are agonizingly slow. I think it's worse on his end, though, because he's stuck in a holding pattern right now, and their return date is constantly being pushed back. He will get home at some point, so it's simply a matter of waiting.
While I wait to see my husband once again, I'm trying to finish up some of my knitting projects that have been in progress for far too long. I spent the first two weeks of January working hard to finish up my Central Park Hoodie. It wasn't the project that had been on the needles the longest, but it was the closest to completion, so it only made sense to finish it up first.
Pattern: Central Park Hoodie by Heather Lodinsky, from Knitscene Fall 06 (Ravelry link)
Yarn: Valley Yarns Williamstown #06 (9 balls)
Needles: 4.0mm and 5.0mm circulars
Time to complete: Cast on 29 Nov 07, finished and blocked 20 Jan 08
I can see now why this pattern is so popular. First of all, it's a fairly simple knit. It has plenty of stockinette, plus the addition of the cables to keep things interesting. It seems to be very flattering for many different body types, and now that the sizes in the pattern have been expanded, I imagine even more people will be knitting this. When I first started the project, I was unsure of how good it would look in the yarn I chose. I was afraid that the tweedy bits were too colorful and overpowering. I decided to press on, and am so glad I did. The finished hoodie fits perfectly, and I really like the color, tweedy bits and all. This was my first time using any of the Valley Yarns line, and I think that it's a great deal for the money. The durability is tough to determine at this point, since I just finished, but it has been washed and blocked twice (once in pieces, then again when the hood and button bands were added), and shows no sign of pilling or wear. I would definitely use this yarn again, perhaps for a sweater for Zippy.
In addition to the new sweater, I also finished a pair of socks earlier this month (plus a pair that I finished before Christmas, but never blogged).
Pattern: plain vanilla sock, knit top-down over 60 stitches
Yarn: my handspun
Needles: 2.5mm Addi circulars
Basic socks in fun colors, from a handspun yarn that I love.
Finally, my Loksins!
Pattern: Loksins! by Cassandra Thoreson
Yarn: Have you any wool (hey, that's me!) superwash merino in Tomato
Needles: 2.5mm Knitpicks circulars
These socks didn't take me long at all. I really enjoyed the pattern, and I think it looks great in red. I have a lot of red clothing in my wardrobe, so these socks have already gotten a lot of wear. Methinks I need to knit more red socks ;)
I'm working on reskeining a bunch of sock yarn that I dyed up last weekend, so be on the lookout for an Etsy update sometime this coming weekend!
I just don't have it in me to come up with a clever post today, but I do have a new sweater hot off the needles that I wanted to share. I'm amazed at how focusing on one or two projects at a time gets things done faster. I've had this Rib and Cable cardi on my needles since August, but have only worked on it sporadically. I think part of the issue was that it is knit in black yarn (boring, but it goes with just about everything, and I really needed a new black cardi) in 4x4 ribbing. So, for a knitter who gets the majority of her knitting done at night after the wee ones go to bed, this project wasn't always the best choice.
I also hit a few small snags along the way. First, as I was about halfway through the second sleeve, I realized that there was no way I would have enough yarn to finish up the rest of the sleeve, not to mention the collar. It was frustrating, because the pattern stated that it would take 10 skeins of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK to make the smallest size. This is the size I made, with the very same yarn suggested in the pattern. I had a bag of 10 skeins of the Cashmerino DK sitting in my stash, waiting for the right project, and then this book came along this summer, and I knew they would be perfect together. I was getting ready to email the shop I had originally purchased the yarn from, to see if I could get a single ball of Cashmerino, when it occurred to me to check on Ravelry. Wouldn't you know it, there was another knitter there who had a single ball of black Cashmerino DK that was marked for sale or trade. Even better, it was from the very same dyelot! A few emails later, and I had the yarn to complete my sweater. Then, as I finished the sweater, I realized that I had no buttons for it. I couldn't find what I wanted locally, so I had to order some buttons and wait for them to arrive in the mail. I sewed the buttons on yesterday (all twelve of them), and voila!, a new cardigan.
The Details:
Pattern: Rib and Cable Cardigan from Family Knits by Debbie Bliss
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK in black, 11 skeins
Size: small (34-36")
Needles: 3.75mm Pony rosewood circulars
Time to knit: sometime in August, to 12 December 2007
Modifications: The only thing I did was lengthen the sleeves by 1/2", because I wanted them to come down slightly past bracelet length. They came out exactly the way I wanted.
Overall, I'm extremely happy with this cardi. It fits perfectly, and can be worn with practically anything. It is extremely comfortable, and very warm. My only concern is that this yarn will pill like mad. Even while I was working with the yarn, it showed signs of wear. I've never used this yarn before, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't wind up looking like absolute crap after just a few wearings. If anyone else has any insight into how well this yarn holds up, I'd love to hear about it.
All of this focusing has helped me finish not only this cardi, but another pair of socks as well. Right before I sat down to write this post, I wove in the last end on my second Loksins! sock. Unfortunately, it's dark right now, and the photos I attempted didn't come out very well. I did get some without using the flash, but it took a very long exposure to let enough light get into the lens so that the details showed up. Of course, that long exposure requires remaining completely motionless for the duration of the shutter opening, and I can't sit still for more than a second, so all of the photos were blurry. I guess the socks will have to wait until tomorrow. Until then, if you're looking for something to do while surfing around the internet, you can hop on over to my shop and check out the huge update I did last night. There is a ton of the new superwash wool/nylon blend sock yarn, like I used for my Gentleman's Fancy Socks, some alpaca/merino/silk roving, as well as a few skeins of handspun. </shameless plug>
mother::knitter::yarn dyer::spinner::runner::cyclist::business owner::
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