Finished!

 

I'm ready for Winter!  Bring on the blizzards, the Arctic cold, and the ice.  OK, let's be honest, we might get one or two snow storms, but nothing too dramatic around here.  I've got a hat though, so I'm ready!

I finished up my new Ripley last night and got the lace Kitchener stitched together and the ends woven in.  This is a fun hat pattern (I love the pleats), and like most hats, it does knit up quickly.  I love little, fast projects like this that you can crank out quickly.  They give you that finished project feeling with so little time and effort on your part.

A LIttle Baking

Yesterday afternoon I decided to try out a recipe from my new cookbook.  Ordinarily, a cookbook like this wouldn't appeal to me.  I think a lot of "health" food misses the mark tastewise and I don't see a reason to waste my time and calories on food that doesn't taste good.  (Also, it seems to me that a lot of "health" recipes use a bunch of weird vegetables that I've never seen before.  I don't trust weird vegetables - they taste funny.  Yes, I am three years old.)  After reading the reviews on this book, I decided to take a chance on it - it looked like it was worth a try.  After flipping through it, I found a bunch of things that looked good and most of them are things Caleb will even eat.

These are the Fresh Fruit Scones, fresh from the oven.  They would have looked more interesting in the photo if I had used blackberries, but I used an apple for my fruit because that's what was sitting here.  A lot of thought goes into my cooking.  I also added a little cinnamon to the recipe, because it would be wrong to make an apple scone without cinnamon.  I try not to be wrong.  The finished scones are great.  Not too sweet, but not too little either.  There are a bunch of other recipes I want to try, not just baked goods, but if they're all as good as this one, I'm happy to have this cookbook.

Just a note, if you're on a low carb diet, this probably isn't the cookbook for you.  Runners need carbs, and while the recipes stick to the more complex carbs, they are in here.  Personally, I love the carbs.  I love complex carbs; I love simple carbs; I love fun carbs; I even love carbs that are moody and mysterious.  That's one of the reasons I run.

Something New

 

Yesterday I realized that I hadn't started anything new in a while, so I decided to start something!  This is a Ripley hat.  I've knit this hat before in gray and it's about the only hat pattern I've found that actually looks good on my head.  I like the look of the slouchy, floppy hats, but they just slip off my head - or down too far over my head and I look like I'm trying to rob a bank, except that I can't see because the hat is over my head, so it's really not a well thought out accessory for a heist either.

So rather than begin a life of crime, I'm knitting a second Ripley.  This is obviously the lace edged one and I'm knitting it in some Berroco Ultra Alpaca in ivory that I had in my stash.  Since I had enough ivory yarn for a hat, and I didn't have an ivory hat, I decided that I should fix that problem.  Before the Arctic winter sets in here in North Texas.  Or something.

Onward!

 

This weekend I made it past separating the sleeve stitches from the body and got a good start on knitting the body.  I also did a little bit of weaving in ends in an effort to keep those under control.  The rest of the body is this lighter blue green color, so there will be fewer ends for the rest of this section.  I'm at the place where all I'm doing is knitting around and around, which makes this an easy to grab project when I'm doing something else besides knitting.

You know how some Monday's are a little more painful, a little harder to get moving?  This might be one of those Monday mornings.  I'm going to have some more caffeine and see if things look better.  Hopefully, I'm just sleepy this morning.

Another Stripe, Something Random, and a Proud Mom Moment

 

I've been working along on my Ravello, and I've added another dark, blue green stripe to it.  I think I'm really close to separating the sleeve stitches from the body at this point.  Hopefully I'll get that done this weekend.  I'm really enjoying knitting this on my new Rosewood needles - they feel great and they look so pretty against the yarn colors.  (I know, I'm easily amused.)

In a completely different topic, I went to put trash bags on the grocery list and as I start typing it into the app, here is the list that showed up below (I had typed "tr"):

• Trash Bags
• Truvia
• Tranquilizers
• Trout
• Trail Mix

Really?  Tranquilizers?  Is that what you think I'm buying at the store these days?  While I will admit to Trash bags, Truvia, and Trail Mix, I have never bought Tranquilizers.  I'm not sure if I should be concerned about the app or concerned that it thinks I'm the type of person to pick up tranquilizers with my trash bags.

Finally, the really big news around here is that on this morning's run, Caleb ran 2 miles for the first time!  He's doing great and I'm really proud of him!  (Logan also ran 2 miles, but he's not really trying that hard honestly.  He's just trotting along with us.)

Bigger!

 

It's gotten a lot bigger since the last time Fifi modeled it!  I'm about 2/3 of the way through the yarn at this point.  Max has learned that if he'll sit in my lap while I knit, he can get it draped over him like a kitty blanket.  Also, I don't know if this was Max's idea or if it's just proof I'm losing my mind, but I think this would make a great blanket - done in a heavier brushed mohair yarn, made wider and larger.  It would be as light as a baby bunny's hug, but warm too.  Wouldn't that be just gorgeous?

I'm going to spend the next few days trying to convince myself it's not a good idea.

Let There Be Stripes!

 

I've started striping on my Ravello pullover!  I'm working through the yoke (which is the longest section of the whole sweater) and I hope that with a couple more evenings of knitting, I'll have the sleeve stitches separated.

This did turn out to be a nice, quiet weekend and Max seems to be feeling completely normal again.  He's not growling at anyone anymore and is playing and attacking and cuddling and purring just like he was a couple weeks ago before all this eye stuff started.  Also, we don't have to put drops in his eyes anymore.  That's huge, as anyone who's had to put drops in a cat's eyes can tell you.

Forward Progress

 

Yesterday I made some actual progress on my Horai wrap.  Seeing that I have about 20 inches of it knit, you'd thing there was progress before, but no, it actually just started yesterday.  This project is a redo from a previous attempt at knitting Horai - same yarn, new needles.  Yesterday I knit past the point in the yarn (you knit with two at a time) where I had been on my previous attempt.  Yesterday, I started drawing yarn from the center of the ball again.  This is new yarn, fresh yarn, never used before yarn.  This is yarn that has not seen the Horai stitch before.  Now I'm actually getting somewhere!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!  I'm hoping for a quiet one myself.

It's Possible I'm Part Zebra

 

Yes, there are more stripes coming - another striped pullover to be exact!  At some point either during my Red Velvet stripes or my Milano stripes, Ravello came out and I "favorited" it in Ravelry.  Then, a couple of days later, I realized I could knit it from stash yarns!  I double checked yardage, but sure enough I had the yarn for it upstairs.  This is Peruvian Baby Cashmere from Elann (whose stock looks pretty picked over at the moment) and I had three colors in my stash, clearly waiting for Ravello.  You'll have to wait and see what the other two colors are!

In other news around here, last week Max had an eye issue happen, in both eyes this time.  It's happened in one eye before, but we were able to get it easily sorted out or it went away on it's own.  This time was different though and it wasn't going to clear up without surgery.  So on Monday Max had surgery on both eyes.  He was a little trooper and came through it well, but when he came home he spent that first night growling at Mickael, Caleb, and a door.  He was fine with Logan and I.  (Logan deserves a shout out through all of this.  He's been sweet and gentle to Max the whole time, even when Max would try to start a wrestling match, Logan wouldn't rough house with him.  Until yesterday.  Apparently Max is close enough to 100% by Logan's standards that it's go time.)  On Tuesday, Max was fine with Caleb and the door, but when Mickael got home from work, Max growled at him and then trotted down the hall and upstairs - growling the whole way.  He then proceeded to get lost (in the house) for 3 hours which resulted in everyone searching the house when it was time for more eyedrops.  Finally, late Tuesday evening, right before bed, he stopped growling at Mickael and starting treating him normally.  We have no idea why Mickael (or Caleb, or the door) needed growling at, and we may never know, but thankfully things are settling down around here and Max seems to be healing quickly. His eyesight seems to be unchanged and we're thankful for good vets and a healthy cat!

Another Finished Project!

 

I also finished my Rosebud Endless Love Mitts over the weekend.  When I was organizing my closet earlier this year, I made a list of things that I thought I could use and pale, pink, fingerless mitts were on the list.  I had a partial ball of Socks That Rock Lightweight in Rosebud and I wanted to show my newest pattern, Endless Love, in a more solid color.  With a few days of knitting, my problem was solved!

If I could pass the finished mitts around in the multicolored yarn, you would all see that the pattern does show up in that yarn, but all I can show is photos, and the photos just don't catch the details of the design.  It's like the camera gets distracted by all the colors (kind of like a certain Pink Lemon I know).

Finished!

 

I have finished my Milano!  All the ends are woven in, the i-cord is finished on the neckline, and I washed the whole thing to block it when I was finished.  This was a very simple and quick pattern to knit and I know the stripes kept me amused through the whole thing.  The yarn was lovely to use and I will definitely use it again in other projects.  I used the kit from Sunday Knits, which included Nirvana, Eden, and Angelic in the 3 ply weight.  I have lots of yarn left over and I need to weigh it to see how much I have.

The only change I made to the original pattern was to start the stripe repeat in a different place so that I'd have cool colors at the neckline and near my face.  I knit the sleeves with no changes to the stripe repeats (yes, the sleeves are different).  I finished this just in time, because the temperature dropped this week, so I should be able to wear it very soon!

Not Much To See

I don't have much to see around here, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy.  I have gotten ALL the ends woven in on my Milano.  That's all the ends of the body and both sleeves, woven in!  I'll do the neck edging over the weekend and then I just have to sew the sleeves in and it's finished.

Since looking at a pile of ends isn't really blogworthy I will show you how my second pink mitt is going:

TA DA!  Yep, it's going slowly.  We've been having kind of a crazy week around here, and while we're not out of the crazy yet, it's more under control than it was.  I know this is vague and doesn't make sense to 99% of you, but I'm not ready to blog about it yet.  (And no I'm not pregnant, since someone always guesses that, anytime something happens around here.)

Have a great weekend!  I'll be back Tuesday with something, who knows what it will be?

A Second Sleeve!

 

Yes, last night I finished the second sleeve of my Milano!  That means if you ignore the huge number of ends I have to weave in (and who can, really?), I just have to sew this together and add a neck edging.  That's it!  The sweater is just about finished!

I'll be weaving in ends if anyone needs me.

Another Pair of Mitts

I realized a few days ago that I didn't have a pair of pale pink mitts.  Pink is enough a part of my wardrobe that I needed to do something about it.  I did have most of a skein of Socks That Rock Lightweight in Rosebud (the perfect pale pink) and I wanted to knit another pair of my Endless Love mitts in a more solid color.  Problem solved.

I started these at the end of last week and I've got one mitt all finished (except the thumb) and have started the other mitt. As soon as I get them all finished, I'll add these pictures to the Ravelry page because while the multicolored yarn I used for the original mitts shows the stitch pattern in real life, it's very difficult to photograph!

Endless Love Mitts

 

As the days get shorter and the temperature starts to drop, everyone wants to be outside under the blue, Autumn skies.  Sometimes though, you need just a little something to keep your hands warm.  The Endless Love mitts are perfect for stomping through piles of leaves on days just starting to turn chilly.  Since they're fingerless, they allow you to use your hands more easily than full gloves or mittens might, making them ideal for holding hands, walking the dog, or even raking leaves.  (After all, they have to be raked back up after you jump in the pile, right?)  These would also make great gifts and knit up quickly.

The pattern has both charted and written out directions and it comes in three sizes : 6-1/2 inches, 7-1/2 inches, and 8-1/2 inches, as measured around the knuckles.  You'll need about 200 yards of fingering weight yarn for any size and US 1 (2.25 mm) needles, either double points or circulars for Magic Loop.  The mitts are knit from the cuff up and are easy to adjust to make longer or shorter.

$6.00

The above link is a Ravelry sales link, but you don't have to be a Ravelry member to use it.  If you are a Ravelry member, you will automatically have a copy of the pattern stored in your Ravelry library upon purchase.

Half A Sock

I am at the halfway point on the second black sock.  At least at the point I call the halfway point.  I'm not sure exactly where the halfway point of a sock is, but I always think of the leg as one half and the heel and foot as the second half.  Please don't tell me if this isn't the half.  In my head, it's the halfway mark, so I'm halfway done with this sock.

Did I mention this is the second black sock?  That means I only have to knit another half of a sock and I'm finished with the pair of black socks!  I'm so ready to knit socks that are not black.  This second one is going faster and easier than the first one.  I think that's primarily because I'm only knitting it during the day, sitting by the window.  I have almost grabbed it a few evenings to knit while I watch TV, but have reminded myself not to, and I grabbed something else instead.  I think that's made a huge difference in how this sock is going.

In addition to being black, and therefore absorbing all light around it, the yarn is also a bit splitty.  It's not the most irritating of splitty yarns I've ever worked with (that honor goes to a cotton and rayon blend I used when I was a newer knitter), but it's definitely got a bit of splitty-ness to to it which doesn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy towards it.

On a positive note however, I do still like the pattern and I could see this in other colors working out quite well.  Even a nice navy blue would be better!

A Sleeve, A Striped Sleeve!

 

I have finished knitting my first sleeve for Milano!  Note that I didn't claim to have finished weaving in ends on the sleeve.  I haven't even started on the sleeve's ends yet.  Usually I work both sleeves together, but Milano has different sleeves!  (Isn't it exciting?)  This is the cool colored sleeve.  It has all the colors, but the wide stripes are in the cooler colors, with the warm colors in narrow stripes.  The other  one is the warm colored sleeve.

If I don't get on the weaving in of ends, I won't ever be able to sew this sweater together and wear it!  I'm thinking I might need to set a timer for a specific End Weaving In Time every day.  Then I won't get bogged down in it, but it will get done.  That's probably the responsible thing to do.