Luxus Touch

That's the name of the sweater I'm knitting; the description mentions golden winter shine. I'm all for it!

(Yes, you see right: that's a copy of the pattern, handed over by the owner of the Berlin LYS where my mom bought this yarn for me. Apparently, Germans don't take the copyright thing quite so seriously. I offered to buy the pattern book, but the store had run out of it. The owner argued that copying the pattern for free ought to be in the interest of the yarn manufacturer and pattern designer, since it helps with yarn sales. I wouldn't have asked to photocopy patterns, but I took the copy once it was offered.)

I love the yarn (Lana Grossa Chiara), and I love the pattern, and I love knitting the pattern with the yarn. Sounds like a match made in heaven, doesn't it?

So, what went wrong?

Well, I also love watching TV while knitting in the evening. Once Netflix came out with the long awaited second season of Mad Men, my attention was torn between watching my gauge and watching Joanie, Betty, and Peggy. Somehow the girls won. My gauge went all over the place. It shows:

Somewhere in the middle. what started to be tight and pretty turned loose and ugly. I told myself, it's just the back, no one will notice. Well, Monsieur noticed. And then he gave unsolicited advice, somewhere along the lines of needing to undo at least one third of the sweater to make it "look right."

*sigh*

The Family Trunk Project Live!

Eye candy at Boston's Windsor Button! Emily Johnson and her husband, David Galli, the (garment and web) designer team behind the very cool Family Trunk Project, popped in at Boston's downtown LYS this afternoon to show off her beautiful, original knit designs. Named after Emily's family members, each design is a great exercise in time travel, as it takes you back to the fashion of bygone days (without being unfashionable). I particularly loved (LOVED!!) the yellow pineapple cardi. You can't see it very well, but Emily promised to publish the pattern soon. (No pressure here, Emily!)

The pineapple cardi (whose "real" name I don't know) reminded me of the fashion in my very favorite TV series, Mad Men, and Emily thought that the comparison made for a very nice compliment. Well, all her work is great! She was showing some new accessories she'll publish this fall; among them a great pair of textured socks and a lovely shawl that comes in two sizes. I didn't leave empty-handed but bought patterns for two pairs of socks.

***

It was a rainy day in Boston, appropriate for the occasion of Teddy Kennedy's funeral Mass.

New Toy

What's this?

Yesssss! We've been rescued from the abyss that is cameralessness. Let me introduce you to our new baby: a Canon 450D (or "Rebel XSi," as it is called it the U.S.; stranger even its name in Japan: "Kiss X2"). We spent all weekend reading reviews (brilliant: Digital Photography Review) and eventually decided against the newest and latest of the entry level SLRs, the 500D/T1i (which comes with video) because the image quality of the 450D is (supposedly) better. Of course, I wouldn't have minded the 40D or even 50D (one giant step towards semi-professional toys), but since we're complete newbies to digital SLR photography, the 450D will be plenty good. :)

While without camera, we played with our iPhone cameras and discovered the most wonderful iPhone applications for photography! The pic above is taken with an iPhone and was "processed" by the app "Polarize," which turns any picture into a polaroid. Mighty nifty, I think. But you may already know all about it... I'm a bit slow in the iPhone app game. (Did I mention the Polarize app is free?)

Anywho.... Shall there ever be knitting in the future, you'll get to see pictures of it. This week, however, has been so completely crazy with teaching prep, dissertation work, and an unexpected translation job that I haven't had time to touch the needles. I have not knit since Sunday, which Hubs believes a record. (He's right.) As a matter of fact, I haven't even had time to play with my new toy yet. The weekend is near, is all I can say....

Busted!

Apparently it was just a temporary fix: our camera stopped working again. It takes one picture and then goes into sleep mode, and from the most recent sleep it hasn't awoken. Before I begin searching for camera recommendations online, here a few pictures of Argosy, taken with a camera phone. (Ugh.)

Argosy turned out to be a long, looooooong scarf, very light and thin and airy but, once wrapped around the neck three times, quite cozy and warm. (Ahem, yes, I still need to weave in the ends.)

Pattern: Argosy by Vyvyan Neel, Knitty Winter 2006 (link here); no mods other than that I made the scarf longer
Yarn: Opal Hunderwasser (Autobus-Fenster); I used up about 85% of one skein
Needles: US size 4 (3.5 mm)

It's a very easy knit that does not, however, get boring. I knit most of the scarf while talking on the phone.

Y'all have a wonderful weekend!

Squash Stash

I sent Monsieur to the Farmers Market on his own, with instructions to bring back some zucchini for tonight. So he went to our very favorite Middle Earth organic farm stand at the Brookline market at Coolidge Corner. This is what he brought back:

"Some zucchini for tonight." He admitted he couldn't make up his mind and said it's like me and yarn. Can't say nuthin' against that, then. Cheers summer squash!

Butter stricken

Ever since Monsieur watched Julie & Julia, he's on a butter thing. We've always cooked with butter, but now we eat butter by the stick (almost). And since his is a bit of a scatter brain, last night Monsieur left the butter out. This is what I found this morning in the kitchen:

That's just to show you how hot's been here. Butter melted like this in six hours, over night? Crazy. There was a bit of a thunder storm this afternoon, with plenty of rain. But the rain almost immediately evaporated and left the streets steamy. Now it's a tad more humid than before.

Apart from the heat and buttery things, there's been knitting. Argosy is almost done:

And here are two WIPs to be blogged about in detail later:

(Doesn't this blue stuff look familiar? Yes, but no, but yes, but no!)

(Secret sweater project with delicious, yummy, buttery yarn.)

Five

Folks, it's way too hot and humid to knit! I'm not a fan of A/C, and we don't have A/C at home, but right now I sure wish we did. With all cooling fans available to us running on high and pointing to the bed, I still wasn't able to sleep well. And you know what's on today's to-do list? Ironing. I don't know if I can cope with ironing today. But I have a thing tomorrow morning and another thing tomorrow noon, and for both things, which are related to this job I'm starting sort of now, I need blouses and nice pants, and blouses and nice pants require ironing, so I don't have much choice but to iron today. With all fans available pointing to the ironing board maybe I'll manage. I may wear no more than a bikini, though.

As to the job: I got my first real job! Hooray. Without yet having finished the degree, I already got a college teaching job, which is so awesome I can't even put it into words. It's part-time, so that I have enough time to finish writing and then defend the dissertation blah blah blah, but I'm so excited to be rescued from my L.L.L. existence (Lonely Library Life) and put into a classroom with breathing human beings with whom I can interact. Oh my God, there might even be talking.

Am I rambling? It's the heat-cum-humidity.

Since I didn't knit, I did other things this weekend. My five favorites and favorite five:

1. Going to the (air-conditioned) ICA to see the Shepard Fairey exhibition.

2. Seeing The Comedy of Errors at the downtown park, the Boston Commons, where the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company puts on a free Shakespeare production each summer.

3. Discovering a really lovely (moderately air-conditioned) French Bistro with real French staff and real French food.

4. Browsing the art produced by this year's graduating class of the New England School of Photography at NESOP's (air-conditioned) gallery.

5. Settling into my new (air-conditioned) office, which I have all to myself. It even has windows.

Still Undecided

So, 'cause I loved that Hundertwasser stuff so much, I couldn't help myself but cast on for another project, a cutsy little scarf: Vyvyan Neel's Argosy.

It's a quick and fun knit, and it's helping me to get over my blue-mohair-scarf project, which has been a disappointment because I can't make up my mind and decide on a pattern. Yes, last week I reported that Hubs and I had decided to go with Wisp, but eventually I admitted to myself that I felt really blah about this project too. My friend helped me find another pattern suited for the yarn, Kim Hargreaves' Trinket, and I started working on that:

It's a lovely, lovely pattern. But knitting GGH Kid Melange on #2 needles will take a million years, and while a fellow-knitter may appreciate the ruffles within the scarf, the recipient might just think it's a boring stripy scarf and never wear it. On the other hand, this promises to be a really light, wonderfully soft scarf. I really don't know....

So for now I'm sticking with Argosy!

Winterbild

The second Hundertwasser Winterbild sock is done, whoop whoop!

Except for the very front of the toes, the stripes match perfectly.

Just gotta wrap the socks nicely and send them on their merry way to Germany, where they should arrive in time for my step-mom's birthday. They shall keep her feet toasty warm this winter.

(Yep, that's the "real" Winterbild.)

Wishlist

I was surprised that my family, rather than making fun of my sock-knitting, thought that (a) I looked cute while knitting, (b) sock-knitting was cute, and (c) the socks I knit were cute. With so much cuteness going on, they all wanted their own pair of hand-knit socks (or something else hand-knit) and sent a wish list back with me when I returned to the U.S.

(1) My mom wants red socks with either cables or lace or, even better, both. I don't have any ideas yet for yarn or pattern, but look forward to searching for both.

(2) My dad wants "manly" socks: plain old stockinette stitch in a dark color, with just a little something going on to keep his feet entertained. We bought him some Regia Galaxy sock yarn in dark blue with some yellow-green that will supposedly pool to evoke supernovae (!).

(3) My stepmom wants equally simple plain vanilla socks, but with stripes. Her color preference: many bold colors. Opal Hundertwasser ought to do the trick.

(4) My older brother doesn't want socks but a red scarf, preferably with semi-wide ribs. I don't know if he's serious. I remember my grandma asking every summer what we'd like her to knit for us for Christmas, and when my brother and I were teenagers we'd usually answer "black sweater" and "red scarf with ribs," knowing perfectly well that she hated knitting with black yarn and strongly disliked knitting ribs, and would therefore give us money instead of knits. Now, does my brother really want a scarf, or is he thinking the knit-gifts-avoidance-tactic works on grandmas and sisters alike?

(5) My younger brother's too cool for school to want any hand knits. But his girlfriend, like, really wants, like, a skinny summer scarf. (Like, you know, like!)

(6) My step-dad is too fashion-conscious to desire socks made of anything but the finest fibers, preferably designed in Italy. (I'm making this up. But he does wear very thin, very shiny, very glamorous socks.) But he asked me if I could knit him an alpaca-cashmere blend sport/DK-weight cabled sweater. I looked at him in shock, not necessarily because he can identify fibers and yarn weight (after all, he's been around my mom for 15+ years), but because he's giant (tall & wide), and knitting him a sport/DK Cashmere sweater would take a million years and cost a fortune. I shall not knit him anything!

That's a total of six socks and two scarves.

And here's the first Hundertwasser sock, made for my stepmom:

I must say, I like self-striping yarn. So far I had been suspicious of the whole self-striping idea, but knitting this was a lot of fun and very addictive ("just a few more rounds, just till the color changes again").

However, the yarn itself is very... firm and rough and not so wonderful. I wouldn't want to wear these socks, as pretty as they are. Maybe they will become softer with washing...?

Unfortunately, I messed up the Kitchener stitch this time and need to redo the toe. You can't tell from this picture, but blimme, it ain't pretty.

I knit this one top down, and while I had considered myself a toe-up true believer, I may just change my mind about this. I like top down!

Speaking of presents, I think I found a pattern for Sylvie's scarf that Monsieur and I both like: Cheryl Niamath's Wisp.

And now completely unrelated: I look forward to watching Julie & Julia this weekend! I've been a Julia Child admirer for years, and from what I hear, Meryl Streep makes for a great Child.

Y'all have a great weekend, and raise your glass to my mom, whose birthday it is today. Happy birthday, Mama!!! Knutschi!

Blues

I want to knit a scarf for Sylvie, the sister of Betty for whom I made a mohair scarf a while back. Sylvie likes the color blue, and while in Berlin, Hubs and I found an interesting blue cotton yarn that we thought Sylvie might like. I had a wave pattern in mind and started right away:

Hubs didn't like it, arguing that since Betty got mohair, her sister should get the same fuzziness (although while in the LYS, he liked the cotton... *sigh*). So we went out to buy another blue yarn, this time kid mohair, and I made this swatch:

Now it was me who didn't like the result (partly because it was TOO HOT to work with mohair), and I went back to experimenting with the cotton again. I thought: Orlane!

But somehow the shawl didn't live up to its big sister, my first Orlane, and I stopped after just a short while:

The texture just wasn't right. So, guess what: I pulled the mohair out again, trying different things, among them a basic leaf pattern:

The idea was to start with big needles, decrease them in size, and at the other end of the scarf increase again. So that I'd end up with a regular-width scarf with wide fluffy ends.

Well, I don't like my "design idea" anymore! For now I've abandoned the blue-scarf-for-Sylvie project, but only until I've found a good pattern. Any ideas for a mohair scarf or shawl, anyone? (Yes, I've searched Ravelry. Extensively. Obsessively. But I simply can't make up my mind when faced with hundreds of choices....)

*sigh*