i'm in LOVE!

with cape cod! alice st*rmore is a genius. and lisa souza's petal is the perfect yarn, the drape is unbelievable. i think this just might be my favorite sweater.

here she is having a luxurious bath,


and on the woolly board,

and on me. please disregard the god-awful hair, it's the only photo in which i don't look gigantic.

O is for

obsession. i am obsessed with my cape cod. cannot put it down.

this lisa souza petal yarn is like water running through your fingers. and the mother of pearl color is perfection for this design. if you left me a comment and i owe you an email, please forgive me. i cannot stop knitting.

cloudy saturday sky.

beautiful friday evening sunset.

N is for -

niddy noddy!

niddy noddy, niddy noddy
two heads, one body
here's one t'ain't one
here's two t'ain't two ...


my favorite niddy noddy is a bird's eye maple made by red barn farm.
i also have a maple niddy from norm hall, and a red oak noddy by rick reeves my hero.

unfortunately i'm not at home, so can't take photos of the last 2.

today's karma must have been very good. i wound a ball of lisa souza's petal in the mother of pearl colorway she dyed especially for me ;-)

fsm, i got the exact gauge in my first swatch attempt! even my row gauge was only one row too many, and with 45 rows per 4 inches, that ain't too shabby.


lisa and i brainstormed on this color just for alice st*rmore's cape cod, in the fisherman's knits book. thanks lisa!
this yarn is so sumptous words do not do it justice. in person, the colors are just like abalone, or mother of pearl. i am smitten.

land ho!

back on track with the big red sweater. changed the sleeve decreases to every 7th row for 12 decreases, then switched to every 6th row for the last few. an inch and a half of 1x1 rib, ez's sewn cast off, and on to sleeve number 2. fits tom perfectly.


glamor shot, pre-blocking. tomorrow the washie washie.


details- rosemary's medium sweater form the green mountain spinnery book. rowanspun aran color 973 gable 5 1/4 skeins, sadly discontinued. lantern moon circs size 8, size 5 for the rib.

fun quick except for all the frogging knit.

what's next? who knows? i wish i had some laceweight here to start the mystery shawl, but do not. could start the koigu oriental jacket, or the wrapped in tradition, or the jo sharp kingfisher sweater....

blown off course on sleeve island

tra la tra la, sailing away on sleeve number one, get to the end of the decreases, hmm, have about an inch and a half to go before knitting the cuff. hmm, take sweater outside and make tom try it on his sweaty body (yard work).



uh oh, a leetle bit too tight. frog frog. this is sounding familiar. i do love the rowanspun aran, but could live without reknitting every body part. this time i will do 2 extra rows before starting the decreases, then do the decreases every 7th row instead of every 6th row. earth shattering news, i know.

the 16" lantern moon rosewood circs got here lickety split, ordered them tues evening, they arrived on thirsday, thanks nice lady at the yarn bazaar!




last night we were going to have a boring dinner of costco rotisserie chicken and corn on the cob. then i spy dd in the kitchen, what is she making?


homemade tortillas from scratch! holy frijole, they looked fantastic! so we whipped out the beans (black and refried) cheese and salsa, and had a fiesta :-)


saturday south florida sky for sandy. i would like to personally kiss the feet of whoever invented air conditioning.

third time's the charm

of course i had to check out a few chicagoland yarn stores while on vacation. flying colors in clarendon hills is unfortunately going out of business, i managed to snag some discontinued rowan aranspun sh973, a lovely rich dark red with flecks of orange and blue. yum.



perfect for a simple pullover for tom. pattern is rosemary's middle sized sweater from the green mountain spinnery book. nice and plain, with just a simple cable running next to the armhole in the yoke.

swatchie swatchie with my new lantern moon rosewood circs size 7. nice.
cast on, knit about 10 inches, don't like the fabric i'm getting, too squinchy.

cast on again with size 8s. ah, much better fabric. knit up to the armhole 17 1/2 inches (measured his favorite sweaters, the pattern is longer). maybe meauring the width is a good idea, gah, 2 inches too narrow.

cast on again, third time's the charm. have the back yoke finished, started the front. love the 4 stitches to the inch, the knitting flies by.

hopefully the 16 inch lantern moons i tracked down will arrive in time for the sleevage.

M

mmmmmmmm

m is for museum- the art institute of chicago. what can i say? my hometown is chicago, but i hadn't been back in 25 years. the art institute was always my favorite of all the wonderful chicago museums, this time it totally blew me away! i had forgotten what a thrill it is to stand a foot away from a monet, or a renoir, or van gogh.

when i was a little girl, my dad would take us to a different museum, or conservatory (garfield park), or zoo (brookfield), nearly every sunday. what a gift to give to a child.

m is also for millenium park, we got to see the bean! very cool.

m is also for mihel- it was my favorite uncle's 90th birthday last weekend, hence the trip to chicago.

i love my uncle richard very much and was so happy to get to see him, and all my favorite cousins. my cousins were much more like sisters when i was growing up. omg, it was like i had just seen them yesterday, not 25 years ago, i love them dearly :-)

my uncle, richard mihel is amazing, at 90, he still takes care of his gorgeous garden, is a woodworker, and paints lovely watercolor landscapes.and he is sharp as a tack!

obligatory knitting content- am i the only sock knitter in the world not in love with trekking? finished the socks, but really wasn't crazy about knitting with it, too stringy feeling. maybe it was the colors, #100 ....

give me koigu or lisa souza sock! and i'm a happy camper ;-)