I thought I would try some fingerless mitts yesterday, so I got out some yarn, pulled up Knitty’s Voodoo pattern and gave it a shot…

Of course I couldn’t leave things alone so I twisted the K2s.  I don’t think this looks real good though.  My next attempt will be to make regular 4-stitch cables with P2s between them.  Not exactly the K2, P2 ribbing the pattern recommends, but I think it will work.

The yarn is Classic Elite Follies and aside of being slightly splitty (it’s very loosely twisted), it’s really lovely stuff.  Wool, Rayon and Alpaca and it’s very soft and will be, I believe, very warm.  You may recall that I got a bunch of this stuff free sometime ago because it was all done up in tiny sample hanks.

There’s only about 20 yards per skein but I discovered, last night, that it’s Russian joinable (first time I’ve tried a Russian join) and, despite the rayon content, easily spit spliceable as well.  Whatever gets made out of this yarn is going to be very, very nice.  The orchid got chosen for this project because there are only a few hanks of it - enough for a pair of mitts but not enough for much of anything else.

I’m also going to try, this weekend, to figure out a cable pattern to correspond with the mosaic pattern on the bottom of the poncho (see yesterday’s post).  I dug out my copy of Elsebeth Lavold’s Viking Patterns for Knitting last night to research the method and I think I want to give it a try!  Stay tuned :)

I have been enjoying fall this year - so much glorious color around!

That’s my Asian pear there in the back on the far right.  I didn’t want to put it in the fridge and forget about it, so it went on the table to be part of the display until I get to it in a couple of days.  If you’ve never had one of these things, I strongly encourage you to try them.  They’re sweet, crispy and juicy and taste something like a cross between a Bartlett pear and a Golden Delicious apple.  Unbelievably yummy.  They’re also, often, massive - so get together with a friend and share one :)





Happy Halloween everyone!  Have a great weekend!

I’ve been having a tired, cranky, coming-down-with-something week and haven’t gotten much done.  I’m always afraid to pick up my knitting under these circumstances lest I damage things beyond tink, beyond frog pond, beyond repair.  I did work a bit on the poncho on the theory that even with minimal attention, it was too simple to screw up too badly...at least once the border’s done:)

I’m hoping to get some more done on it today or over the weekend.  I’m kind of also hoping some other little project will present itself.  I want to do something but I can’t think what.  I sat up until 1:00 AM looking through books and magazines, hoping for inspiration but, alas…

Myria has been after me for some time to share this with you.  It kept slipping my mind because I made it for her long before I started blogging - or even knitting.

I made this for her a few years ago from a library book of patterns taken from McCall’s magazine.  As it happens, this pattern (Fan Pattern Shawl) is also available on-line.  The original was intended to be crocheted with thread and a no.1 steel hook.  I used worsted weight yarn and a G hook.  It’s about 75” wide and about 40” deep and Myria looks absolutely lovely in it.  It’s not difficult to do either; I worked on while watching old Rockford Files (I have always had a thing for James Garner - he may be a one trick pony, but it’s a good trick and nobody does it better) episodes and I don’t remember that it took very long to complete.  Of course if you opt for the steel hook and thread version, I expect it would take a bit longer :)





Jade is liking the lowering autumn sun.  It pours in the living room windows all day and she basks like a queen.  For all I know, that’s exactly what she thinks :) The last few days she’s been a little purring machine and seems really to have settled in and decided this is home.  Of course she has a propensity for waking us up (or trying to) when she decides she wants breakfast.  We sometimes refer to her as our little, black wake-up call and we’ve toyed with the idea of re-naming her “Apnea”.

Hang in folks.  It may not be Friday, but you can see it from here!

Star Trek: Forever

I have lately been wandering around the web wondering about entertainment possibilities.  It seemed reasonable that given high-speed connections and streaming audio-video, that there would be something out there.  And there is - lots of somethings :)

Smart Digital Television offers hundreds of web accessible TV stations from all over the world.  Categorization is sketchy so you’ll have to try things and see what happens.  The largest part of these offerings are news or public access but there are some that offer other types of programming.  Real Player and Windows Media are required for viewing.

What I didn’t expect to find, was this, Star Trek: New Voyages, or this, Star Trek: Hidden Frontier .  Both of these are new shows, produced for the web and released free for the entertainment of Star Trek lovers.  Neither of these is streaming media; they are composed of download-able files that you can then view on your computer.  New Voyages uses Windows Media and Hidden Frontier uses QuickTime.

I have been a Star Trek fan but I’ve never been rabid about it.  I was 12 years old when the original series debuted and Friday nights with The Wild, Wild West followed by Star Trek set my adolescent heart (and other things) all a-flutter.  I lived for Friday night!  I was disappointed when the series ended though even I knew it had gotten pretty silly by then.  But I was agog and delighted when Star Trek: The Next Generation came along in 1987.  Sadly, I never got Deep Space Nine and only occasionally joined Voyager on its journey home.  I had some hope for Enterprise, partly because I’m quite fond of Scott Bakula, but gave it up after the second year.  Never been to a con, never bought an action figure.  A pathetic excuse for a fan :)

So I wasn’t looking for Star Trek in particular.  I just stumbled over it.

New Voyages picks up where the original series left off - in the fourth year of the 5 year mission.  The original characters are intact though the actors are, necessarily, different.  It’s the more recent of the two projects mentioned above, having gotten underway in 2003.  Two episodes have been completed and are available for download.  There are several mirror sites listed; mirror 7 has both the first and second episodes as well as trailers.  Most of the others only carry the second.

I haven’t seen the premiere episode yet, only the second one, “In Harm’s Way”.  I have to tell you, I was surprised.  First, this isn’t a cheapo production.  Oh there are things that could be better - the fight scenes are ludicrous.  Then again, they often were in the original series as well.  The story is pretty good and faithful to the canon of the original series.  The acting is adequate - no better or worse than the original and the special effects are better by orders of magnitude.  But even more surprising, and entertaining, were the appearances of these people (this is incorporated as a non-profit organization, therefore a non-paying gig):

From left to right they are William Windom, Malachi Throne and Barbara Luna.  This may not be a network production, but it’s a long ways from amateur hour!

Hidden Frontier is produced in LA and is also done for love rather than financial remuneration.  I have only seen the first episode but there are a lot more to go as this web series in in its 5th season (35 episodes).  I won’t comment much on this one because it is a large body of work of which I have only seen the first and smallest part.

This series’ connection is to the Next Generation film Insurrection and uses the setting of the Briar Patch.  The focus is on the starship Excelsior and its home base, Deep Space 12.

There are also other things in production and at least one other short film out there (Starship Exeter, which I haven’t seen).  The New Voyages site has links to most of this.

Okay, confession time.  I can be a real snob sometimes.  I don’t mean to be but sometimes my mouth gets in front of my brain and it oozes out anyways.  If I had been told about these web series, rather than stumbling across them myself, I would have hooted at the very idea and suggested that all involved needed to go out and get lives. 

But you know what?  They already have lives and are sharing their passion for something they love with the world.  In that sense, it’s not unlike a knitting blog, is it?

And it’s fun :)

I was sitting in my chair when Jade jumped up on the left arm.  As you probably recall, when Jade came to us she was rather overweight.  We’ve been trying to help her drop a little tonnage and there’s been some success.  But she’s still a tubby little thing, so when she popped up Saturday morning, I said, “Hello plump rump!”

“Hewwo?”

I stared at the cat for a second, trying to sort things out.  Finally it occurred to me to look around.  There was Myria, snickering into her cereal bowl.  I tell you, that girl just cracks me up :)

Okay, bad news first.

Well, I guess it’s not really bad news, just disappointing news.  The Landscape shawl isn’t big enough to be a landscape - more like a back yard.  It finished at about 56” wide and 30” long.  The pattern indicates a finished length of 40” and width of up to 70”, depending on the bind off.  This is mostly my responsibiity for several reasons.  First, I used a size 10 needle with worsted weight yarn - I don’t have a 10.5 circular and I wanted to see how this went before investing in one.  I did not indulge in the suggested loose bind-off because I was afraid that would make the top edge look sloppy.  Also, I am not petite.  I’m not even medium so this would probably work better on a smaller woman.  And I didn’t block it because I doubt the ability of Woolease to block out even reasonably well.  If I’d been looking for a shoulder shawl, this would be a perfect candidate as it goes over the shoulders and down the back, tying neatly in front to stay in place and out of the way.  But I was looking for something considerably bigger than a shoulder shawl.  So now I know :)

Next time I’ll follow the sport weight “recipe” if I’m making it up in worsted weight.  And I’ll do something besides a YO for increases - way too many eyelets.

The pattern is clear and easy to follow with no mistakes that I could tell.  The finished fabric of the shawl is just gorgeous with the garter, seed, stockinette, moss and reverse stockinette sections; it’s as rich feeling to the hand as it is rich looking to the eye.

So, anyone know a munchkin who needs a shawl?

In other news…

I’m beginning to think about how I’m going to sort these when I’m finished making the necessary number of squares.  I’m thinking I’ll use 8 categories: Violet/Blue (dark and light), Green/Blue (dark and light), Red/Purple (dark and light) and Other (dark and light).  Once I see what I have to play with, out comes the trusty graph paper and the colored pencils and we start putting the puzzle together :) Way fun in an unstructured, let’s-see-what-we-get kind of way.  I highly recommend it - letting the colors tell you how they want to be arranged - it’s exhilarating!





The cats were definitely playing this morning.  Goldie is sitting in front of the hall closet and Jade is just around the corner sitting in the hall just in front of the kitchen.  Goldie gave me a look when he saw me getting ready to take his picture.  Kind of a “Not now Ma, I’m busy” kind of look.  I checked around the corner and when I saw Jade, also alert and at attention, I knew I had interrupted something.  So I snapped my picture and backed out of their game as quickly as I could.  Sure enough, a few minutes later, they were snaking paws around the corner at each other and (eventually) chasing each other around the apartment.  Boogety, boogety!

We finished Prince of Persia and all I can say is that if you have any gaming tendencies at all - don’t miss this one.  It’s only flaw (if it has one) is that it’s a bit short.  Otherwise for sheer involvement, reasonable story, unbelievably beautiful graphics and just a really good time - you really want to play this game!

That whimsy I mentioned yesterday?  This isn’t what I had imagined…

I had thought the dark red and gold of the Harry Potter scarves might make an amusing, insouciant pair of Gryffindor slippers but things didn’t quite work out that way.  The slipper is - surprisingly - too big, lumpen looking and just not cute at all.  Poop.





As you can see, this is a standard, “grandma” style slipper.  The edging and the laces are crocheted.  I don’t know what I was thinking - that it would be an impromptu flight of fancy I guess, that would give me a little break before finishing the Landscape shawl and, perhaps, something useful to boot.

Well, maybe it still can be useful:

Then again, maybe not :) Oh well…

While we were out yesterday, I noticed a curious thing whilst rummaging through the crochet hooks at Wal Mart.  A size 00 steel hook is the same size as a size E aluminum hook.  Aside of the materials and the fact that the E hook is longer, does anyone know why there’s this overlap?  I think I would prefer working with the steel hook, everything else being equal.  I’m a fairly aggressive crocheter and the E aluminum hook feels much flimsier.  Eh, not a world beater of a question - just curious.

I stopped into A. C. Moore yesterday just to see what they had.  They had all kinds of novelty yarn - mostly Katia and Gedifra - and most of it $6.99 or better per ball and some of it up to $12.99.  And, forgive me, most of it was unattractive.  Some of the most expensive stuff looked as though it was being sold on an aged, pre-pilled basis.  Hunh?  Why would I want to pay that kind of money for something that looks as though it had been treated badly for 20 years?

On the other hand, they had Paton’s classic wool at a reasonable price ($5? $6?) which didn’t seem too bad for a 100 gram ball (about 220 yards) though the color selection was very earthy - I didn’t see any clear or bright tones.  They also had Arucania Nature Wool for about $8 a hank - also 100 gram put ups.  Now that stuff looks really nice and I think I’ll probably want to try it at some point :)

In my area, A. C. Moore has the best selection of needles.  I haven’t been in Michael’s for a while but their needle selection was always pretty paltry - no double points of any kind, for example.  ACM has lots and LOTS of needles in almost every material, length and style you can imagine.  I need to pick up some size 4 double points to make my Dad’s socks with so I’ll probably do that this weekend sometime.  Yes, ACM had them, but I wanted to check the new Michael’s near me to see if it’s any better than the “older” ones I had been going to.

Anyway, time for me to stop babbling.  Hope you all have wonderful and restful weekends!

And we’re off!!  Early appointment and lots and lots of errands to run - pout.  I’m hoping that tomorrow I have a shot at something like a peaceful day.  Knitting anyone?

I started a little project last night, but as much as I wanted to finish enough of it to show you, I couldn’t keep my eyes open.  This one is just pure whimsy - but I’m having fun :)

I made the mistake of trying to pick Jade up last night (Hey there gorgeous - wanna come up and see my mouse collection?) and she was angry with me all night.  God help me, it’s mean I know, but there’s something vastly amusing about a pissed kitty :)

Tomorrow!

It absolutely poured down rain here yesterday - real raw and chilly.  This doesn’t have much to do with anything except that I went wandering yesterday afternoon.  I had three stops I wanted to make and at every place, was able to get a parking space right in front of the door to each establishment.  Mill?  Across the street from the door.  Trader Joe’s?  The best parking space that wasn’t handicapped.  Supermarket?  The same.  It seemed as though someone (cue Twilight Zone music) intended me to hit each of those places yesterday and was making sure things were convenient.  Parking luck may be a small thing over all, but I’ll take it :)

The mill was very kind to me - that was my major reason for going out and I wasn’t disappointed.  If I’d waited until today - as I was tempted to do because of the weather - I probably would have been out of luck.

This is Bucilla Melody and it’s probably 20 years old.  I can’t imagine where it’s been stashed all this time but someone found it and put it in the $1 bin - 14 balls of it.  It’s 50% mohair and 50% acrylic and the color is a light periwinkle.  It feels really nice and will probably work up well on any size needle from 7 to 11.  The tag says that it’s washable, but I don’t think I’m going to believe it.  Ellen Upp (of The Fifth Stitch - every kind of sock yarn under the sun!) wrote me that she carried it in the 70s (at $2.99/ball) and made a sweater with it on size 7 needles.  It has about 100 yds per ball and that she doesn’t believe in its washability either.  She also said the sweater is still going strong and still looks nice! 

Some of what I have is just the tiniest bit dusty, but is otherwise in fine shape.  I’m seriously thinking about trying Sarah Bradberry’s Feather and Fan Comfort Shawl with it.  I’m not ready to start another shawl just this minute, but when the time comes… Of course no decision need be made just yet.  I want to pile this stuff into a big, clear bowl and use it as a centerpiece, it’s so pretty!

And there was this:

The color is called “Delta Pink” - interesting because CE doesn’t generally bother to name their colors - just assigns ‘em a number code.  This is a DK weight cotton and the color is so saturated, it practically glows!  There were 8 hanks of this in two or three lot numbers.  Frankly, I doubt this will be a problem - especially after a couple of washings :) I’m thinking something lacy with this - at least right now, that’s what I’m thinking.  God knows that could (and probably will) change many times :) Decisive?  Who me?  The mill also had tons of this Flash cotton in a marled turquoise/olive green which, frankly, bit (my opinion only).  I’m sure it will be a wonderful find for someone though :)

Sadly, the huge pile of the fugly colored Waterspun was entirely gone.  I had hoped to get a bit of that for slippers for Myria and me and for socks for Dad.  Eh, something else will be along :)

Prince of Persia continues to be awesome.  My stomach muscles are getting a tremendous workout, clenching as the prince jumps out over hundred foot chasms reaching for a ledge to stand on or inch across or a pole to swing from.  My stomach apparently thinks there’s a real person in real danger there and nothing I say convinces it otherwise.  I did notice last night that the library (this is ancient Persia, remember) was full of bound books instead of scrolls :)

The kids continue to make progress…

...though Goldie is obviously bored with it all :)

Happy hump day!