Between my attempts to start another shawl in lace weight yarn, and my somewhat more successful venture to find and start another afghan for Myria, this weekend was mostly about crochet.

I got nowhere with the laceweight and I tried both knitting amd crocheting. The best I could come up with was this:

This is a motif from a 1953 Pineapple tablecloth pattern that I thought might work up nicely for a shawl.  This was worked n lace-weight yarn with a size F (3.75mm) hook.  It has possibilities, so it goes on the short list :)

Myria and I have been casually discussing another afghan for her.  She uses this one (scroll down) frequently but as it’s very heavy, she thinks she might like an occassional alternative that is somewhat lighter and more suitable for warmer weather.  Well, I’m game as I’ve got lots more acrylic stash that I either need to use or give away.

This was first.  I have been eyeing this square for a while and have liked its looks.  This is Chris Simon’s Supernova.  In TLC Heathers (bulky weight, I’d say) with a size I (5.50mm) hook, this took almost 2 hours to produce. Of course the first working through a new pattern always takes the most time and the thing is 13” square!  My grandfather might have observed that it was so big, it would only take four of them to make a dozen :).  I like this square; it has a nice clean look and I will probably use it in the future.  It does have, unfortunately, a tendency to get wavy on the sides which I think means the center is too small for the sides, or the sides are too big realtive to the center.  I believe this could be overcome by blocking but I also suspect that a little finagling with the stitch numbers might help too.  Further experimentation is definitely in order here :)





This was next and comes from this Antique Medallions pattern which I’ve had bookmarked forever.  Of course in the experimental sample, I just did everything all in one color just to see how the square worked up, how involved it was and how it looked when it was done.  While I’m not usually much of a color worker, it’s much less of an issue with crochet than with knitting as it’s much simpler and easier to work ends in as you go along.  And this motif has the added benefit of being crocheted to previous motifs as it is worked so there is no sewing up at the end either.  Very convenient, that :) This certainly invited exploration, so…





Myria was pleased with the look of this and I think it’s pretty nifty too.  The motifs are fast and simple and the result is quite attractive and stash consuming :)

I happened to notice a vial of beads that has been sitting on the coffee table for weeks now.  I had gotten them out to try using with something, but it didn’t work out and so the beads sat there.  They caught my eye the other day, for some reason, and made me think of the Buttered Toast yarn, so I fetched it out and sat it next to the beads…

Toast and Honey?

I have quite a busy couple of weeks coming up, so The Yarnpath, The Dye Pot and Knitting Chatter are going on vacation for the rest of August.  I hope the rest of all your summers is very fine indeed and I’ll see you again after Labor Day!

I am a bit rushed this morning, so the post will be late - either this afternoon or tomorrow morning.  In the mean time, there is a new post (another new post) at The Dye Pot called Oasis Sunset.

Enjoy :)

Mary had a little lamb
And they both came to Chatters
While Mary knit, the lamb discoursed
On weighty, profound matters.

“It seems to me,” the lamb declared,
In tones both dark and deep,
“If Mary wants to wear my wool,
She’d best been born a sheep!”

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There’s a new addition to The Dye Pot today.  An experiment with some yarn I didn’t like the color of turned out better than I thought - always a pleasant thing!  It’s called Purple Haze.

Myria, who is nine years younger than me wanted to call it Purple Rain.  Generational differences - heheh…

I finished reading a couple of books over the last week.  Neither is particularly new, but both were much made of so I thought I’d pass along my thoughts.

The first was Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow about a Jesuit priest who becomes part of an expedition to another planet where life has been discovered.  It is worth reading simply because Russell’s characters are so well drawn; her affection for them is very clear.  As an inquiry into the nature of the experience of God, I’m afraid it falls flat.  It’s science fiction underpinnings are totally unnecessary, it’s climax late and hurried and its denouement unsatisfactory.  However, there is a sequel available (which I have not yet read) called The Children of God.  I fervently wish that authors who are writing sequenced novels would wrap up one story well, instead of leaving it hanging to tempt the reader to buy the second book.  For all her very evident talent in creating characters, Russell’s story-telling leaves much to be desired.

The second was Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.  There isn’t much to this story and it is a very fast read.  It’s success, I’m guessing, comes from the novelty of the first-person narrator who is an autistic teenager.  Some of his thoughts about what is happening and what he thinks is going on are interesting and, as Haddon once worked with disabled young people, I assume reasonably accurate.  In the end, the story itself is fairly simple and straight-forward but it is curiously distant, as though Christopher (the narrator) has managed to partly wrap us into his protective layers as well.

I guess it’s fair to say that I didn’t get either of these novels - not as they were intended to be gotten, anyway :) I am a terrible reader of modern “good” fiction and for this reason, seldom indulge in it.  I usually don’t get it and when I do, I generally don’t understand why it has been so popular (The DaVinci Code comes to mind).  The only unequivocal recommendation I can make about either of the above novels is that the characterization is very good in both of them.  I have Snow Falling on Cedars waiting in the wings.  I’m almost afraid to start it :)

Of course there are more socks…

...well, sock.  For now, there’s only the one, but I will get the mate made today or tomorrow.  This is (again) the Come Sail Away yarn and I’m loving the way the colors work up.  Some times they change within a couple of stitches; sometimes they go for a round-and-a-half before switching over.  I do think if the colors were more intense or less part of the same palette, the effect would be ugly and visually dissonant.  But as they are variations on a single theme, I think the overall appearance is quite pleasing.

And finally, just because they have been so good this year, juicy and intensely flavored, and because this one looked so beautiful about 10 minutes after it was taken from the refrigerator…

...Still Life with Condensation!

Happy Wednesday :)

Note: The leaf chart for the Dana Victoria pattern has an error.  The middle row should have five boxes representing five knit stitches, not three.  For those of you who have already printed the pattern out, you could just draw the boxes on either end of the row.  The written instructions are correct.  My apologies for any inconvenience.

The endless mohair blanket is about half done...I think :) There are three completed strips which total about 25 inches in width and about 66 inches in length.  Here it is, complete with bookcase and Jade-tail :)

As to how done the blanket actually is, well, that depends.  Another three strips roughly the same size as the ones I’ve already got will give me an approximate width of 50”.  That should be fine but if there’s enough yarn, I may make it wider - just to have something really oversized and splendid :) The length is fine.  I also have to decide how to join these pieces.  Right now I’m thinking crochet would be the most sturdy and I’ve got enough of a black, alpaca lace-weight (which would be used doubled) to do the job.  I’m thinking the black would set off the colors so that the whole would look something like a piece of stained glass.  But I’m not there yet and everything is still subject to change at this point.

I am liking how the colors are going together.  I feel I really lucked out with these assorted balls of mohair and part of the fun is switching colors randomly to see what happens. 

The fourth panel has commenced and may be a bit more regular in color spacing than the others.  It starts with a very deep eggplant, moves to fuchsia and may incorporate some orange before going back to fuchsia and ending with the eggplant again. 





Regularity hasn’t been a key theme so far however, and I’m almost a little afraid that a panel with regular color changes will throw everything off.  On the other hand, I also know that my mind can present some astonishing nonsense before I’ve had my coffee, so I’ll play it by ear - eye?

The weather was heavenly this weekend, cool (relatively speaking) and much dryer.  It was quite entertaining to watch the little wild things (birds and squirrels, mostly) outside the kitchen window cavorting and playing.  They clearly appreciated the change too.  So did our cats; Jade commenced trying to get into my lap again at every opportunity (she hates that I knit!) and Goldie finally came out from under the kitchen table (a cool spot).  In fact, they were chasing each other around like kittens Saturday night!

There were more socks this weekend too :) These were done with Cascade 220 on size 6 needles.  They’re a variation on the The Mystery of 12s; the ribbing and the cuff are both a bit longer and I added a couple of bands of seed stitch to the cuff (8 rounds ribbing, 3 rounds stockinette, 3 round seed, 3 rounds stockinette, 3 round seed, 3 rounds stockinette) which looks kind of funky. 

The Cascade knits up into a nice, thick sock and it was quite a different experience working it on size 6 needles, compared to the size 9 needles I used for this same yarn for Dragon Wings.

Welcome to a new week in Wonderland :)

My current list of projects are all things you know about and are probably bored silly with.  So I thought I’d take you on a bizarre little tour of my kitchen :) Are you afraid yet?  MWA-HAHAHAHAHAH....

Ahem…

This is my diet journal.  Though I had never used one before for any previous diet, this has been a real help to me.  I also think it helps me to stay honest - you know - by recording that little piece of chocolate (dark chocolate, low-sugar, of course!) instead of just blowing it off by letting myself think: It’s just a little piece; it doesn’t really count.  So I use it to record calories.  And because it amuses me, I also save fruit and vegetable stickers which, otherwise, annoy the crap out of me.  Have you ever tried to take the sticker off a tomato without damaging the skin?  I swear it can’t be done!

The stickers cover a lot of ground - bananas, cantaloupe, peaches, apricots, lemons, grapefruit and watermelon.  Also tomatoes, kiwi fruit, oranges and strawberries.  They aren’t as interesting as the old fruit and vegetable labels.  In fact many of them have no information on them at all besides the distributor’s name and a code number.  However, occasionally one comes along like the watermelon sticker at the bottom of the right-hand page.  The beautiful, playfully seductive sun is just perfect!  And the watermelon was pretty good too!  The Joraik sticker about half way down on the left-hand side - I brought that one home with me from my last cruise, from a Brazilian banana.

Another big help on the diet front has been this soup:

This stuff is awesome and we could both eat it until it comes out our ears.  We don’t though :) The principal flavor is of lemongrass which I understand is a commonly used flavor in Thai cooking.  I would have been tempted to dismiss this as a tasty, but not particularly authentic soup except for one thing.  I had some Lemongrass soup not too long ago in a pretty fancy Oriental-themed restaurant.  Except for the fact that it had shrimp in it (big ones!) the taste was identical to my little packaged soup here.  I do have to watch the sodium on this one but let me tell you - a bowl of this soup and a medium sized one of these (without the chicken, probably) makes a hell of a nice lunch that comes in at around 350 calories.

We recently found these things and decided to give them a try…

They are little, foam-lined paper bags designed to hold your soft drink (and beer too, I guess) and keep it cold.  The cold thing is a nice theory but it doesn’t really work out that well.  However these are wonderful at keeping the condensation contained so that it doesn’t get all over your furniture, your hands, in your computer keyboard, etc.  They came three-in-a-package and won’t last past the summer.  And that will be fine as I won’t need them after that :)

The last little diet aid I wanted to mention were these things.

The McCormick stuff is probably self-explanatory.  They are Italian herbs on the left and Peppercorn Medley on the right.  Both come in grinder bottles so they are easy to use.  I was a little nervous about the Italian herbs because the label indicates a quantity of sea salt in the mix and I generally try to avoid adding more salt to my food than is already there.  However, I went to McCormick’s site this morning to look up the nutritional information.  As it’s a seasoning and not an actual food, there’s no information on the bottle - and even if there were, it would have to be so small in order to fit on the label, you wouldn’t be able to read it anyway!  Turns out there’s only 15mg of sodium per 1/4 tsp serving of seasoning.  I can certainly live with that :)

The Peppercorn medley is interesting and has the usual blend of white, black, green and pink peppercorns (yes, I know the pink ones aren’t really pepper) but adds allspice and coriander to the mix.  At first I didn’t care for it much - mostly because I thought I was buying a standard peppercorn mix and was surprised by the other spices.  But I kept trying it and discovered that it works very, very well with mild foods like chicken.  I also use it in chicken soup, when Myria makes that.  It turns out to be useful after all, though I usually want unmixed pepper on most things.

The Mongolian Fire Oil is very interesting.  I have to tell you, I think I bought it as much for the romance of the name as for the product itself - which turns out to be pretty darn good :) It’s a base of primarily cottonseed oil with sesame oil, chili pepper, capsicum, onion, garlic and a couple of other assorted seasonings used as flavorings.  The color is this lovely clear red-orange which, I imagine, comes from the chili peppers since there are no artificial colors or flavors (in fact nothing but the oils and the spices) in the ingredients list.  You don’t use much of this - just a few drops - but it provides a nice kick to bland foods.  It also helps with the ingestion of green beans which are ubiquitous in frozen, low-cal dinners (such as Healthy Choice or Lean Cuisine) but which I don’t care for much :)

Two more things, having nothing whatever to do with food or dieting, just to round out this weird concatenation.  For those of you who might be familiar with the on-line game Guild Wars, we finally mastered the Thirsty River mission yesterday morning after three weeks of tailoring skills, researching builds and procedures, and generally getting our asses handed to us.  Boo-yeah!  We prodded buttock!

Also, we saw a movie a couple of nights ago - a Russian film called Nightwatch.  It is an urban vampire, good vs. evil kind of thing which posits an alternate universe where the good guys and the bad guys, realizing that they are equally matched (and therefore no one can win), call a halt to their eternal warring and declare a truce.  Of course, because there exists a balance of power, something will come along to disrupt it and therein lies the story.  It’s...visually somewhat crude, but that very crudity makes for a powerful presentation.  The plotting is spotty, but trackable, and there are more loose ends than I’d like.  And yet… It was absorbing and engaging none the less.  If this is your kind of story (Bron - are you listening?), this film might appeal to you.

Have a great weekend, all!