Knittinggarden

The Princess turns 21 today.  She lives in Vegas, so I'm sure it wasn't hard to find something to do to celebrate!  The first legal trip into the casino happened after midnight last night.   I must sound like a broken record, but I can't believe my baby is all grown up. I met this tiny girl with all the black hair on a Monday morning in late January, 1991.  She grew into a beautiful little lady with huge brown eyes and gorgeous dark curls.  She was bright, funny, and opinionated from day one.  Our Mother-Daughter trips mostly involved shopping, but here's an adventure that I'll always remember.  The coming year will bring college graduation and possibly marriage.  We look forward to welcoming Prince Charming into the family and seeing what the next chapter will bring. We wish you health, happiness, and love in the coming days, months, and years.  You are our Princess and we love you immensely. ...

It doesn't take much to impress me, but look at the size of the lemon I picked off one of the trees in our complex today.  It's as big as my hand! The lemons and grapefruits are ripe and delicious, but the oranges are still sour.  I have trouble getting a good orange here; either they're dried out from last year, or not ripe yet.  My quest for the perfect orange from a tree continues... In other news, I finished spinning a pretty skein of yarn.  I had a batt from Butterfly Girl Designs that was merino, bamboo, and firestar that had been languishing in my fiber stash for quite awhile.  I brought some of my stash and a spinning wheel down here to the desert (can't live in a place without a selection of yarn and fiber, ya know) and started spinning this pretty batt the last time I was here.  It was only 3.2 ounces, so I wasn't sure how much yardage I'd get.  I didn't split it before starting, so I decided to just spin the whole thing and see...

but I really wanted to be home in Seattle today to see this We don't get snow every year and if we do, it doesn't usually amount to much.  Without anywhere important to go, I love being warm and dry and looking out as our big fir trees are covered with white. On the other hand, it's not too bad where I am now. News!  I finished the first knitted object of 2012.  DH managed to wear holes through his favorite bed socks, so I searched the stash for some heavy yarn and started another pair.  I just make a standard top down sock with a short cuff.  I found two skeins of Mission Falls 1824 wool, which I think is discontinued.  Each skein is only 85 yards, so I wasn't sure if I'd have enough.  Sure enough, I ran out right where I needed to start the toe, so I found some leftover Wollmeise Twin in the colorway Zenzi.  I held it doubled and made bright toes. Even though there's no snow here, we can still pretend that it's winter.

The great thing about knitting is that you can put something away for a few  weeks years, get it out and finish it, and no one knows the history.  I guess if it was some trendy pattern or fad of the moment it would be different, but in this case it isn't. On January 1, 2008, I cast on a sweater as part of a Knitalong with my then (and now sadly closed) LYS, Village Yarn and Tea.  We ordered a bunch of Peace Fleece yarn into the shop, everyone chose colors, and we started the Everyday Cardigan . I didn't get very far on my sweater.  At that time I was having trouble with my purling.  It was too loose so the stockinette fabric didn't look smooth, it had obvious lines of looser knitting in it.  I ripped it out and tried again using some type of combination knitting, but it still looked funny.  So into the plastic bag went my red yarn and the first page of the pattern. Lately I've been obsessed with sweater knitting, so I determined to get that yarn...

Hannah has been posting galleries of her patterns lately and I noticed the one for the Rocky Coast Cardigan yesterday.  She takes the Ravelry photos of the completed patterns and puts them on her blog .  If you scroll down towards the bottom, there I am in my red sweater!  Kind of fun!

I've finished a few things, started a few things, and still have a few things underway.  Here's the knitting that I've finished since the last post.  Maybe I'll get organized and post the spinning that I've done tomorrow. I last reported on the hat and booties made for my banker friend's new baby.  They were finished in time to give to him when he was just a couple of weeks old and I was happy to receive a photo of the baby wearing his new hat.  As the youngest of four boys (!) I thought it would be nice if he had a couple of items made just for him. I made a quick hat for a neighbor in the desert who was going home to the wilds of northern Canada for Christmas.  He saw me knitting one day and asked if I was making him a hat, so I did.  Sorry for the fuzzy photo; it wasn't stored on this computer and it fuzzed up when I imported it from Flickr or Ravelry.  You get the idea. I made some socks for my sister out of Madelinetosh Sock in t...

I've had a request for Thanksgiving photos, so here they are.  We had a lovely holiday with 19 family members and friends joining us for dinner.  We strung together three long tables so everyone would feel included. DH advises future SIL on proper method of setting up tables.   Big Bro and Little Sis enjoyThanksgiving eve. AR needs to learn how to smile better. Buddy's already looking for crumbs. Cool turkey centerpiece made from bread that AR found at a local bakery. Gram always closes her eyes. Apparently purple was the color of the day. Gram looks happy now. Good looking kids, huh? There's DH waaaay down there at the end. A fun bunch, great food, a wonderful gathering.  I'm thankful for family. The fun and games continue into the next day and a good time is had by all.

What is the world coming to?  I've actually used dpns for another project. Baby items just seem to be more manageable on short double points than on circulars for me, so hence the break in tradition.  Besides, it's good to be flexible, I think. I learned of a new baby the other day, and since we'll be meeting with his dad on Tuesday, I decided to whip up a hat and pair of socks.  I had some leftover Hazelknits Aritisan Sock in the Hometown Football colorway (Seattle Seahawks) and I thought this would be a good use for it.  It's fun to be able to do a quick project now and then and hopefully the set will be a welcome addition to the little one's wardrobe. I'll let a teddy bear try on the items when they're done, so you can see the result.

Congratulations, you two.  We look forward to welcoming the Prince into the family.

One thing I miss when I'm in the desert is the variation in colors and textures that we have in the Northwest.  I returned to Seattle early enough in November to see the end of the fall colors.  These last few days have been windy and rainy, so now the leaves are pretty much gone.  I enjoyed them immensely while they lasted. One thing I don't enjoy is the aftermath of the leaves from the large wisteria, which continue to fall for seemingly forever and insist on blowing into my kitchen. Oh well, it could be worse.

I have to soak up as much of these colors and the amazing sunshine, for soon I will be back in the land of drizzle.

A month or so ago, I read about a new pattern book that was available for pre-order.  It was called Coastal Knits and is a collaboration between Hannah Fettig and Alana Dakos .  I listen to Alana's podcast, Never Not Knitting, and have planned to make Hannah's Featherweight Cardigan for some time.  Somewhat unusually for me, I went to the website, looked at the information on this new book, and immediately ordered it.  The pre-order came with advance copies of two patterns, and discount codes for each of the designer's websites.  The pattern I liked immediately was the Rocky Coast Cardigan . A KAL started on Ravelry in the Coastal Knits group almost immediately.  This was in the first part of September, and the book wasn't scheduled to ship until October 15th.  I joined up, searched the stash for some appropriate yarn, and plunged ahead.  I have a bunch of red Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran yarn that I've been waiting to use.  It tried to b...

I flew into Palm Desert on Sunday to join DH for a few weeks.  We had had a couple of really nice days at home (60 F!) but I was looking forward to a little bit more sunshine.  Well, I got my wish and it looks like this is the warmest part of the country at the moment.  Yesterday was 103, today will be the same, then we'll start to cool off into the upper 90s.  Not exactly what I was expecting, but who am I to complain?  At this time of year the sun goes down early and the nights cool off so it's much nicer than it was here in August or early September.  Knitting on small projects by the pool was never better! I had to fly in via San Francisco, which is always dicey due to possible weather issues.  True enough, our flight was scheduled to be delayed due to cloud cover, then suddenly put back on track when the weather cleared.  I saw a cool shadow of the plane in the bay as we approached. I didn't have to change planes as we were scheduled ...