Instant gratification

Simple gifts
Originally uploaded by littlekidd

This month I've learned there's big fun to be had in knitting small things, especially when you make them for other people.

I can only take partial credit for this basketful. It's my work combined with the collected work of knitting friends. Our elementary school kids will "buy" these wee little ornaments at the school's annual holiday sale. Each kid brings in $5 to buy holiday presents for their family members. Everything in the store costs $1. We've got about 50 in the chute... need to make another 50 by mid-Dec.

The patterns come from all different places. The sweater pattern is from a collection of KnitPicks Christmas Ornaments. The Globes are from Handknit Holidays. The trees are my own pattern, one I'm using to teach friends to knit.

Oh and the gloves? They're my nod to the need to make something just a little bigger and more interesting to knit. Grove by Jared Flood. Beautiful pattern, but they came out a little too small for my man-hands. So, some lucky somebody in MY family will likely find these under the tree in a month or so.

Cat Bordhi's brain

Mobius Cowl
Originally uploaded by littlekidd

I've had Cat Bordhi's "A Second Treasury of Magical Knitting" for years, but it has taken until now for me to explore the whole mobius thing. My super-brainy brother introduced me to the concept of the Mobius Strip when I was a kid, but the notion of knitting one from the midline out in two directions at once? With right side and wrong side facing you at the same time? Well, that notion made my brain explode a little every time I thought about it.

I ran into Cat Bordhi in an elevator at a knitting conference once. (Well, the knitting conference was actually in a hotel. We never could have fit all those knitters into the elevator.) I had read that Cat Bordhi was as brainy as she is nice. She was my captive for four or five floors down as I gushed aloud about how much I loved her "New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One". After she got off on her floor, I noticed the hair on my arms was standing up, like there was some sort of excessive electrical current in the air in that little elevator box. I'm fully convinced it was the power of Cat Bordhi's brain.

I hadn't thought about that conversation again until just this week. From time to time people come in to Knit on Pearl looking for help with mobius projects. I decided mobius and I needed some quality time together, exploding brain be damned. I pulled out "2nd Treasury" and knit one of those little felted bowls. Score one big point for Cat Bordh's brain.

Then I remembered this lovely free Mobius Cowl pattern she wrote a few years back. I whipped it up in front of the TV last night with a skein of Noro IroI had lying around. Modified a little to account for bigger-than-called-for yarn, and the fact I only had one skein.

Score another one for Cat. Circular mobius knitting is pretty darn cool. How she figured it out is beyond me. But I'm starting to get my brain around how it works. And so far today, nothing has blown up.

Retreat

My Space.
Originally uploaded by littlekidd

Yesterday I tossed a bunch of plants and furniture into our newly-beglassed sunroom. Well, the sunroom had glass, but it was all streaky and leaky. We still thought it was pretty nice. But now... with the new glass... it's SPECTACULAR!

So, I have claimed squatter's rights, and made a little knitting hole there. The natural light is glorious.

I'm glad I made this lovely retreat yesterday, because I just missed out on another retreat in my beloved Pac NW. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (aka Yarn Harlot) and Tina Newton of Blue Moon Fiber Arts in Scappoose, Oregon, are putting on a little weekend shindig for a very small number of knitters in Nov. in Port Ludlow. They announced it on Thursday. I loved the idea but decided to sleep on the $1,000 cost for plane tix, hotel, conference fees, etc. By the time I was ready to commit yesterday afternoon -- a mere 24 hours later -- it was full. Waaaaaah!

I got a lovely "Dear Knitter..." e-mail gently breaking the news that I didn't make the cut, but that they'll do this again sometime. Next time I'll be ready to pounce, with credit card in-hand. Maybe I can convince them to come to Jackson Hole, and bring Nancy Bush up from SLC!

Warped

String along
Originally uploaded by littlekidd

We trekked down to Boulder, Colorado last week for a lovely visit with Jim's family.

Since we lived in Denver for 10 years, we also made arrangements to see countless old, great friends. It was a VERY busy week. We hiked, we ate, we took Zack climbing and to the drum store and spent a lot of time driving around to meet people.

We also spent a ton of time doing "mandatory retail therapy." Because we live in the sticks, we take advantage of rare opportunities to stock up at places like Coscto and Target and Nodrstrom and REI when we go to The Big City.

So, having spent an entire week enduring fun but tightly-scheduled schlepping, I was faced with the prospect of Not Enough Time Left.

I had had about an hour of personal discretionary time the entire week... and it did not fall during Regular Business Hours. Suddenly we were on our last day and, other than one emergency needle stop, I had not spent ANY quality time in any of the local yarn shops.

Grandma and Grandpa graciously agreed to shepherd Zack through an afternoon of fun, and I high-tailed it down to Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins..

I had been in this wonderful store once before looking for yarn. I admit, I didn't find it the friendliest place at the time. But I went back because all the way down from Jackson I'd been hatching a plot in my mind to explore spinning and weaving, and I knew they had the goods.

Well, I now understand that, for the folks at SS&S, knitting is wonderful fun. But spinning and weaving are their passions. The store is co- owned by one of the spinning world's Great Ones... Maggie Casey. My timid inquiry about which drop spindle might be right for a beginner led to a terrific 15 minute private primer from Maggie on how to draft and spin.

After that, Maggie hooked me in with one of her weaving folks, who hooked me up with this groovy loom. In a cool 45 minutes I had dropped a wad of cash at this place. No wonder they were so happy.

Now, since I have more yarn than I can possibly knit in a lifetime, I think this weaving thing is going to work out just fine. I confess I haven't had time to play with the drop spindle again yet, but I warped a skein of Noro Silk Garden Sock yarn and I'm going to use a skein of my own hand-dyed for the weft. (The red in the picture is just a dishtowel I put under the loom clamps so they wouldn't mar the table.) Pictures of progress forthcoming.

Pom-tastic cammo
Originally uploaded by littlekidd

This past weekend several friends and I spent a day learning to dye yarn. Before I left for this odyssey in color, I asked my son what color he might like for a hat. His reply: "Cammo. With a pom-pom."

This is KnitPicks bare merino bulky, pre-soaked with vinegar and then dyed using fiber-reactive dyes.

The dyeing was a gas, and easier than I thought. We spread out on tables all over my friend Christie's front lawn. She lives on the main drag in the little (and I mean LITTLE) town of Kelly, Wyoming. By the end of the day, we were surely the talk of the town.

Not knowing better, we didn't use combinations of yarn/dye to create very vibrant color. But we all had a great time experimenting. I have several other fairly subdued skeins in shades of blue and orange.

I loved the way the cammo skein turned out. Zack loves the hat, tho I don't expect any calls from the Pentagon requesting mass production.

TWO DAYS LATER:
When I showed Zack how to use the pom-pom maker he discovered his latent love of fiber creation. Not wanting him to burn through all my hand-dyed silk and cashmere to satisfy his crafty itch, I bought him a skein of Red Heart cammo yarn that he can shred to his delight. After making his first pom-pom with it, he announced that THIS pom-pom belongs on the hat I made him because, "No offense, Mom, but THIS yarn is really a much better cammo color than the hat." Red Heart vs. hand-dyed merino. You be the judge.

Love Hat Relationship

Braid & Bobble Hat
Originally uploaded by littlekidd

Hats come in handy where I live. So, I made another one. This was my travel project for our Spring Break trip to Washington, DC. Braid and Bobble Hat by Fiber Trends, knit on size 5 needles with Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran.

This pattern seemed an inordinate amount of work for a hat. Several cable patterns, all different numbers of rows, worked flat, then seamed. Seed stitch a-plenty in between. Stitches picked up along a selvedge for the crown. Along the opposite side, the cable is turned on the WS, and then that whole edge is flipped to the front and hemmed. Sheesh! Clever construction, but a little fussy!

The whole time I was working on this, during those afternoon rests from museum and monument hopping, I sort of loathed it. If I had been home I would have dropped it like a hot potato, but stuck in a hotel room with nary a yarn shop in sight, it was the only thing I had to knit. So I plodded along.

The thing is, now that it's done, I LOVE it. I love the way it fits. I love the softness of the yarn. I love the horizontal cable orientation. Two skeins barely made it. I used tails for the seam and hem, and had to skimp on the little top braid.

When I finished this hat last week it was 55 degrees and sunny. I didn't expect to get the chance to wear it until next winter. But lo and behold... winter is not done with us yet. I took this photo just a couple of minutes ago on the front porch. On Easter Sunday, I washed the car in a t-shirt in the driveway. Today, I had to scrape the windshield. I would be TOTALLY over the snow... that is, if I didn't have this great new hat to wear.

Race to beat the babies

Two By Two
Originally uploaded by littlekidd

I have six babies coming into friends' lives in the next few weeks. Two sets of twins, and two other friends who are just having one baby at a time.

So, while I've been looking longingly at my half finished "Must Have Cardigan," I've been knitting a flurry of tiny little sweaters and hats and booties.

These are for the twins. Baby Boleros and matching hats for the ones I know are girls. Knit with Cascade 220 Paints Superwash.

The white and tan hats are from One Skein, and the booties are from a wonderful book called "Knits from the Heart," by Kristin Spurkland. It's out of print, I think, but if you can lay your hands on a copy you won't be disappointed. The yarn is an organic cotton from Plymouth.

These are going in the mail today! Hopefully they will beat the babies. They're all due in May, but you know how twins are. Those mammas better get some sleep while they can!