Random Wednesday

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Originally uploaded by knitswithasilentk

This is a photo from the spring, when our CSA was just beginning. I think we have one month left and we're winding down, as we began, with hard squashes. Remind me to take a photo of the latest on, a trombono or something. It looks like what it sounds like.

Last night we had squash and bacon risotto, so not unlike this, only it was topped with seared duck breast. Yum! It was precipitated by TLD's grabbing a small pumpkin-shaped squash from the farm, and trying to take a bite out of it. He managed to injure it, hence we decided to cook it ASAP.

Bring on the randomness:

• Photo coasters from Shutterfly are a great holiday gift. I gave them to my in-laws and my mom last year for Christmas, and I plan to continue (with some for me this time). They look great, they're small, and you can pass them around and not mind if they get fingerprints on them. And they're great for little hands to play with.


• I watched the movie Milk a few weeks ago. I'm still thrilling in the memory of watching it. The bonus features included some footage of them re-enacting the scenes in San Francisco, with emotional people who were there at the time. What a moving film, about persistently fighting for human rights. And Sean Penn is an incredible actor.


• Last year, I made TLD's Christmas stocking. I cast on on October 21 and finished on Christmas Eve. This year, I am planning to make two stockings, for each of TLD's cousins. I cast on one of them on October 22. Let's hope I can knit twice as fast this year.


• I did download photos off the camera last night. But didn't get a chance to upload them to Flickr, so no FO blog entries yet. Soon. I do need to upload photos so I can order coasters before the sale ends. See the first item.


• I did manage to finish a tiny 8x11 "blanket" for Kathy B. She said smaller than 9x13 was okay. I might have misestimated and not made a swatch ahead. You still have time to send one and be entered into her contest! If you can get it in the mail by tomorrow, I bet it'll get there in time.

Happy Wednesday!

Coveting

No photo - sorry, no time for uploading these days. I'll so have so much to blog when I do get them uploaded!

I just wanted to show you something I picked up on from Mim's blog: Romi's pin and knitting kit club. I'm so coveting this. Not that I ever get to finish lace projects. But I do love Romi's designs and think this is such a great idea!

FO: Dish Rag Tag dishcloth

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Originally uploaded by knitswithasilentk

This year's Dish Rag Tag required you to do a specific design. It turned out to be a checkerboard in basketweave, so easy to memorize and a great cloth! Also, since we switched to the Priority Mail Small Box, it only fit one ball of yarn, so you didn't have a choice in yarn. Here is mine, ready to be sent to my teammate. Sorry for the poor photo - I forgot my camera and had to use my phone. Couldn't delay mailing it for lack of a camera!

In the foreground are some sheep soaps and an alpaca finger puppet. My next teammate was April (TX) and she reported that her son made off with the puppet. I had trouble parting with it myself.

Pattern: Official Pattern of Dishrag Tag: The Sequel (.pdf)
Yarn: Lily Sugar 'n Cream, in a gorgeous dark brown/tan/white colorway. Coffee and cream...mmm...
Needle: Size 7, Knit Picks Options.

Our team, the Dishrag Divas, is almost done!

I've decided to make a little NICU blanket for Kathy using the Son of Dish Rag Tag official pattern, expanding the middle to 12 squares and going until it's the right length. I have some Lion Wool-ease in sportweight that should make a nice little blankie. It's up next for TV knitting....

PSA: Blankets for Preemies drive

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Originally uploaded by knitswithasilentk

KathyB over at Irisheyes knitting is collecting blankets for the NICU (Neonatal intensive care unit) where she works. Make a blanket no bigger than a cookie sheet (c'mon people, that's like 2 dishcloths) and send it to her by Nov. 1, All Saints Day. Everyone who sends one will be entered in a drawing.

Yarn must be washable. Blanket must be no larger than a cookie sheet (can even be smaller).

[edited to add: I stand corrected. KathyB says a cookie sheet is 9x13. That's only a dishcloth and a half!]

FO: Yet Another Baby Hat

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Originally uploaded by knitswithasilentk

Doh! Forgot to snap a photo. Well, it looks like this and this and this, only in yellow and no embroidery. It actually looks the most like Niecey's hat, because I purposely used a centered double decrease to make the decreases stick out, like Brunelleschi's Dome (the Duomo in Florence), except the hat has 4 sections instead of 6.

Pattern: My own, still evolving.
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino
Needles: Size 5, size 3 for casting on in picot cast-on.

I used the picot cast-on, and I've decided it just looks kind of messy. I'm going to try a tubular cast-on for the next one.

I also used centered double decreases (slip 2 tog as if to knit, K1, psso) and they also looked a bit messy. Next time I'm going to do single decreases K2tog, twice as many, evenly spaced, on a knit stitch.

I intended at first to embroider balloons in red and blue. Then I thought I can make red, yellow, and blue balloons knit onto the top, with tails pulled out as balloon strings. Then I ran out of time, and since the baby is breech and resisted efforts to turn it, a C-section got scheduled, 1 week before the due date, so I decided I'd better just finish the thing and send it. My mom and The Sweetie said it looked fine without any adornment (we don't know if it's a boy or a girl, and a daisy seemed too feminine) and I stuck it in the mail before I even snapped a picture.

This photo is my son running down to the shore of Lake Tahoe. (Due to careful framing, it does not appear as if anyone is nearby, but The Sweetie is giving chase just off the right frame.)

FO: Presto Chango

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Originally uploaded by knitswithasilentk

I finished it just in time for my SIL's baby shower. It was still a little damp when I wrapped it in tissue and stuck it in the bag. The party was a great success!

Pattern: Presto Chango, a sweater pattern with the idea that you can knit multiple front panels and change them out as they get soiled.
Needles: Knit Picks Options, size 5. Size 3 for seed stitch cast-on.
Yarn: Mystery cotton from KathyB.
Buttons: wooden, from Fabrics Unlimited in Stateline, NV. Gorgeous shop!

I started out assuming that the gauge would be smaller than 4 sts/inch. So I cast on for the biggest size. However, I realized after getting into the stockinette portion that I was in fact getting gauge, so for the rest of the pattern, I followed the 6 month size.

For the seaming, in the underarm I did that seaming technique where you make it look like another row of knitting. For the side seams I used mattress stitch.

My opinion, now that I've had a baby, is that babies don't (need to) wear clothes (that is, anything but onesies and footie pajamas) until at least 6 months, so there is no point in knitting sweaters for them smaller than that, except by accident.

After blocking, it grew enormous (the panel still needed severe blocking to fit, but that's the fault of the cast-on for the biggest size), so I told the mom-to-be to throw it in the washer and dryer. Hope the buttons survive!

If I am moved (and have time), I will make another panel, although I don't have enough yellow to do the whole panel. Maybe I'll make it yellow and blue stripes. Maybe I can make it for Christmas!

Next up: finishing the birth hat. I ran out of time and my hand hurt. Several days of non-knitting and now I'm back to it.

Cool knitting retreat!

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Originally uploaded by knitswithasilentk

Okay, I just joined Facebook, and as it turns out, one of the ads struck my fancy. It's for a knitting retreat in Santa Barbara with Joan McGowan-Michael. It would be so cool! It probably isn't realistic, given that my little guy still likes to nurse to sleep, and staying in a hotel isn't really that fun when you have to be nearby once he is in bed. But it does sound fun.

Anyway, just wanted to throw it out there. The fee includes transportation from San Diego or San Jose and lodging (double occupancy). Pretty good!

Here is the link.

The photo above is my little guy running toward the water of Angora Lake, in the Sierras. Later that day, he had his first official wading.