Show offs

Thanks for all the well wishes! I'm feeling a bit better, though this lingering cough is getting really annoying! I'm drinking lots of tea (yay for my ingenuiTEA!) and resting up. Turns out Jessica (Deuce's handler) also has it. We must have picked it up at Westminster.

When I arrived home on Wednesday to the pile of sleeping beings, it was also Valentines Day. Usually hubby and I don't do a lot on V-Day - some cards, maybe dinner, but just being together in our hectic schedules is the simple thing that I always want. This year, there was a box waiting for me in the bedroom when I went to unpack. What could it be?

Clear clogs! (from here) - how great is he!!! Only a truly wonderful knitty husband would even think of these! I know I had mentioned them in passing, but it's nice to know he actually pays attention! Don't they look great with my nice bright socks?

Yay! Thank you so much!! How better to show off my hand knit socks! (and they're really comfy too!)

The knitting continues - Broken Cable Rib sock #2 is complete for Ivy.

Pattern: Broken Cable Rib from Summer 2005 Interweave Knits
Yarn: Tess Supersock
Needle: #2 KnitPicks 32" circular done Magic Loop style
Mods: Made the same "mistake" in both socks (the crossed cable near the bottom) and made the cable crossings going left on one sock, right on the other.

Made it with only a few days to spare for the February SAM3 entry. This Tess yarn is great - I'm glad I have a few skeins stashed away for knee highs for me at some point! If she is at MD Sheep & Wool again this year, I will be getting more for sure! The sock is now on it's way up to Vermont to be with the other one.

I've started the back for the Street Smart Hoodie. I've been kind of distracted by socks and being sick, but it's time to get this one back on track! I think it will make a great sweater to bring along to the Outer Banks this summer for the cool nights! The yarn is really soft, and not too dense. I still haven't decided how I'm going to do the front (full cardi, half zip or v-neck or just a pullover) so I figured I'd work on the back next and leave the front for last. Both sleeves are done and blocked.

Have you seen some of the sock designs that Cookie has been coming up with for Stitches West? They are amazing - the colors, the textures - truly inspiring! They make me want to get out the stitch dictionary and start a new pair of socks! But, I still have Aldebaran on the needles and have to decide what I'd like to do with the sole of the foot - to strand and pattern, or leave plain? If I do pattern it, I have to figure out how to work it into the heel turn. I'll consult my sister to see how thick she wants these - only stranding the instep would make them a bit thinner than doing both the sole and instep.

We got another light snowfall last night - a few inches of fluffy stuff that stuck to everything. Otis sure enjoyed himself!

1100 Miles

Posts will be sporadic over the next week. I'll be on the road starting Sunday and not truly be home until the Tuesday after President's Day! Almost 1100 miles of travel in all!

My first little jaunt will be to New York to the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. This will be Terri's dog Deuce's (the one pictured on her website homepage) last big show before she retires to an agility career and to have a litter of puppies. I've never been to Westminster, but have watched it every year on TV. (it will be on the USA network this year - Monday and Tuesday starting at 8pm - if Deuce wins the breed she will be on Tuesday night!) From what others have told me it is a complete, packed madhouse of people and dogs. I plan on taking lots of pictures and having a blast!

We arrive back home on Wednesday where I get a day to unpack, do laundry and pack again. Thursday, the dogs, hubby and I pack in the truck and head to Maryland to visit my sister and celebrate my cousin's 4th birthday. We are hanging out there for a few days (yay long weekend!) and will head home on Monday.

All in all I should have over 20 hours of car knitting time (if it's light out) which should make for a productive knitting week. I'm planning on bringing a few little projects as well for when I don't feel like the colorwork (horrors!) or cables currently on the needles.

Since I got about 6" chopped off my hair last week I've been itching to make a few headbands to keep it under control in this dry weather. Seeing that I have bunches of leftover sock yarn, as well as many partial skeins sitting in the stash, I wanted to find some patterns that would use them up. I found a couple of quick and easy patterns like this one as well as this one. The more I looked, the more cute ones I found! Last night, in about an hour I made these.

The pattern is here and they are just adorable! I thought the paw print fabric would be great for the show next week. I have a pretty substantial fabric stash from my quilting days, so I plan on digging a little deeper tonight to come up with a few more. I don't use my sewing machine nearly as much as I used to, but hope to get inspired and use it more soon!

The Aldebaran socks have a heel flap, and I'm currently trying to figure out how to work the foot pattern into the heel turn and gusset. There will be copious amounts of re-charting and drawing to figure it out. Fun.

Late news just in, I got an email from Ivy about the socks: "I got the sock yesterday, awesome!! I love the color, and it’s a perfect fit!". Ahhh, music to my ears. More car knitting!

Snow, Socks and Salad

It finally happened!

We got a whopping 1.5" of snow on Friday night. It wasn't much, but at least it covered the icky dead brown stuff that is all we've been seeing since winter started. We haven't really had a snow that has stuck yet this year. Quite freaky for central Massachusetts! The dogs were all excited and managed to do some running around in it. They are much happier when the measurements are in feet and not inches. We had some good sun also, so the driveway and all the roads are clear - my kind of snow!

The first Broken Cable Rib sock is now on the road up to Burlington, Vermont. I finished it on Saturday and sent it up to Ivy to try on - I haven't made her socks before, so I want her to try it first before I start the second one to see if there are any changes I need to make.

If it fits, yay! If not, she can send me back the first one and I can re-work what needs fixing. In the meantime, I did a little work on Adlebaran. Since I have to rework the gauge and layout of the sock because I'm using a fingering weight yarn instead of sport weight, I did some calculating.

And some swatching....

I ended up knitting the swatch twice as my first attempt on #1 needles yielded a bit too firm of a fabric and a 10 sts/" gauge. With #2's, I got a much nicer fabric and 8 sts/". I used that as my base and proceeded to cast on! This will keep me occupied until I learn the fate of the Broken Cable Rib sock.

The hydroponic garden got a good trim this weekend. Hubby made an incredible niçoise salad with the greens and some ultra fresh tuna steak.

A nice balsamic dressing topped it off. The lettuce was sacrificed for the greater good of our tummies! We only used about half the lettuce, so we have enough for another "harvest" this week. Then, it's on to growing herbs!

The snow on the ground Saturday morning made me in a baking mood. I have been craving scones for a while now, and have tried a few recipes, but haven't been able to find one I really love - until now.

Cinnamon Vanilla Scones
(Adapted from this recipe)
3 Cups Unbleached All Purpose Flour
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon Salt
1/2 Cup Sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoons Cinnamon
1/2 Cup Butter (room temperature)
3/4 Cup Buttermilk
2 Eggs
3 Teaspoons Vanilla

In a mixing bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and cinnamon. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal, with a few larger chunks of butter still showing. In a separate bowl, beat together the buttermilk, eggs and vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients, and stir just until combined.

Scrape the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead it gently just until it holds together. Pat it into a rectangle about 8 x 10 inches, and cut the dough into 2 to 3-inch diamonds or squares with a sharp knife. Place the scones on an ungreased cookie sheet, and bake in a preheated 400°F oven for 12 to 14 minutes, until they're golden brown. Remove them from the oven, and serve warm.

Chugging Along

No real momentus progress to report here. I've been working away at the Broken Cable Rib sock and am through the gusset and on the foot. Luckily, Ivy's feet are about 2" shorter than mine, so less knitting! I'm not sure I decreased down far enough though, but I'm hoping the ribbed instep will help with the fit if I don't get it right! The Tess yarn is still a delight - the color is so saturated and has small amounts of varigation - just enough to keep it interesting.

The Street Smart Hoodie sleeve is still drying from it's wet block. The stitches did plump up a bit, but even in the dry winter weather, it's taking forever to dry! I started sleeve #2.

This was at a very relaxed moment before I realized I did all the ribbing on the wrong sized needle. I forgot to switch back to the smaller needle before I cast on. So, it all has been ripped so I can start again. Luckily I hadn't gotten too far before I realized it. It's now been re-knit on the correct size needles.

Tucker and I are starting to gear up for the upcoming agility season. Our first trial is in March, so we are working hard to get back on track. After a great lesson yesterday, we were both exhausted.

Ravin got in a good workout too. They both collapsed on the couch when we got home. I love tired puppies! Ravin was obviously so tired he forgot to get on his bed the entire way!

Meanwhile, hubby has been working away at his own little project.

He upgraded to the new Vista OS the day it came out. He had attended a launch party in Boston a few weeks ago with my dad (they are both tech geeks). To me, not too much looks different. You seem to navigate the same, but there are some neat little shortcuts and cute widgets now.

The salad is also growing at a good rate.

We had to move the unit so we could raise the light box at the top. I'm thinking salad for dinner this weekend!!
Today is Groundhog day. I wonder if he'll see his shadow? It's not like we've really had winter yet except for some cold temperatures. We still have bare ground!

I just couldn't stop

(As an aside, I finally switched to the new blogger and my whole blog is now screwed up. I am beyond frustrated with this thing! It won't let me upload my old template ("bad XML" or something) so now I am trying to go through and see how I can fix it. You may see me on TypePad very soon!)

This is a great pattern - only 2 of the 23 row repeat are cabled, the rest is a basic rib, so it goes fast - really fast!

That is the leg of the first sock! Not too bad considering that I had to re-knit it after knitting about 4" of it the first time. Evidently, my cast on was a bit tight so I could barely get it over my heel. These will ultimately be for my best bud Ivy, but her feet are only about a size smaller, so I knew if I couldn't get them over my heel, she wouldn't be able to get them over hers either. I got her measurements, so I'm on to the heel and foot. This Tess yarn is just heaven. I love looking at the color - it is such a vibrant green! And, it is so subtly variegated that you don't really notice until you look at a whole chunk of knitting done at once.

(ok - posted my photo and while editing I think I notice an extra cable cross near the end. Sigh. Looks like I'll be doing some ripping and re-knitting of this one - AGAIN! If I really feel like it - until I stared at it I didn't really see it....)

With all the sock knitting, I am still a few rows away from finishing the first sleeve of the Street Smart Hoodie. It should be done tonight!

The Urban Aran Half Zip got it's first real journey out into the real world. I wore it all day Saturday to a friend's daughter's birthday party. I got tons of compliments on it from knitters and non-knitters alike, and a few "I want one!" comments. It was cozy comfy, and I did get a little warm after a while, but the half zip let me cool off, so it was great. I'll be wearing this one a lot!

The temptation was too much

After seeing these over on Flickr, this happened...

Destined to be the Broken Cable Rib Socks from the Summer 2005 IK. Yarn is Tess Yarns supersock.