Jack's Lament - The nightmare before Christmas

Merry Christmas to All

Yummy, yummy cashmere

At Stitches East this year, I signed up for the block of the month club for the Great American Afghan. The yarn is an 8ply cashmere from Hunt Valley. It's the softest, most luxurious yarn I've ever worked with. It's taking me a while to knit up my first square, because I keep squeezing it and rubbing it on my face, arms...well, let me just stop there.

The first block is Barbara Selesnick's:

Reading the patterns in this book is a bit of a challenge, but once figured out, this block is knitting up very prettily.

My SigO, his daughter and I went to Sushi Taro this weekend. The SigO's daughter has a small fascination with the japanese culture and this is about as authentic japanese food as I can find in DC. We didn't get to sit on the floor-that's only a small section of the restaurant-but we did have some interesting food. We had BBQ Eel, sushi, sashimi, steamed dumplings, kabobs and a very different dish with tuna and grated yam which made the tuna very slippery - like trying to go fishing with chopsticks.

Before dinner, we went to go see the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. Don't bother. Someone please explain to me why Hollywood needs to take a perfectly good movie and add as many explosions as they can fit in in a two hour movie? Of course, it was doomed the minute they signed Keanu Reeves, wooden boy, to play Klaatu.

Finally, Sunday, the SigO and I went and rode around Burke Lake. He just bought himself a new mountain bike and we really had a lot of fun - even if my chain kept falling off. When we took it to be repaired the guy asked if I was a radical rider, since the chain wheel was bent and the rear derailer was all catty-whompus. I told him, no, I really only rode Dual Track, easy trails - but hey, that doesn't mean I don't crash - a lot!

So, another good weekend. Over too soon, as usual.

Wine Tasting, Hiking, Knitting - In that order

As wine club members of Rappahannock Cellars winery, we got to spend Saturday afternoon in the cellars of the winery eating really great soup paired with really nice wine.There were three soup courses (Champagne Brie, Butternut Squash and Apple Bisque, and Lentils and Sausage) each paired with their own wine (Seyval Blanc, Viogner, Big World Red) and their own bread. The best part was that the bread was served by the owner's daughters - the youngest of which was four. She had a sister helping her who I suspect was no older than eight, but when we asked her how old her sister was, she rolled her eyes and with a look of great long suffering said "Four...sigh". So funny. As though at the ripe old age of eight, she had seen it all and the responsibility of educating her, oh so naive, sister was just too heavy a burden to bear! The meal was topped off with Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies paired with Norton Port. Again served by the four year old. Too cute.

After the winery, we went and bought our Christmas tree and brought it home to decorate. Lovely huh? Just barely squeezed it into the space we had for it. The top branch is touching the ceiling. Please don't look at it too hard - you may tip it over. I apparently underestimated the amount of humidity in my basement storage area and that humidity has definitely affected the christmas tree stand, such that we had problems getting the clamps to completely screw in and clamp down the tree trunk. So if you breathe on it too heavily, it begins to tilt ever so slightly. Try adjusting it one way or another and it's a Christmas Tree Yard sale. Ah, but isn't it lovely?!

Sunday, we went for a hike in Prince William forest...again. I love that park. So close, yet so remote. Got a picture of my SigO with hat head:

and he trekked over the river and through the woods to get the perfect angle of the trees, the sky, and the waterfall for me in this picture:

I got to take one of my favorite shots.

I have this same basic picture from a few parks. I just love the leaves lying at the bottom of the river and the reflections playing out on the water. Such a tranquil picture - to me. Do you think it's tranquil to trees, or is this the equivalent of us seeing severed body parts lying at the bottom of a river? Wow...where did that come from? OK, the dark side of me is firmly tucked away again.

I did get some knitting done this weekend as well. I finished the front and back of my latest sweater and used a friend's suggestion to bind the shoulders off together instead of having to seam them up. I need to ask her if I was supposed to bind them off on the inside of the top though, instead of the outside. Probably. Not surprisingly, to those that know me, I'm fine with it the way it is.

I started on the sleeves but had a minor set back:I'll have to name this sweater "Destroyer of Needles" since this is the second set to go astray. The first set had one just walk off, never to return. This set, as you can see broke as a result of me trying to get the warp out of the needle - it was really making me crazy and I was trying to bend it back - like that was really going to work.

I have finally started seaming up the sideways striped sweater, but I've ripped out more than I've sewn (which doesn't bother me as much as you'd think. My sister-in-law prepared me for that eventuality a long time ago when she taught me how to cross stitch. I'll never forget her words of wisdom: "Just remember, you rip what you sew". And I have. A Lot.) So far I have one shoulder seam sewn and I'm trying several different variations on the collar. At first I seamed it the normal way, but then as soon as it laid down, I saw the seam would be on the wrong side. So I ripped it and tried a single crochet seam with a very small yarn (much smaller than the yarn used in the sweater) and I hate that. So I need to rip that and try again with the yarn used in the sweater. So, some trial and error going on there, but it will get done eventually.

In the meantime, there's always more knitting to be done...

Thanks

Well, it's Thanksgiving weekend, and if for nothing else, I'm thankful for a weekend off - mostly -gotta work Sunday, but that's just killing the mood, so let's drop the subject. I'm thankful for my family, my friends, and my LOML - all sources and receptacles of all my love. I'm thankful for a steady income, which comes from a job that makes a difference in the world. I'm thankful for all the different types of fiber and all the things we can do with it. I'm thankful for all the people who understand why I would be thankful for such a thing.
I met people of that ilk at Clara Parke's Knitter's Retreat last weekend and we had a great time. I got to see friends I hadn't seen since last year.

I really re-connected with these ladies and have promised myself to stay in touch with them this year - unlike last year where our only communication was whenever I bothered to post a blog.

I also made new friends this year, but true to my brain-dead self, I forgot to bring my camera along, so all pictures in this blog are complements of those who did bring a camera and who sent me what they took.

This year's retreat was at the Williams Inn in Williamstown, MA, which is only about 30 miles away from last years retreat, but I really enjoyed the setting so much more. For one thing, we were in a college town and the campus was loaded with gorgeous buildings like this one:

There was this great artist, whose name I've already forgotten, who had sculptures all over the campus. I especially loved the eyes looking out of the hillside and I don't know if these frogs were done by her as well, but they seem to belong to the same type of thinker.

Very whimsical. And on that note, could someone please explain this sign to me:

I'm guessing there's some humor here, but I suspect the geographically challenged side of me is completely missing the joke - so if someone would be so kind as to enlighten me...

Mostly though, I loved the mountains out there - so majestic. Such a wonderful view with the tiny little dusting of snow. The few locals I spent time talking to are still enamored with them as well, which is great since so often you meet people who grew up in that setting and completely take it for granted as the years go by.

All in all, it was a splendid retreat marred only by me overspending my allowance at Webs - not a big surprise, but still something to give me pause. After spending so much at Stitches East, and then to spend a wad again a few weeks later, I've come to the realization that it's time to start slowing down on this free-for-all, as if the money will never run out. Time to go on *shudder* a yarn diet. So, even if it's not the new year yet, that's my resolution and you can all keep track of how well I stick to it in the year to come right here on my blog. Friends who will keep me honest - one more thing to be thankful for.

Stitches East 2008

Well, I could begin this blog with a long list of purchases, but let's just leave that out, shall we...suffice it to say I can only afford to eat Top Ramen for the rest of the year and the only Christmas present any members of my family will get this year is my everlasting love.

As usual, and if rumor is correct, for the last time, Stitches East was held at the Baltimore Convention Center, which is directly across the street from Camden Yards

I signed up for my classes as soon as the notice came out, which means by the time I was ready to get a hotel room, I had forgotten what exactly I had signed up for - including forgetting that my Thursday class wasn't just Thursday afternoon, it was in fact Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. So my grand plan to only spend the night Friday night was not the best plan I've ever formulated. And of course, since I didn't realize this until the last minute, I ended up, as usual, flying by the seat of my pants and making a last minute reservation at the Sheraton.

The funny thing about that, it was a nicer room than the supposed four star room we had booked for Friday night. It was a corner room with a nice view of downtown Baltimore.

The room service was great and they actually had the option to stay in a smoking room if I wanted. What a shame that was Thursday night when I was on my own. Friday night we stayed in the Harborplace Marriott who not only didn't have the service that allows you to order breakfast the night before, but they don't have smoking rooms - so the SigO wasn't a happy boy. Still, I think we had quite a nice time together Friday night, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Thursday afternoon/Friday morning's workshop was on Intarsia. We put together a little sampler to try our hands at both Fair Isle and Intarsia.

By pure luck the two ladies sitting nearest to me were also from Northern Virginia, so we spent a little time together getting to know one another.

This is Janet and Susan and while I may never see either of them in real life again, we'll definitely "see" each other on Ravelry. They were both a lot of fun to hang out with.

The SigO joined me Friday after lunch and we hung out on the inner harbor until sunset.

He filled me in on the history of this ship, and if I hadn't been doing a mental inventory of the awesome Aracunia and Noro yarns I had just picked up, I might have been able to regal you with a little of that history here now.

After killing enough time (The Baltimore Aquarium is $28 per adult for admission - until 5PM. Then it's only $8 - if you don't plan to spend a lot of time in the aquarium, that's obviously the way to go), he and I went to the Aquarium and had a great time with the dolphins, crocodiles, sharks, etc.

Isn't that a great picture of a dolphin! And he took this with his i-phone! Impressive, huh? What? Oh, didn't I mention - this is actually a picture of the picture they had on the wall there?He's such a cheater! He tried over and over again to get a good shot of a dophin and all he could ever get was their tails whipping away out of sight - so he cheated.

After the aquarium, we went out to dinner at Aldo's in Little Italy.

That very first table on the right was our table and we had quite an entertaining evening - thanks to the SigO. See, he has this thing about his napkin. Before meeting me, he'd never really dined out anywhere really high-end, so the first time we did go out together, as soon as he left the table, naturally, the staff picked up his discarded napkin and folded it nicely for him and placed it back on the table. Which completely freaked him out! So, of course, when he left his seat at Aldo's, I knew he would get a repeat performance, and it became a bit of a game with him, me and the staff. He even tried taking his napkin with him at one point - silly boy - of course they brought him another, so that when he came back, he now had two napkins - the one he had tried hiding under his arm (which they noticed and laughed about) and the one neatly folded at his chair. By the end of dinner, we were all laughing about it and when I finally left my chair, I returned to find all three napkins folded neatly at my place, one in an ornate fan pattern. That's life with the SigO - dinner was quite scrumptious, but the entertainment was even better.

Saturday morning I took a class to teach me how to knit left handed - the techniques she showed us worked better for me than any of the other techniques I've tried so far, so I think I'll try my hand at a few scarves using this technique to get comfortable with it. The best part of the class was learning how to knit with both hands - which should come in handy now that I've learned Intarsia and Fair Isle.
Well, that was last weekend. This weekend was spent lazing around the house for the most part. We went for a ride on our bikes today - first time I've ever been willing to try that in anything less than 50 degree weather, and had quite a nice time. I've also begun my first pair of wrist/hand warmers - which are great fun since they knit up one/day.

Well, it's Sunday night and I now have only four full days til I leave for Massachussets for Clara Parke's retreat, where I get to see Leslie and Anya again. I'm quite excited (the SigO is completely bummed) and have been gathering up my knitted donations (two scarves, one hat) and my yarn that I want to swap (an acrylic blend that I bought when I was a brand new knitter and realized I hate acrylic!). This is my second year, so I have a little better idea what to bring with me - last year I was completely unprepared - well, not completely - I brought the booze!

So, that catches me up for now. I keep resolving to do this more faithfully - but then, I've been resolving to eat right and exercise consistently my entire life - so I know you won't hold me to it!

Sharp Rock Fall Fest, etc

Well, I've completed another training session for work - translated that means that after three weeks of surrendering my life to the job, I can take a deep breath and enjoy myself until the next time around. Which also means I can catch up on my blog.

The last time we spoke, I was about to head out to the Sharp Rock Winery Fall Festival. This winery is the only one for which we faithfully attend all festivals - the location is beautiful:

The owners are friendly, down to earth people and the atmosphere is nice and relaxed.We sat under a copse of pine trees and listened to some really great blue grass. The sound quality in this isn't as good as it was live - obviously - this is just from my little camera - the most entertaining aspect of this performance was it was all one guy. He would lay down a track of himself playing one instrument, then loop it and pick up another instrument - he'd lay down that track on top of the other - loop those two together and pick up a third instrument - he'd keep on doing this until he had an entire ensemble put together. It was very entertaining.

Naturally, I did some knitting:

This little piece of knitting now looks like this:
I may have been busy, but that's not to say I didn't knit for three weeks - I mean, really - what were you thinking?

After the festival we stayed in a very quaint B&B called Conyer's House. We stayed in the Spring House which is up on top of a hill -very secluded - surrounded by woods.

This was our bedroom - we had a nice little fireplace, a loft with another bed, and a quaint little bathroom. It was such a nice day out, I didn't want to shut up the cottage, so I shut and latched the screen door and left the outer door open, thinking we'd come home to a nicely aired out room - with the smell of the woods wafting through our rooms - well, I'm not so sure it was all that aired out, but it did have a little of the woods in it - a nice big fat black snake had crawled in through a hole in the screen and made himself at home. I squealed like a three year old girl. The SigO nearly jumped out of his skin hearing me scream like that. And then, what was he going to do? He was the man - so he had to be manly - right? So he grabbed that damn thing by the back of the neck and hurled it out into the yard! My hero!! Rest assured I did a thorough check of the rest of the cottage before settling in that night.

The next day, we went for a hike in the Shenandoah. This is where I point out that both of us had been suffering from a nasty lingering cold - hacking up loogies - sniffling all day long - but I was not to be deterred - we hadn't been on a hike in too long, and we were going hiking! But I'm not a fool - I searched through my books and found one that was advertised as "a nice easy hike - suitable for the entire family". Yeah. Right. If you're a family of Sherpa's maybe! If you don't believe me, check out the view:

You don't get a view like this from "a nice easy hike". But it was quite gorgeous, and obviously we did survive.

Other than finish up the jacket pictured above, the only thing I've finished is my October quilt block for Carol Doak's newest Block of the Month (BOM) challenge. This time around, she's putting a "theme" block for each month for us to work on. This should prove to be as interesting a finished product as last year's BOM challenge.

Carol had instructed us to "embellish" our blocks, so I had all these grand plans to put in fall leaves all over the tree - well - it took me nearly as long to embroider this tiny little bush as it did to put together the entire block, so eff it - it's good enough. As is this blog!

Sometimes you get the bear...

And this time, the bear definitely got me. The knitting bear, obviously.

As already mentioned, I signed up for a class to learn Fair Isle and Steeking. As a side bonus, we also learned how to knit continental. Ah, but when I knit my swatch, I didn't know we were going to knit continental, so I knit the swatch using the good ole throw method...

Turns out I knit much, much, much looser with continental than I do with throw. Don't believe me? Check it out:

Here's the sleeve

Here's the body

that's just the back...obviously...

Maybe not as easy to see in the picture as it is in real life, but suffice it to say, since Hagrid is only a fictional character, I don't know anyone I can give this to in its current state, so it's going to have to be frogged, after which I'll have to decide: Do I want to hang up this continental thing and knit throw from now on, or do I always just want to go down six or seven needle sizes and two-three garment sizes when knitting continental. I really don't like loose knitting, so I'm leaning toward the former, but maybe if I go down enough needle sizes it won't matter? I don't know. And since I don't want to make that decision right now, I've picked up my suede jacket to work on instead.

This is knit in Berrocco's Suede Tri-Color and here's the thing with that - if I had known it was going to knit up into such definitive stripes, I think I would have ignored the pattern and knit in the round, then steeked the front. As it is, I'm going to either have some seriously mismatched stripes when I sew it together, or I'll have to work really, really hard to make sure the stripes match up - and knitting isn't supposed to be about working really, really hard....so I guess I could frog this too - but probably not - I have a limit on how much frogging I can take in one week.

I guess that makes the score: Knitting bears - 2, Jo - 0.

Kosovo, Soldiers Spoof of Beach Boys Kokomo

What a Mess

I finally finished my Carol Doak Block of the Month (BOM) quilt top. I probably shouldn't say "finally". After all, I only got one block per month x 12 months, so I'm not sure I could have finished it that much more quickly. I am very happy with the way it turned out - I put all the blocks on point and used Carol's China Star to offset the BOM blocks. Of course, the problem with paper piecing any quilt is the mess it makes when it's time to take all the paper off. This picture REALLY doesn't do justice to the mess in my house when I was finished pulling off all that paper!

It really looked like it snowed in our basement there for a while. The SigO (those are his feet in the picture - so cute!) tried to keep it under control by picking up papers every so often, but he was fighting a losing battle.

Of course, the real mess came when I nearly chopped off the end of my finger. We were watching Horatio Hornblower while I was trying to cut some fabric with the rotary cutter. I mean, honestly, who can expect anyone to be concentrating on quilting when Ioan Gruffudd is on TV? So, off came a sizeable chunk of my index finger, and off I went to the ER to get some coagulant stuffed into the hole (nothing there to sew up) to stop the bleeding. That put a real damper on the weekend, needless to say. But it's almost all healed up already, so ho hum - moving on...

I just signed up for a class to learn how to do colorwork in my knitting and - you might want to sit down for this - learn to cut (Yes! Cut!! Yikes!!!) my knitting. I'm working on the Enid Cardigan and I'm learning to knit continental for this project since Olga (instructor) wants us to knit the colorwork using both hands. So, that's somewhat awkward.

The reason for steeking (cutting) this knitting is to put in the button band - so if I chicken out, it just won't be a cardigan - it will be a pullover - see how easy life can be! This class is a three day class held over six weeks to give us time to do all the knitting. Olga wants us to have the body done up to the yoke and the sleeves done for a bonus before the next class, which is in two weeks. If I weren't trying to knit continental, this would be a breeze, but I'm not so sure I'm going to make it. And I can't just switch back to the good ole comfy throw method since my tension is completely different between those two techniques. So, I might be the problem child in this class. Oh, let's not kid ourselves - definitely, I am the problem child.

Thursday night I'm taking a crochet class from the same instructor. I decided it might be a good idea since one of the projects I have on my needles right now is the Beachcomber Tunic:

Which, as you can see, is knit for the top, and crocheted for the bottom. I don't think the actual crochet is all that tough, but reading the pattern has me thrown right now.
I'm knitting the Enid Cardigan in my current size, because it's a cardigan, so who cares if it's a tad large, but I'm still knitting all my other tops in a size too small because I'm devoted to losing some of this weight, although I can't say I've been very dedicated to the process. I blame the SigO. I'm not saying it's his fault. I'm just going to blame him.

I have finished all the knitting for the Filatura Di Crosa top. Here are the sleeves, all nice and blocked:I still need to crochet the belt (see, another reason for Thursday's class) and then it's just a matter of seaming it up and sewing on the sleeves - yeah - the dreaded finishing. That's why it's still on the blocking boards, even though I finished it well over a month ago.

Not much exciting going on in the way of trips lately. Not for lack of trying. We tried to go camping for Labor Day weekend and all the campsites in our chosen weekend spot were full. So, we went winery hopping. Such a hardship! And that pretty much sums things up for me for the last few weeks - lot's of knitting, wining, quilting, some trauma, some work, mostly fun.

An industrious, if unexciting weekend

The big event this weekend was pulling the bowflex out of storage and getting it set up in the media room. My quilting space took a hit for the team, but since the sewing table can collapse and roll around to accomodate my space issues, and the bowflex, well, can't, it was a logical decision. The SigO and I are both very pleased with the final outcome:
That's my first ever wall-quilt behind the bowflex. It has so many flaws and goofs in it that it's the perfect backdrop for the bowflex, since I'm hoping no one will try to climb behind that bulky thing to try to look too closely at my quilt. The only part of putting the bowflext together I helped with was putting the cables on. The SigO did everything else...aren't you proud of him?! Meanwhile, I played in the yard this weekend and got the weeds pulled, the pond cleaned, etc. The weather this weekend was very mild and I had enough deet sprayed on to repel even Them!
so, after playing in the yard for several hours, I sat out on the deck to do some knitting and watch the wildlife - which in my yard consists of several different types of birds, some butterflies and a handful of squirrels. Ever since I've moved into this house, I've been trying to attract hummingbirds and I've finally had a measure of success with that! I now have two regular visitors - one male, one female. The female is one bold lady. She hovers right over our heads, checking us out while we're on the deck and at one point, literally hovered one foot away from my face. I had my camera with me at the time, but when a beak that sharp is that close to your eyes, you don't make any sudden movements! I sat out there for some time trying to capture pictures of all the gorgeous birds and butterflies that come to visit. We even had a bald eagle fly overhead at one point, but those dang birds are Fast! By the time I get upstairs and download the pics, all I've managed to get is blurry images. This golden finch is the only halfway decent shot I got.
You can also see a household sparrow about to take a drink from the pond in this shot:
You can well imagine that with me trying so hard to get some shots of the local wildlife, I don't get a whole lot of knitting done. I did get one really good shot of a wild animal that wandered into my yard a little later in the day:Quite the specimen - but beware, cuz yes, he does bite!

I have made a great deal of progress on the pullover. In addition to both the front and back shown here, I've finished one of the sleeves and am 2/3 done with the other. I hope to be blocking the sleeves within the next few days, and then sewing it up this week. I'm very pleased with the way it's knitting up. I've had to frog several rows and tink several times due to not reading the directions, or simply knitting along thinking I had tons of rows to go to reach the desired measurements, just to have to frog back when I discovered I'd gone 3" too far - this is my first time knitting with 100% wool. I'm more accustomed to knitting with DK weight or smaller, so I'm not used to four rows = 1 inch. It's nice to work with something that knits up that quickly, but it has thrown me off a few times.
Finally, I wanted to share some pictures from the Lion King, just to show that even though the dance routines needed some more work, the makeup and costumes were well worth the price of the seats.
Scar, my favorite character - how can you not love anyone who's main line is: "My Teeth and Ambitions are Bared!"
The woman that played Rafiki could really belt it out!

Young Nala - my favorite part of the entire show was young Nala, Rafiki and Shenzi singing their mourning song after Mufasa dies and Simba disappears. Very nicely done.

Quilt Odyssey, Green Gables, Filatura di Crosa

As usual, I'm way behind on my blog. This time it wasn't my fault. I wanted to show off a picture of my completed Green Gables top and we couldn't find the computer cable for the camera until yesterday. But here it is: The picture shows off the fit of the top, but doesn't show the lacework (at the top, near my neck) very well. The funny thing is I wore it to work Monday, and when I got home and hung it up I noticed I missed a few ends that still need to be woven in. Thought I had gotten them all.

I finished the Green Gables top Friday night and immediately started on my Filatura Di Crosa Sideways Striped Pullover.

I've gotten the back done and just started on the front. This picture doesn't do justice AT ALL to the yarn. The yarn knits up beautifully. This is my first 100% wool project and now I see what everyone is on about. And of course the colorways are spectacular. I'm knitting this a size too small for me - and I fully intend to be able to wear it this winter. If this doesn't keep me motivated, I just don't know what will. But, then, considering I have a closet full of gorgeous clothes I can't wear right now....yeah, but this is different! Yeah!

Anyway, the Quilt Odyssey this year was awesome as always. I took a class with Phil Beaver to learn how to paint fabrics. It's funny, when I signed up and it said we were going to make sunflowers, I had this image of a cheesy looking quilt top in my head. I had no intention of making any sunflowers - you've all seen what I'm talking about - cutesy, cheesy, boring. But I was interested in learning how to paint my own fabrics. We painted four panels. This is my favorite one:

and as you can see, my quilt turned out to be anything but cheesy: There were many gorgeous quilts on display as usual. Here's a small sampling:

This is just a few of my favorites. OK, I admit it - this is how many I got before my memory card was too full! Anyway, if you want to see them all, here's a nice slide-show:

http://s116.photobucket.com/albums/o11/sewpam63/quilt%20shows/Hershey%20Quilt%20Odyssey%202008/?action=view&current=7a4581b1.pbw

Enjoy.