PDXKnitterati

Not quite yet…

Posted on November 2, 2011 | 2 comments

I said I’d tell you where I went, but I’m not ready. Go over to the Lantern Moon blog and see if you can figure it out. I can’t post here until my contest is done over there! Here’s a hint.

2 Comments

Posted in travel

Tagged Lambert

Vacation. Knitting. Vacation knitting?

Posted on November 2, 2011 | 12 comments

I went on a little getaway last weekend. I’m at the point in my design projects where I can’t take them anywhere because they involve a lot of swatching and note taking, as well as ripping and re-knitting. Not a good travel companion. I was trapped in a “what to knit” conundrum. I finally decided it would be easier to knit someone else’s design so I wouldn’t have to think, and I’d be able to converse with my friends. I chose Annis, and the lovely red Luxe B silk/merino yarn from Alpha B. But after five days away, here’s what I have to show for it.

Not much, huh? I guess that means I had a good time. I’ll tell you all about it in the next post. My question here is, why does the top of my yarn cake look like this instead of the nice criss-crossy way it looks near the bottom? I’m still new to this ball-winder thing, but it’s got me puzzled. It still pulls from the center, but it’s not aesthetically perfect.

I misread the pattern, and thought there were 18 repeats of the lace, so I brought 20 stitch markers. These don’t actually exist; they were a prototype but Lantern Moon doesn’t carry them. I just got lucky one day in the office. But there are 29 repeats of the 18 stitch lace pattern, so I had to resort to this.

Cut up bits of a straw that should have been in a mai tai! They work pretty well, except that the straw was black, and so are my ebony knitting needles. I’m home again, so I’m back to blue. And here’s my dilemma: Vacation is over, and I have design work that needs to get done. Do I even believe that I’ll get back to Annis anytime soon? Should I leave it on the needles, or let the lovely yarn go back to dreaming in its yarn ball state, in case it wants to be something else by the time I get back to it? What would you do?

12 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged Annis, vacation knitting

Ziggy Hat!

Posted on October 24, 2011 | 9 comments

I couldn’t help myself. I saw the leftover yarn sitting there, and it called my name. Knitted Wit’s Polwarth Wool/silk DK blend is so lovely to knit with; I couldn’t walk away!

I’m glad I gave in. The hat is so cute, and will fit sizes 2-4T. As you can see from the pictures, we checked! I’ve amended the Ravelry version of This Little Ziggy to include the hat. The price of the pattern is now $6 because it includes vest and hat, but if you use the coupon code “ziggiest” at checkout before November 7, the pattern is $2 off, which takes it back to the pre-hat price of $4 (but includes the hat). The simplest way to do this is to use this link, and the code will be applied for you.

The KnitPicks version will sell for $3.99, but the hat pattern is not included in that version, since I’ve already sent it off for publication. I’ll let you know when that goes live, too.

To hat, or not to hat? That is the question! And do you want a separate pattern for just the hat? I can make that happen, too!

9 Comments

Posted in Knit, pattern design

Tagged This Little Ziggy, ziggy hat

PDXKnitterati at SAFF!

Posted on October 21, 2011 | 2 comments

Well, not in person, although I’d love to go. But Alpha B yarns (Anne Morrow) will have my Pacific and Zen Rain shawl patterns with her. She has a lovely sample knit of Pacific. And I knit my favorite version of Zen Rain with her Luxe B fingering weight merino/silk blend. So drapey, so squishable…remember this group of Zen Rain from Sock Summit?

This one is in Knitted Wit Bling, but it shows more detail.

Here’s Pacific:

Go see Anne and say hi, and make one or both of these shawls for yourself!

SAFF is the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair in Fletcher NC, near Asheville. Wishing you sunny skies and lots of fiber!

2 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged SAFF

What’s in a name? I’m PDXKnitterati everywhere

Posted on October 20, 2011 | 12 comments

I just changed my username over at Ravelry. I’m now pdxknitterati over there. I think it’s easier to remember than MicheleLB. (How many L’s in Michele? Why random letters LB? huh?) If you know my blog, you know my Ravelry name, and my twitter ID, too. Come follow me down the garden path!

Still swatching, and charting, and I think I have a plan for the next design. What I don’t have is some good mindless knitting that I can just pop into my knitting bag for those spare moments. I’ll get to that…soon. Maybe some big fat worsted weight socks! What’s your “on the go” knitting project?

12 Comments

Posted in Blogging, Knit, ravelry

Tagged pdxknitterati

This Little Ziggy went to the pumpkin patch

Posted on October 19, 2011 | 7 comments

And a grand time was had by all. It was a glorious sunny fall day.

I needed to take some pictures of another vest, and o was the perfect model.

His Papa helped, too!

I’m so blessed to know Lorajean. I love designing with her beautiful yarns, and her family is delightful.

The This Little Ziggy pattern is live! You can go here for more details, if you’d like to knit your own.

Now I have lots of swatching, and nothing on the needles! What’s on your needles?

7 Comments

Posted in pattern design

Tagged Knit, pumpkin patch, This Little Ziggy

Took a little trip…

Posted on October 16, 2011 | 8 comments

…across the country to Orlando to visit SirCollegeDude. He’s at the University of Central Florida, and they’re the Knights, hence, SirCollegeDude. I cashed in a bunch of miles and took CollegeGrad with me; DH met us there. We had to fly first class on the way out, boo hoo.

A little afternoon cocktail with my knitting? Sure!

Dinner was nice.

SirCollegeDude’s working on a Baja car like this one with the SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers), but this year’s car is taller. It was a very soggy wet weekend with torrential rains, but we took advantage of a break in the rain to get in a quick campus tour.

We headed to Kennedy Space Center on Sunday. This was a great place, really interesting and inspiring. Lots for the science geeks!

This enormous building is where they assembled the space shuttles for launch (the orbiters plus all the stuff that put the orbiters into space). From there they were taken via crawler to the launch pad. A very slow, exacting process with a maximum speed of about one mile per hour.

Here’s one of the engines at the Launch Complex 39 Observation Gantry. And my guys.

The Apollo/Saturn V Center has an actual Saturn V rocket in it. That thing is LONG. There are a lot of interesting exhibits about the moon missions. I’m not sure why we went to the moon, other than because we could, and we wanted to do it before the Russians did, but a lot of science and engineering went into the feat.

Maybe it’s because we needed a Hello Kitty astronaut.

It was great to spend some time with the whole family. I also got a chance to knit with Dee last weekend, but I forgot to take a picture! It’s always fun to meet a friend from the blogosphere.

I finished the knitting from the first picture this week; it’s another This Little Ziggy vest. I’ll show you, soon. I’m still trying to catch up with myself…I’m moving way faster than a space shuttle on the crawlerway!

8 Comments

Posted in Knit, travel

Tagged kennedy space center, orlando

Nothing to see here…

Posted on October 5, 2011 | 8 comments

I’m knitting away on a couple of projects, but nothing I can show you right now. How about if you look at this instead?

My friend, ex-co-worker and fellow Day Old Pastry Joanne gave me this lovely box of Alma chocolates. They are gorgeous, and taste even better than they look. The flavors: Thai peanut butter cup (ginger, lime, Thai chiles, red volcanic sea salt), Mexican chocolate truffle (chile de Arbol & cinnamon), Bourbon (the copper colored one), Habanero crown, Deux pistaches, mint diamond, salted peanut butter cup, whiskey caramel, Sabrina (fig/marzipan), rosemary fleur-de-lis. Can you match the description to the chocolate?

The occasion? I was honored in church last Sunday for my work there over the past 10 years. I “retired” in June; the Teen’s graduation and our impending empty nest made me feel like it was time for a change. I’m now spending more time at my knitting activities: designing, teaching, blogging, tech editing. I love it!

We have an addition to our Kindle family. Yes, DH is a kindle junkie. Big old Kindle goes to CollegeGrad. The middle one is mine; DH gave it to me for my birthday last year. The new little one belongs to DH. Do you think he’ll get a Kindle Fire when it comes out? Place your bets!

And because I can’t leave you without your daily dose of fiber:

Don’t they look like cupcakes and frosting?

8 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged chocolate, kindle

Plum Crazy

Posted on September 28, 2011 | 6 comments

September means plums, or more precisely, Italian prunes. I love them fresh…

and I also love them as jam.

This year I thought I’d try something different. I added a cup of chopped, crystallized ginger to the jam when it hit the full rolling boil, and finished boiling it for the prescribed minute. It’s delicious! But here’s the conundrum. I followed the usual Sure-Jell instructions, and the partial jar of leftover jam that I put in the fridge set up beautifully. The jam in the jars that I processed in the water bath canner for 10 minutes are all a little soft. Why are they different? I followed the recipe and instructions, and didn’t over-process the jam. But there’s something about processing it this time that made the set go soft. I’m guessing it has to do with the ginger cooking longer in the jam due to the processing, but I don’t know why. It’s still delicious, though, and not so runny that I would take it all out and re-process it with more pectin. And it’s a little thicker this week than it was when it first came out. Hoping that continues…

And did you notice it’s the same color as my new ruffle tank? Just sayin’!

6 Comments

Posted in recipe

Tagged ginger plum jam, jam

Ruffle Tank transformation

Posted on September 27, 2011 | 9 comments

I finished my red ruffle tank (rav link). Leigh Radford is the designer, and this is the second time I’ve knit this pattern. Last time I knit with Louet MerLin, a merino/linen blend. This time it’s linen all the way, Louet Euroflax sport in burgundy.

I had set this project aside to work on the Zen Rain KAL and the This Little Ziggy vests, but I really wanted to wear it to OFFF. At the beginning of the week, I could tell that I was going to have to do some marathon knitting, which isn’t that much fun with linen! I just had one shoulder to finish and and join to the other, four ruffles to knit, and some i-cord edgings. I had already worked this in the round so there were no side seams to deal with, and omitted the keyhole back neck and just made the back shaping match the front. Even so, I took a few shortcuts at the end. Instead of applied i-cord I opted for a simple slip stitch crochet edging around the neck and armholes. After the crochet bind-off on the first ruffle, I did a purl bind-off on the rest because it was faster for me. Still, I finished binding off my last ruffle at 3 a.m. on Saturday morning. Knowing that I could put this yarn in the washer and dryer meant that I could go to bed and hope for the best in the morning!

The fabric was really crispy before I washed it, almost like a net. I opted to wash it by hand, and I’m really glad I did. I filled the kitchen sink with warm water and a bit of Soak (love this product) and started squishing it. There was a lot of excess dye, so I ended up rinsing it 6 times, and the water was still pink. But oh, the transformation! When I first started handling it, the fabric was stiff and rough. With each subsequent sink full of water, the fabric became progressively more like…fabric! It was so much fun to feel this transformation with my hands. It was still a bit stiff when I was done, but it was headed for the dryer.

I put it in the dryer and checked it every 15 minutes. What an adventure! (I know, I should wash and block my swatches, but then where would the excitement be?) When it was dry, it was a slinky feeling piece of fabric, almost fluid. It is amazing. I love it. It is so comfortable to wear, even on a hot and humid day at OFFF. And it’s a good thing I wore it Saturday, because Sunday was rainy and cold.

I’m glad I got it finished, and I’m glad it fits! I think in a perfect world it would be an inch narrower, but I had already altered it to make it smaller than the smallest size. If it still bothers me the next time I wear it, I’ll crochet a little seam along the sides from the inside. Until then…absolute love.

9 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged linen, red ruffle tank, Ruffle Tank