PDXKnitterati

‘ukulele and more music

Posted on December 30, 2010 | 14 comments

Just to be clear, we did make it back in time for Christmas. It was theTeen’s last appearance as guitarist/liturgist in the Christmas pageant run by the youth. He’s a HS senior, and I’m having empty nest syndrome already…

(incoming flock of angels, just had to share)

But not so much empty nest syndrome that DH and I didn’t abandon him to his own devices for a week so we could play and Christmas shop in Hawaii. DH and I took a ‘ukelele class with this guy one afternoon.

It was easy to pick up a few chords, and as I tell my Pastries, three chords makes a simple song. Since there are only 4 strings, it’s a bit easier than guitar. I can play a barre chord! DH fell in love with the instrument, so I offered to buy him one for Christmas. We shopped here, based on the recommendation of one of my guitar buddies.

Lovely instruments, but we weren’t quite ready to buy.

We went to a show at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center and saw slack-key guitarist George Kahumoku, Jr., and Daniel Ho, who sings, plays piano, ‘ukelele, slack-key guitar, and I don’t know what else. Both of these talented gentlemen have won Grammy awards for their work. Uncle George even let us hold them for a photo op.

When we came home to rainy Portland, it was time to jump right back into Christmas week activities. We finished our uke shopping at Artichoke Music, our favorite local music shop. (We bought our first guitars there many years ago.) There weren’t a lot of ukes in stock (a run on ukes for Christmas, who woulda thunk it?), so we ended up buying a Fluke. Interesting construction, made in USA, big happy sound. It’s very sturdy and DH will be able to take it on his many travels. A winner!

Here’s one knit related thing in this post. Sharon won this vintage learn-to-knit booklet in the white elephant gift exchange at the Lantern Moon holiday party. I love the expression on the knitter’s face.

What’s your favorite knitterly gift this year?

14 Comments

Posted in music, travel

Tagged grammy, ukelele, ukulele

Tempus fugit

Posted on December 30, 2010 | 7 comments

Time flies!

DH and I escaped the pre-Christmas bustle and spent a week on Maui. It was warm, and mostly sunny. Perhaps not the most knitterly weather, but I managed, somehow. Here’s the view with and without knitting.

It was a perfectly relaxing week, which was just what we needed. The guidebooks all say that you should go up Haleakala (the volcano) to see the sunrise. You’d have to leave at 3 a.m. to make this happen, and drive a long winding road. In the dark. We decided that the only way we’d see the sun rise over Haleakala would be from our front porch. The sky was glorious just before sunrise.

And the sun itself wasn’t half bad looking, either.

We did go up Haleakala one afternoon, and it was beautiful in the crater. There are so many colors of sand and rock! We hiked down a bit; coming back up was a lot more work. We started at 9700 ft., but I forgot to check my iPhone altimeter to see how far down we had gone. (Yes, there’s an app for that.)

On the drive back down, the clouds had come in and the sun was shining on the water in a most hazily glorious way. I couldn’t tell where the horizon was because of the clouds. I wasn’t quite sure what I was looking at, because it was so bright, so I just took pictures and hoped for the best.

Here’s my other favorite sunset of the week, down in Wailea.

New needles

Posted on December 17, 2010 | 15 comments

If you read my other blog at LanternMoon.com, you know that the new ebony and rosewood interchangeable needle sets have come in to the warehouse. I’ve been knitting with a prototype of these needles. The joins are really smooth. My yarn doesn’t catch on them, and I haven’t had any come apart while knitting with them. (This used to happen to me with other my Boye aluminum interchangeable needles, a long time ago. I’ve become a wooden needle convert since then.)

The needle tips I’m knitting with are the new Featherlight wood, which is certified as sustainable by the Forest Stewardship Council. The interchangeables won’t be in this wood, at least not for now. I just happen to have gotten lucky and borrowed these to play with. Check them out.

I knit my Mini Mochi fingering weight Infinity Entrelac Infinity Scarf with the size 4 tips.

And I’m now knitting another Noro DK weight version with the size 7 tips.

I like them a lot. They’re not quite as slick as my ebony needles, but I like the slate gray color and slight texture on them. I haven’t been knitting too much this week; the view is a distraction.

Stay warm!

15 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged Knit, lantern moon, needles

Infinity winners: Winfinity?

Posted on December 8, 2010 | 5 comments

Midnight! Time to consult random.org for the winning numbers:

Commenter #4 is the first winner, and Alexandra (bloepper) would like to knit the Mini Mochi version. Congratulations! Check out Alexandra’s yarn bombing activities at her blog, Strickbombe. She’s in Germany!

The second winner is Commenter #11, Courtney. Courtney said yes to either, so she gets the Noro Silk Garden Lite. Congratulations! I’ve met Courtney in real life; she took my Christmas stocking class last year. Courtney, this scarf is even easier than the stocking. The yarn does all the colorwork for you.

Thanks to all for your nice comments. I’m glad you like Infinity!

Knit on…

5 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged entrelac, infinity scarf

It’s beginning to smell a lot like brisket…

Posted on December 6, 2010 | 11 comments

Sorry, but that always sings in my head when I’m cooking for Hanukkah dinner. We had it on Saturday, and it was a lovely gathering. Mmmm, brisket and latkes.

We celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas at our house, so there’s a little of everything going on. I haven’t had a big Christmas tree in several years. DH and the kids don’t care if we have one, so we don’t! I like my little music tree on top of the piano; I put up my favorite ornaments and I’m done. I guess I’m a minimalist at heart.

The stockings are up in their usual knitterly glory.

I like streamlining my decorating so I have more time for fun with friends and family, and for knitting. But not gift knitting; I abhor deadlines. That doesn’t mean there are no knitted gifts, just no gifts on deadline! The first knitted gift has gone out in the mail…(a Pippi hat, if you must know).

Yesterday I had a discussion group for new parents about keeping and making holiday traditions. I started with a story about CollegeGrad. He was 3 or 4 when we started talking about the Christmas story. One day he came to me, talking about how much he loved Little Baby Jesus. Yesss! He understood the Christmas story! Well, maybe yes, and maybe no. He was actually talking about little baby cheeses, which were one of his favorite things to eat. Indeed. I brought some of this cheese to class as a prop and a snack. Becky (fellow Day Old Pastry) decided she would use the wax wrappers to make a real Baby Cheeses creche.

The story has come full circle…

How’s your holiday preparation going?

11 Comments

Posted in Day Old Pastries, Knit

Tagged Baby Cheeses, christmas, Hanukkah, holidays

Infinity and beyond

Posted on December 3, 2010 | 3 comments

I wore the Mini Mochi Infinity scarf yesterday, doubled as a cowl. It was perfect for the chilly, rainy day: a soft warm cloud of coziness.

TheTeen took some more pictures for me, because I didn’t love the ones we took before. I had been in a hurry to catch the last bits of daylight on the last non-rainy day this week, and although I didn’t love the pictures, they were all I had. I like these better, so I swapped them into the pattern, and into my previous post.

And I also played with the cowl/hood look. I like it!

I haven’t knit a stitch since I finished on Monday. I’m not ready to start the two design projects I have in my head; I’m too busy this week to put that much thinking into it. I just want to knit something. It’s too strange having empty needles. I think I want to knit another Infinity! I love entrelac; each little square or triangle is like a mini-project. They go so fast, and you can really see your progress. I’ll knit a shorter version of the Noro Infinity in the same yarn. I already have the yarn; I bought a bag of 10 balls at Sock Summit last year. I used four in the original, three are going to a contest winner, and that means the last three can be mine!

Knit on…

3 Comments

Posted in Knit, pattern design

Tagged infinity scarf, Knit

Infinity, revealed

Posted on December 1, 2010 | 28 comments

We were away for Thanksgiving weekend, and I had some time to knit. There was even a little snow.

It was cold enough that a tiny snowman might need a scarf.

The snowman is wearing the fingering weight version of my new Infinity infinity scarf, in progress. No, I’m not repeating myself. It’s named Infinity for the infinity symbols on the center rectangles, and it’s an infinity, or loop scarf. Here’s the first version, in DK weight Noro Silk Garden Lite.

It’s really long!

It doubles up to make a wonderfully cozy, drapey cowl.

I finished the fingering weight version; it’s knit in Crystal Palace Mini Mochi. I knit it shorter than the Noro version, and I love the length. It doubles to make an airy, light as a cloud cowl.

I’ve been dying to show these to you, ever since I finished the first one! The pattern is available through the Infinity pattern page.

To celebrate my new design, I’m giving away two copies of the pattern, along with yarn to make your own Infinity. One will come with 2 balls of Crystal Palace Mini Mochi (in the green and purple colorway shown) and the other will have 3 balls of Noro Silk Garden Lite (as shown above). The Mini Mochi is enough to make the scarf as shown, and the Noro will make a shorter (but still plenty long) scarf (I used 4 balls for the sample, but I think it’s longer than it needs to be). Do you want one? Leave me a comment and let me know which one!

Don’t wait to buy the pattern if you want it now. If you’re a winner, you can choose a different pattern from my collection, and I’ll send it when I send the yarn for Infinity. Of course, you can knit anything you want with the yarn; I won’t send the knitting police after you if you choose to knit something else!

Contest closes next Tuesday, December 7, at midnight. Go!

28 Comments

Posted in Knit, pattern design

Tagged entrelac, infinity, infinity scarf, Knit

It’s beginning to look a lot like…

Posted on November 25, 2010 | 5 comments

Christmas? At least in some circles. I found this in my box of teaching pieces.

It’s a Christmas stocking that I started while teaching last year’s Snowflake Christmas Stocking class at Twisted. I’m teaching it again this year on Saturday, December 4, 1 to 3 p.m. The class covers turning a heel, reading a chart, and learning to knit stranded colorwork without tangles. We even cover carrying two colors in the same hand. Contact Twisted if you want to register. Already know how? The pattern is available here.

Here’s a contest that I ran across (I have a google alert for Lantern Moon, and they’re featured in one of the prize packages): WEBS is having a huge giveaway to celebrate the 200th episode of their podcast, Ready Set Knit. Check out the amazing array of prizes and enter to win!

And don’t forget to check out my drawing on the Lantern Moon blog, too. I’ll pick a winner after Thanksgiving weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving!

5 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged christmas stocking, contests, Knit

knitting like crazy

Posted on November 22, 2010 | 12 comments

…but I can’t really show you yet. Here’s a little peek.

Look at this gorgeous yarn I got from Lorajean (Knitted Wit) last week!

A perfect cloudy gray…

with sparkles! We have a little project in the works…

Have a great Thanksgiving. I’m not cooking…but I’m in charge of gravy, comme d’habitude. I can handle that. It’s been a rough month, but I have a lot to be thankful for. I’m lucky to have my family, an interesting and rewarding job, and to be able to knit for fun, design a bit, teach knitting, and blog both here and for Lantern Moon. I’m having a little giveaway on the Lantern Moon blog; click over and enter.

Are you knitting for the holidays? I’m not! Too much pressure. There may be gifts, but I’m not obligated to knit for anyone. Gifts happen sometimes, but mostly incidentally or by inspiration. That’s how I roll…

12 Comments

Posted in Knit, pattern design

Tagged Knit, thanksgiving, yarn

Ain’t no sunshine…

Posted on November 18, 2010 | 8 comments

It’s been days since I’ve seen anything this pretty…

I just happened to look out the kitchen window, and there it was. Since then, it’s been rain, rain, rain, and darkness at 5 p.m. with the change back to standard time. But I haven’t been idle. I’ve been making lots of little squares.

Here’s what’s left after four balls of Noro Silk Garden Lite. Yes, two little balls, because there was an abrupt color change at a join in the middle of the fourth ball (how very Noro), so I cut it out and joined the yarn back in when the color repeat made sense.

I really like how this turned out. I’ll be writing the pattern up soon. I need it to stop raining so I can take some modeled pictures! In the meantime, I’m working on a second version in an alternate yarn. I took it to knit night tonight, and finished a ball of yarn. I also brought chocolate chip shortbread, with some crystallized ginger in them. If the combo works for scones, why not for shortbread? Delicious, although I think I like the scones better.

Baby O was at knit night, too, and LJ finished a Meathead hat for him. Cute!

And Sharon brought her beautiful birthday present from Cathy.

Cathy asked friends to send her 10 words or less about why we love Sharon, and came up with this brilliant presentation. The notes are printed on hand made rice paper, and backed with flags of other hand made paper. A bit of gauzy ribbon ties each note to a grosgrain hanging ribbon. This was hanging in Sharon’s office on the morning of her birthday. (It was more spread out there; the ribbon is very long!) The little lights add just the right sparkle.

What’s sparkling in your life?

8 Comments

Posted in Knit

Tagged entrelac, Knit