novamade

fiberlicious : chocolate

The appetite, it has returned.

Have a good weekend!

communiqué from the island

Due to a kid with a cold and suffering from the pain that is teething, my weekend was a little extended.  However before there was misery, there was fun.

I went apple picking with my boys.

We played with pumpkins.

I made cupcakes (although we were all so sick, no one really wanted to eat any).

And I became a resident of sleeve island.

I will be on sleeve island for a while, I think.  But at least when I leave the island I will be closer to having completed my first knit-by-me sweater for myself (I suppose I will have to become a resident of 'collar island' and then 'seaming island' first; but, I hear those islands are pretty happening).

fiberlicious : plums

So there I was in the grocery store, looking at tons of produce and there in the middle of it all, a new shipment of red plums (there were black plums too, but it was all about the red).  The plums made me think of...yarn in the stash.

This Tess Supersock that I got at MDSW doesn't have a colorway attached to it; I am just going to call it "plum."

The plums were good on their own; but, I bought so many, I had to be creative. 

 

So I made a cake.  It's from an old issue of Everyday Food (but I think you can find it online-Plum Upside-down Cake.  Thanks, Martha.

And thanks to all of you for your comments on my new Flower Basket Shawl, it's been a nice addition to my wardrobe (which, really, needs all the help it can get).

Also, if you want to see some hedonistic yarn love, go here.  Who hasn't wanted to roll around in yarn?

Happy weekend everyone!

a little bit of red

It took longer to get around to blocking this shawl than it did to actually finish knitting it.  I was in an orange state of mind and wasn't thinking about red so much.  I guess I was also in a knitting state of mind, as opposed to a blocking state of mind too.  But I finally got around to it.  What do you think?

 

I know this is an often knit shawl, it's nothing new; but I love it.

I think I love it most because the shawl is red.  Or maybe I like it so much because it is for me.  Special K likes it because I finally got around to using the blocking wires he gave me for Christmas last year.

I also liked that the pattern was so simple. The pattern is easy as pie (pumpkin pie, if you are curious).  I knit it without a single lifeline, which (for me) is insane.  It would be a suitable somethin' somethin' for the new-to-lace knitter, if you ask me.

And it's pretty quick too.  Don't let my slowness fool you, if I was more monogamous in my knitting, this would have been done months ago.

Flower Basket Shawl
Pattern: Flower Basket Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark (I used the pattern from Fibertrends)
Yarn: Knit Picks Gloss (Burgandy) 3.25 skeins
Needles: Inox Circulars, US 6
Measurements: 29 inches (long), 65 inches wide
Modifications:  I added one pattern repeat (for 12 instead of 11) for the small shawl size

So let's talk about the yarn, shall we?  I like Knit Picks yarn, in general.   I think that KP yarn is a great deal and offers knitters choices.  I think the Gloss line of yarns is pretty to look at, but I just didn't love knitting with it (split-city!!).  Christy and I had a little 'discussion' about its durability in the past.  We both think that Gloss is a good yarn for shawls, and things that won't get a lot of wear.  I question how durable socks would be made out of this yarn. Christy made mittens from the Gloss (they are pretty, go see them), and mentioned that the wear was noticeable. 

If you have made socks from this yarn and they are wearing well and you want to know what's up with me and my Gloss-negativity, please set me straight.  As I said, I have not knit socks out of the yarn.  This is my second shawl knit with Gloss, and with the excpetion of the remainder of the 4th skein, there is no more Gloss in my stash.  I probably won't be ordering any more of the Gloss, but I certainly will be wearing it.

fiberlicious: clementines

 

Knitting with the orange Trekking made me hungry for clementines.  I have no idea why...

It's not a perfect match; but, it's close enough.

Have a good weekend of knitting, eating, and fun!

on the color orange

These days I am all about the color orange.  There was a time when I thought orange a rather harsh color, but no more.  Some would say I am a little orange obsessed right now (they would be right).  I will spare you the ridiculous total number of projects I have in progress at the moment and just limit this post to the orange projects (that are actually on the needles).  It's not so bad in those terms...

A sweater in some red-orange wonderfulness from Beaverslide.  I am going to be so ready for fall.  Oh, Beaverslide, how I love thee.

Here is my "take it with me, you never know if you'll have some dead time to kill" knitting.  It's a sock, nothing uber special...besides the color.

This sock was actually done for about 24 hours and then Lolly saw it and mentioned how small my feet were...no, my feet are not as small as I hoped they were when I "finished" the sock.  So I ripped out the toe... That's okay, it just means that I can work some more with the orange goodness of this yarn.

And then there is my absolute favorite thing (at this particular moment)...

This burnt orange coloring in this absolute perfect yarn (which I was pretty much blissuflly unaware of until Ashley dangled the carrot (or icicle) in front of blogland.  Sea Wool...I want every color I can get my hands on.  So soft...so pretty...so perfect.

And not in the realm of orange...I will be blocking something that is red tonight.  A finished something, it's about time. And I am going nuts considering the possibilities for this little bit of lovliness. Ashley, why do you torture me with your creativity?

shake it like a polaroid picture

Do you remember how Little Sir put his knitwear modeling career on hiatus?  Now, thanks to Ms. Bestiched, he has the tools necessary to bring out his inner rockstar and make that career break count for something.  Thank you, Diana.  Little Sir loves the shakers.  He thinks they are awesome (just like you and LL).

Truly.

He is also a fan of the box.

Not only did Diana make Little Sir's day, she also made mine.

Fun scraps and vintage buttons are one thing, but lace crocheted by her grandmother?  Honestly, I hardly feel worthy.  Thank you Diana, I feel like I got the better end of our little swap.  Truly, I do.

And since there seems to be a lot of "when it rains it pours" (but in a good way) going on in Chez Archives, I also need to thank Ms. Fricknits for this Koigu marvelousness...

This is one particular instance of everyone winning out in the inconvenient yarn requirements that Interweave releases in advance of the magazine.  I bought too much yarn for Special K's cobblestone and Ms. Frick happened to need some extra yarn for a bit of cuteness for the Biscuit.

And then I won a blogiversary contest that Brenda had. Thanks for the fabulousness, Brenda!

Brenda also had Ann send me a pattern I had been coveting for a while.  Now to find some yarn...heh.

my kind of town

Chicago is a fun city.  If you have never been, and the opportunity presents itself, you should go.  I am strategizing ways to make a return trip with the family at some point (I am envisioning great joy in the eyes of Little Sir at the thought of Sue in the Field Museum , but since an empty box entertains him to no end, a skeleton of a dinosaur might just push him over the edge of reason). 

There is tons to see and do in Chicago, and three days isn't enough time to do it.  Especially if one is expected to attend conference sessions about the larger meaning of archives in a digital world, or something like that.  The conference was good (though I felt that quantity over quality was the mantra when putting together sessions this year...some of my sessions were mediocre at best--this is just my opinion though), in any case, there were yarn stores.

I was able to meet up a with a fellow knit blogging archivist, you may know of her, her name is Lolly.  We were able to hit some museums and yarn shops during our brief stay in the windy city.  The two local yarn shops we visited were Knitwerks and Loopy Yarns.  Both shops were pretty great, very different in atmosphere.  Knitwerks was the first shop we went to.

Knitwerks is owned by Cherl, she rocks.

She has only been open for 9 months.  Her shop is well-maintained and is super colorful (just like Cherl's personality).  She has some really nice selections (like Dream in Color, a Chicago dyed yarn).  Lolly and I were very well-behaved:

I got a skein of Dream in color (the choclately one) sock yarn, Lolly got the green Dream in Color worsted and some lovely lace weight dyed in California , it's pretty, see for yourself.

Lolly and I spent Friday morning and most of Friday evening with a Chicago knit blogger, Amy.  Amy spent her whole day off making nice with us.  She took us to see a globe with a knitted sweater (part of a Chicago art installment).

We also went to the Field Museum; but, there was, of course, the requisite yarn trip.  Amy took us to Loopy Yarns, a fun little shop fairly close to our hotel.  There was a lot of yarn at Loopy.

They have a great selection of vegan yarn choices.

And, of course, their Claudia's handpainted is nothing to sneeze at.

I really enjoyed our little knit bloggers meet-up in the lobby of our hotel Friday night the best though.

It was fun to sit and knit with Amy, Lolly and Rebecca.  There were definitely other knit blogging archivists at the conference (as evidenced by all the knitters knitting in sessions and the random conversation about Ravelry overheard between sessions.

I heard there are plans to organize a little more for next year's conference.  Yes, we archivists, we know how to have a good time.

And lest you think me unappreciative, thank you all for your kind words, congratulations and well wishes in celebration of my blogiversary.  I have had a lot of fun with you all and learned and laughed a lot with you.  I really enjoy being part of this on-line community of knitting fun.  And having this community certainly does make archives conferences a lot more interesting.  Just sayin'.