novamade

what's on my plate

 
Were you aware that November has been renamed Vestvember?  If you weren't, please now consider yourself duly informed.   While some may argue that the vest is experiencing something of a resurgence, I don't think they ever really went anywhere.  My mother has always worn vests, more as a matter of practicality than style (if we are being honest here).  Her arms always get hot in sweaters (I don't understand it; but, there you are).   I have never really thought about it, perse, but I guess a vest is a good venture to undertake as a knitter for no other reason than the lack of sleeves. 

Given my enthusiasm for the vest knitting (as surely that is what I am expressing), one would think I could manage to finish a vest in a reasonable amount of time; but, no, one would be wrong.

 
So I am using Vestvember as an opportunity to finish up Special K's specially requested vest that I have been working on since March (MARCH!).  It's not difficult, I just find the knitting uninspiring.  But he requested it, and it's almost done, so I just need to make the effort.  I have four hours of train travel tomorrow for a one day conference in Boston, I think that will probably help.

 
Most of my crafting hours, of late, have been taken up with crochet.  I am putting the edging on the Babette blanket.  It'll be done this weekend, because it has to be, my friend Lori is going to Costa Rica next week and plans on taking the blanket with her, so, yeah.  Gotta love a real deadline.

 
Other things that have been occupying my time...baking.  I know some of you miss the pies, quite frankly, so do I.  But the best pie (real pie) has butter in the pie crust (especially if it's a shortbread crust...) and I can not imagine eating fake pie crust, which is what I would have to do with my new dairy-free lifestyle. 

I will be honest.  I have missed bake goods.  A lot.  So I finally decided to read up on dairy-free baking, which basically amounts to vegan baking (which I used think was an oxymoron...oh the hubris). 

But thanks to Vegan Cupcakes Takeover the World, there are now baked goods on my menu again.  And they are, delicious.  Who knew?  I just made the "sexy lowfat vanilla cupcakes with fresh berries" last night, and I am not ashamed to admit that I ate one for breakfast this morning.  I guess I might be willing to rethink my stance on the real versus fake pie crust thing...eventually, but I will just stick with the cupcakes for now.  Happiness is a cupcake!

 

what'cha doin'?

 
There's really not a whole lot to see here; but, I was finding my blog silence a little sad, so I thought I'd drop in.  I am in the midst of various and sundry projects in progress and have nothing in the way of finished articles of brilliance to share.  And since there was a time when people who read knitting and craft blogs liked to read about what other knitters (and crafters) were working or how knits were holding up, I thought, "I could do that."

A long time ago, when he was wee, I knit Little Sir a hat to warm his noggin. 

 
This picture is 2.5 years old!!

It was a little big; but, it did its job.  When we got the first big chill in Connecticut earlier this week, we were scrambling around to find things to stay warm and we found his old hat again.  My first thought was to use it on Little Mister's head; but, Sir was having none of it.  It was his and he was going to wear it.  Surprisingly, it fits.  Actually, it fits much better now and he is super excited about it.

He is convinced that his yellow mittens work with the hat as a natty ensemble.  I don't like to argue with him, so I just agreed.

Of course, this means that Little mister is a bit on the hatless side right now.  This makes him sad. I need to do something about his hat situation; but, it would mean covering up his curls, which I am loathe to do.

 
Aside from digging through winter wear to find knits that don't exist (since it takes me forever to finish anything these days), I have been slogging away on my Babette Blanket which got stalled due to yarn shortages. 

 
I grossly underestimated the amount of yarn a crocheted blanket would require.  I think I read somewhere that a crocheted blanket takes 30% more yarn than one that is knit.  I can see why some many crocheters love acrylic, because seriously, I have had to put in two more orders for wool and you know, the natural fibers, they are not inexpensive.

 
I am a little obsessed with crochet right now.  Aside from the amount of yarn required, it's so efficient.  If you are measuring efficiency by time and not resources, I suppose.  The economy of movement required is pretty thrilling too.

 
I am still knitting too, of course.  I started a pair of socks for charity. 

 
It's a plain old stockinette sock.  I am not in love with the way it's turning out, which is probably for the best.  If I liked it too much there would be danger in not wanting to offer it up for charitable purposes.

And then I am still knitting the vest I have spent an inordinate amount of time working on.  You'd think I was knitting a man's sweater for Pete's sake.  Thank goodness for two-hour line waits for flu shots, I guess.

 
So that's what I am about right now, what about you? What'cha doin'?

autumn on the horizon

Summer, auf wiedersehen. Bonjour, Autumn.

If there is one thing a contest or giveaway is good for, it's learning that you are not alone in your insanity.  Some of you have some crazy long lists; and, I totally respect that.  My plans for fall seemed ready, and then a friend gave me a request that might push a ton of my fall projects into winter (as opposed to the few projects I was previously expecting).

So I think this is all of the fall knitting that I have planned.  The grey (back left) is some Beaverslide Dy Goods McTaggert Tweed destined to be a sweater.  I have no idea which one since I have changed my mind about the pattern no less than 6 times between taking it out of the cabinet and winding the cakes.  The orange yarn next to the grey is going to be a shawl, very fall, no?  The taupe/brown yarn next to the orange is going to be a Wallaby,  I think it's time that Little Sir had one that was easy care and cotton.  Below that is some dyed Perrendale wool that is going to be spun up and knit into a sweater for Little Mister.  Next to the blue roving and underneath the orange yarn is a sweater that has been in progress since last fall--it needs sleeves, that's doable.  A skein of Cherry Tree Supersock in birches for socks.  Some Louet sport...maybe another sweater for Little Mister, clearly one who gets so happy about fall needs fall sweaters?  And then the single sock with the remainder of sock yarn for a sock that has been mateless for two years.  So sad.

I was all set with the knitting plans; and, then a friend who bought a house in Costa Rica last year asked if I would make two afghans for her new piece of paradise to brighten things up.  Um, how could I say no?  I could not.  So I am going to be crocheting two afghan throws; but, I need to finish them so she can take them along to her new place in November.  So that is likely going to be where my efforts get concentrated first.  I haven't gotten the yarn yet (and can I just freely admit how giddy I am to be ordering new yarn?  It's so exciting to looks at the colors and imagine what the yarn can be turned into!  I wish I could be a personal shopper for yarn types, I would be so good at that.  Really.).

And then there are the quilts.  I wants to make tons, but I have to finish the log cabin quilt. Little Sir is very interested in helping me.  I think the hold up for this quilt is the fact that I decided to quilt it myself, when the sensible solution would be to send it out to a professional quilter with a longarm machine.  But deep down, there is some part of me that wants to be able to say, "oh, quilt a queen-sized quilt, I've done that, it's not so bad."  That is also the part me that I refer to as my naive and stupid side, so there you are.)

And then there is this autumnal stack for a kid's quilt.

And don't even get me started on my weaving plans.  I don't know what they are, but I know I have plans to weave...

In case you were wondering, I wasn't as successful on the summer finishing front, the red scarf is done (needs wet blocking); and, I am super close to finishing the lacey shawl...I should be able to get things from the summer list done this week though (with the exception of the sweater vest, never have I felt so plagued by such a simple project).  I don't feel so bad about it, I had a nice and restful weekend with my boys, and that was where my priorities were for the holiday.

And as for the contest/giveaway, I used a random number generator to "pick" a winner, and that would be Ali who blogs at Skeins Her Way.  Thanks for playing everyone, good luck with finishing your summer projects and getting through your fall knitting list!

the fine art of crochet

Do you know how to crochet?  Well, now, I do.  I mean I know how to actually crochet; but, also, I know how to read a pattern and chart and all that.  I didn't know before; but, now, because I participated in Maritza and Adrian's Hotpad and Potholder Swap, I totally know how to crochet.  I am pretty excited about it.  I joined the swap specifically to learn the fine art of crochet, and I feel pretty good about being able to learn it all by myself during the course of a month.  The pattern I picked was actually pretty simple; but, it's the one I liked best because it reminded me of a hotpad my grandmother had in her kitchen.  The pattern is called Topflappen.  They were fun to knit.  More info in the gallery and on ravelry, if you want them.

The hotpads and potholder I got in return are awesome.  I love them all, and I have decided that they are too beautiful to actually be used as hotpads and potholders...because they could get damaged and that would be silly.

Thanks for such a great swap Maritza and Adrian!  And thanks for giving me the impetus to learn how to crochet!  Now I am thinking about big granny square blankets...