For Whom

What are you making Grammy? Socks, Evan. For who? For whom, Evan. For me. You always make socks for you. Can you make me socks? Of course I will, Evan.

Angee by Cookie A. in Lisa Souza sock yarn

Vanilla socks in Regia sock yarn

The Time Is Right

Michelle made them, Becky made a bunch of them, and actually there are 2686 of them on Ravelry. And every time I saw them I said, I have to make them. But I never got around to it. Until a couple of weeks ago. You see, I made slippers back in May of 2008 and they finally wore out.




Now I could have probably figured out a way to fix them but it's been almost two years and Olivia was asking for slippers. So here are my French Press Slippers. A bit big at first.





But they felted down really well and they are really comfy.






The purple and green are for Olivia, she picked the colors and mine are the leftover green.



So pretty soon there will be 2687 projects on Ravelry.

I'm In Love

With CPW's. Last weekend, during one of the worst nor'easters I've ever driven in, Jesh had a Canadian Production Wheel Spin-in in Roselle, NJ which is about 15 miles from me. Lisa, Marcy, Fran, and Rosane brought their beautiful wheels. And I am in serious love with them (the wheels not the people.) There were other wheels. too, Jesh, Leslie, Jess, Hilary, Lisa and Jessica had some really nice wheels and of course I brought mine. But the CPW's are just amazing.





When I got my little antique wheel, Mr. Truck said now I have a wheel for each house and I don't need anymore, but I think I'll be getting one of these some day in the not too distant future. And Marcy is such an enabler that I really can't resist.



And don't forget that I have this as ammunition:

From knitting alone

Three wheels would fit in the truck, no problem.

Physics Lessons

This weekend we learned a lot about hydrostatic pressure especially this kind: "Groundwater in water-saturated soils being pushed into the basement by hydrostatic pressure." Apparently over two feet of snow melting followed by almost six inches of rain in one day causes water to make cracks in your basement floor which then ooze water for 72 hours. We're finally drying out, we're sore and really tired but I have some really cool pictures of spinning to share. Maybe tomorrow, now we're just going to bed.

My Green Sweater (which isn't green at all)

When I showed you the Green Sweater it wasn't looking much like a sweater at all. But just cutting the first steek made all the difference.






And when I did the sleeve steeks, it all started to fall into place. And I again marveled at the genius of Elizabeth Zimmerman. This sweater is constructed like no other I've ever knitted. All the details have been thought of.





The corners are all mitered. (Some of mine are better than others and I can really understand Mr. Truck's frustration when he was putting up the crown molding the other weekend.)





The steeks are all in just the right places.





The grosgrain ribbon inside the facing to prevent the fronts from stretching is just such a wonderful touch.





Even under the arms is so well thought out. And I love the decreasing on the top of the sleeve.





I finally found the perfect clasps (and at a good price) at The Button Drawer which had very fast delivery, too.



So, here it is, my Green Sweater.





I did love this story when I first read it and I really wanted to knit this sweater even if I didn't like the sweater when I was done. And I've learned so much while knitting it, my first steeks and some really interesting construction techniques. So I have become a better knitter because of it. But it turns out that I really like the sweater, which makes it even better.

Seems Like I've Done This Before

I've won a medal! I had just about finished my sweater and it snowed here for two days and I had nothing to do but knit and shovel. Olivia had asked for a poncho and I had already bought the yarn so what could I do but knit it? I sat and knit, between shoveling, and since it was chunky yarn on big needles and she's not so big yet, I got a medal for it.






It's my version of a Very Harlot Poncho with some garter stitch and eyelet to replace the fringe. Wee ones don't do so well with fringe so I'm told.





And then I realized that I had made a poncho before. A long time ago my cousin, another tween, had asked me for a poncho and a hat to match and a very little Cherry Pie had modeled them for me. The picture is dated Winter 1975, but it could be the beginning of 1976, which would have made her a little younger than Reese is now and my cousin would have been almost 12. I had almost forgotten.