17 years ago by s t a c i

Crash-Crash

I had a very exciting weekend. I stayed in Austin, saw my friends, and got to attend my first-ever Demolition Derby.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with this rural southern US tradition, I’ll give a quick explanation. Men in helmets climb in to older, wildly painted cars and crash into each other. The end.

It was a BLAST.

The title of the post refers to something my friend Meg overheard a mother say to her toddler at the Derby (in a baby-talk voice), “Do you want to see the crash-crash?”

Hell ya!

	This photo isn’t great, but it is worth the effort to try to make it out. This is a baby, on his dad’s shoulders, with a full-on shaved mohawk. Maybe he’ll get a tattoo for kindergarten graduation.
	Here I am with Meg, between matches. (Rounds? Bouts? I’m really not sure what they’re called. All I know is the time between matches is a good time to open the cooler for another beer.) It was really hot outside.
	Here’s a little movie of the actual crash-crashing. I am not sure why parents let their kids stand so close to the fence. Exciting, isn’t it?!?
	This is another little movie. Meg didn’t know I was recording, but we laughed pretty hard when she found out. That’s Meg’s adorable, very cool fiancé next to her.
	This is the kid Meg asked about in the last video. We watched him sharpen a stick, then poke the other kids with it. He was totally violent and headed for preschool juvvie.
	Car fire! I tell ya, it was an exciting time. Meg and I have decided to never miss a demolition derby ever.
	I didn’t get to spend the weekend with my dogs, but I have a feeling this is mostly what they did.

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17 years ago by s t a c i

Wool & Spit

Standard Friday fare. Sharp curves ahead.

	Pink and Sturdy baby blanket = Finished. I thought about duplicate stitching a snowflake pattern into it, but then I thought again. This is made with a washable wool, and I want it to be well-loved and used, with no details that can start to look ratty. This should be a nice warm blanket when Molly Renee needs to be bundled up during the Alaskan winter. She’ll be warm and pink and girly. Next…!
	I started and finished another project…a scarf made by using a little of the massive amounts of Knit Picks Palette that I have leftover. I knit it double-stranded, and changed colors seventeen times. The cool thing is that I used spit-splicing, so I only had the cast-on and bind-off ends to weave in.
	I don’t think I’ll be modeling any more knitwear myself until it cools off a bit here in Texas. Lucky for me, Anne Boleyn stepped in to help. Next…!
	Next socks = Started. These are my own design. Lookit me. Modeling knitwear when I just said I wasn’t going to. Next…!
	Another great fortune! Several nice people have asked me about what is going on regarding the divorce, etc. The situation is that I’m still here in Houston, waiting for things to get sorted so that I can move to Austin. If fortune cookies are any indication, this move is going to be GREAT. Next…!
	I hope your weekend is as relaxing and peaceful as Lou’s. I know I’m biased, but he is so freakin’ cute. Doncha want to kiss and squish him?

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17 years ago by s t a c i

Ess-Oh-See-Kay-Ess

There used to be a radio ad that you might remember. It was for a set of audio cassettes to help one learn Spanish, but with a trick. The ad told us that you could speak Spanish just by spelling words in English!!

Really.

I spoke with my Spanish-speaking friend (in Spain!) yesterday, and I asked him if he could think of any other examples of spelled English worlds that made a Spanish sentence. S-O-C-K-S is the only one he could think of, only because he remembers the radio ad, too.

Those audio cassettes probably didn’t teach much Spanish.

This phrase isn’t even especially useful. “S-O-C-K-S” (eso si que es) in Spanish means, “That is indeed it.” My friend tried to give me an example of a conversation where this phrase would be most appropriate, but his example included Yul Brynner being in the room, and I got terribly confused.

Anyway, on to some SOCKS…

	In my new signature sock pose. Go With The Flow Socks, from Interweave Press Knit with Araucania Ranco sock yarn, on size 1 US Knit Picks Options DPNs
	I am on a mission to knit less obnoxiously-colored socks. So that I won’t be embarrassed to wear them out of the house. No where in these socks will you find any hot pink, orange, or disco green.
	In fact, there more of a coffee-and-cream color. Nothing obnoxious about that. Ahhh.
	As much as I like these socks, I realize that I have a sock-knitting neurosis that I need to address. While knitting traditional, cuff-down socks (like these), I am paranoid the whole time that I’m not going to have enough yarn. So I end up making short cuffs. No more! From, now on, I will knit toe-up socks, and knit and knit and knit without paranoia.
	You may remember these socks that I knit several months ago for my niece, when we still didn’t know that she was going to be a niece (and not a nephew). Everyone who saw these socks said, “Are you sure those will fit a baby? They’re really small.” I honestly didn’t know the answer back then, but now I do…
	Molly Renee’s feet, in the socks. She seems to be kicking one of them off, but they fit! Sent via camera phone.
	In case you were worried, I can assure you that my bodyguards were present for the entire sock photo shoot.

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17 years ago by s t a c i

As Promised, and Expected

The Expected: a fast-topic-changing Friday!

The Promised: The pattern for the Renee Baby Blanket, in celebration of my niece’s being-born-day!

I have a few more details on Molly Renee…she is 21.5″ long, with curly dark hair. Personality-wise, she’s really laid-back…sleeping straight through her first night, even. She’s a pretty girl, and a relaxed baby.

	The Renee Blanket. A lovely combination of lace, warmth, and wash-ability. This pattern uses 400 grams (8 skeins) of Dale of Norway Baby Ull, or 1440 yards of a substitute yarn with 6 stitches to the inch.
	Five bucks buys you an instantly-downloadable PDF file, which includes the pattern, lace chart, photos, and the Renee Blanket story. $5.00 US, via PayPal. Next…!
	I had a strange sensation when I stepped outside early this morning. It was the sensation of not sweating. Could it be? Might I make it through this Texas summer?? Next…!
	I can’t be the only one this happens to. Relaxing in the evening, knitting on a pair of socks, drinking some wine. I take a sip of wine, and DANGER! Needle! Eye! It’s all about living’ on the edge, I suppose. Yes, that’s orange soda. It was a little early in the day. Next…!
	The dogs got…
	Stinky new chew hooves yesterday.
	I think giving dogs chew hooves must be like giving human children a new video game. I didn’t hear a peep from them for hours. Aside from the crunching, of course. Next…!
	I couldn’t have handpicked a better fortune for myself. Have a great weekend!

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17 years ago by s t a c i

Gracing Us with Her Presence

It was a long, productive night.

Not so much for me, but certainly for my sister and her husband.

Molly Renee finally decided to stop torturing her mother, and take her first step towards autonomy.

Here she is, with her proud big brother. Timmy suddenly looks much older to me, now that he’s not the baby anymore.

She’s 6.9 pounds and a yet undetermined length. (My mom and I have a bet going on this…I say 19.5 inches. Mom’s gonna owe me a cheeseburger.)

Mother and baby are both fine, and doing well.

Pleasure to see ya, Molly Renee!

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17 years ago by s t a c i

Deeply Immersed

Must get off the computer.

Must get back to what I was doing.

Can’t.

Stop…

	Harry Potter books arrived in the mail. Well, the first six, at least. I have a book to my nose every minute that I’m not watching this:
	I’m half-way through the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Lots of wizards and goblins in my life right now. I think I already watched the first two movies ages ago, but watching them back-to-back makes a big difference for me in following the story. I understand so many pop culture references now. I know who Strider is! I know who Arwen is! Yeah, sometimes the bandwagon picks me up much later than everyone else.
	And, this. I haven’t posted about this project before, but I’m nearly finished. It’s a thick, 100% washable wool blanket for Molly Renee. The sort of blanket that she can treat roughly without ruining it. As with every knitted baby blanket, when I near the end, I start to knit furiously. Trying to END THE MONOTONY. Besides, my next project is calling to me. (Since I’m a one-project-at-a-timer, I won’t start the next one until this one is complete.) Almost there.
	Naturally, these guys are the best reading/movie watching/knitting buddies a gal could ask for. My friend, a.k.a. “Strider’s Mistress”, let me borrow her Lord of the Rings DVDs. Her Basenji happens to be named “Strider”. I’ll have this all figured out soon.

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17 years ago by s t a c i

Try to Remain Calm

Ready to blast off into a fast-topic-changing Friday? Well, ready or not…

	I’ve been a little nervous lately. I was nearing completion on my current knitting project, and I had no idea what to knit next. After a few days of searching high and low for something good, my next project idea came in the mail. Cute, right? The shocking thing is…
	…that it came from this magazine. I know that people find nice things to knit within the pages of Cast On, but I usually flip through for a good belly laugh. After all, it oftentimes provides us with gems like this:
	Yeah. Next…!
	I am reading the most delightful book. It is Better Than Beauty, A Guide to Charm, first published in 1938. Much of the information is timeless, while other stuff is more like this: Hair, like any other part of your body, should be washed when it is dirty. If you live in an industrial center where coal dust rules the waves, your hair needs laundering once or twice a week. Next…!
	Next socks = started. These are the Go With the Flow Socks from Interweave’s Favorite Socks book. I’m using Araucania sock yarn. This is also the maiden voyage for my new Knit Picks DPNs. Wow. These needles are fab. Next…!
	Pfffbbffft! Have a great weekend!

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17 years ago by s t a c i

Dripping Cables

Two finished knits in one week? Crazy!

Not really. Today’s FO is a pair of socks I’ve been working on since April.

Yes, APRIL.

I always have a pair of socks going as a portable project, and I rarely focus all of my knitting attention on them. I knit on these during a pedicure last week and made great progress, so I decided to go ahead, finish them up, and take some photos.

	First I had to get Abe to move, then brush off a few tiny black hairs from the backdrop.
	There we go. These are the Aran Braided Socks from Knit Picks, knit with Colinette Jitterbug. I would have made them longer, but Jitterbug doesn’t really offer enough yardage for longer socks. This photo is another total ripoff from Caro’s awesome photo styling.
	I have two favorite things about this sock design. The first thing is the way the cables appear to “drip” right down into the ribbing. The second thing is how stretchy the finished socks are. Very well-fitting, even on my skinny feet.
	This is my first pair of short socks. I can see myself probably wearing these around the house. I can’t see myself wearing short wool socks outside during really cold weather. I’ll get plenty of use from these, but I’m feeling a little ripped off by the yarn company. They could have given me enough yarn for a normal pair of socks. (It was an impulsive purchase where I didn’t check the yardage.) Ah, lesson learned.
	Ambassador Lou. Yesterday I did a home visit for some potential Basenji Rescue adopters. One of the people in the couple had never met a Basenji before, so Lou came along to remedy that problem. Lou was such a gentleman, and he totally turned on the charm. Needless to say, the couple can’t WAIT to get their own Basenji now, even after I told them some horror stories. Here he is, being such a good boy during the car ride there.

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17 years ago by s t a c i

The Yarn Spoke to Me

	I had this lovely alpaca and angora souvenir yarn that I bought a few weeks ago, and since I can’t leave yarn sitting around long enough to become stash, I wanted to knit it up. So I asked the yarn to speak to me, and this is what it said:
	“I will be a hat.” So I got to work. This is my own design…guess what I’m calling it.
	I’m sure it was on the tip of your tongue…”Rhoda”.
	The ties are good. Besides jazzing it up a bit, I can also pretend that I have long hair by swooping it back over my shoulder. I love pretending that I have long hair.
	Modeling a hat in the summer, even in air conditioning, is really too warm.
	Abe and Lou were both a little riled up the other night (when they should have been relaxing), so I gave them each a paper towel to shred. You guys totally missed it. It was a wild party.

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17 years ago by s t a c i

Mad Men Mittens

No spoilers, I promise.

Naturally, I’m KNITTING while watching Mad Men on DVD. In the episode “The Grown Ups”, the first scene opens with Peter Campbell sleeping on the sofa in his office, all bundled up in his coat.

The story is that it’s winter, and the heat is out in the office. Lindy, his secretary, reaches a mittened hand down to wake him. Mittens! Cute mittens! I paused the DVD and got sketching.

And here is the result.

New, free pattern, Mad Men Mittens. They are as absolutely accurate to the originals as possible, except for a few rows of additional color on the thumb (to make for friendlier knitting and fit). I bought the episode on iTunes and studied the mittens frame-by-frame to get them just right. The pattern is available on Ravelry.

Here’s my attempt to copy the sleeping Peter Campbell photo with Tippy. Tippy looks afraid here, but I assure you he is not. He is annoyed that I won’t let him try to pull the mitten off my hand AGAIN.

Free Patterns, Gloves & Mittens, Main, Patterns

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