December 2005 Archives

Just trying to clear my About page. I should've done this last year!

I got the idea for this 52 Books in 52 Weeks meme from Large Hearted Boy, who did this last year.

1. A Map of the World, Jane Hamilton ** Fiction
2. Smilla's Sense of Snow, Peter Høeg *** Fiction
3. Contact, Carl Sagan *** Science Fiction
4. A Fire upon the Deep, Vernor Vinge *** Science Fiction
5. A Deepness in the Sky, Vernor Vinge
6. Dune: The Battle of Corrin, Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
7. Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman
8. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
9. The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon ** Fiction
10. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell, Susanna Clarke
11. How I Live Now, Meg Rosoff
12. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown ** Fiction
13. The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Luis Zafón *** Fiction
14. The Final Solution, Michael Chabon
15. Battle Royale, Koushun Takami ** Fiction
16. The Broker, John Grisham
17. Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier
18. A Density of Souls, Christoper Rice
19. The Other Side of the Story, Marian Keyes
20. London Bridges, James Patterson
21. I, Claudius, Robert Graves
22. A Winter Haunting, Dan Simmons
23. A Ladder of Years, Anne Tyler
24. The Twentieth Wife, Indu Sundaresan
25. Orlando, Virginia Woolf
26. The Ivy Chronicles, Karen Quinn
27. Leap of Faith, Queen Noor of Jordan ** Non-Fiction
28. 3rd Degree, James Patterson
29. How To Be Famous, Alison Bond
30. Gaudí: An Introduction to His Architecture, Juan-Eduardo Cirlot
31. Salt: A World History, Mark Kurlansky
32. Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, Ross King
33. The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, Oscar Hijuelos
34. State of Fear, Michael Crichton
35. The Manchurian Candidate, Richard Condon
36. The Fourth K, Mario Puzo
37. Matchbook, Samantha Daniels
38. Women About Town, Laura Jacobs
39. Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes
40. Grecian Holiday, Kate Cann
41. Loose Lips, Claire Berlinski
42. In The Flesh, Emma Holly
43. The Nerd Who Loved Me, Vicki Lewis Thompson
44. High Country, Nevada Barr * Fiction
45. Empty Cradle, Karen Harper
46. Deep Freeze, Lisa Jackson
47. For My Daughters, Barbara Delinsky
48. The Good, The Bad, and The Undead, Kim Harrison
49. Ain't She Sweet?, Susan Elizabeth Phillips
50. Just The Way You Are, Christina Dodd
51. Almost Like Being In Love, Christina Dodd
52. Close To You, Christina Dodd
53. Life of Pi, Yann Martel *** Fiction
54. Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Lynne Truss
55. The Last Knight: The Twilight of the Middle Ages and the Birth of the Modern Era, Norman Cantor
56. Stradivari's Genius: Five Violins, One Cello, and Three Centuries of Enduring Perfection, Toby Faber
57. Animal Dreams, Barbara Kingsolver
58. The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, Yann Martel * Fiction
59. A Very Good Year, Mike Weiss * Documentary
60. A Time of Angels, Patricia Schonstein
61. Hidden Prey, John Sandford
62. Traditional Knitting: Aran, Fair Isle and fisher ganseys, Michael Person
63. Lucrezia Borgia, Sarah Bradford
64. Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America and American in Iran, Azadeh Moaveni
65. The Road to Dune, Frank Herbert, Brian Herbert, and Kevin J. Anderson
66. The Essence of Style: How the French Invented High Fashion, Fine Food, Chic Cafes, Style, Sophistication, and Glamour, Joan DeJean
67. Don't Eat This Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing of America, Morgan Spurlock
68. The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape, James Howard Kunstler
69. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini *** Fiction
70. Honeymoon, James Patterson and Howard Roughan
71. Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman, Yvon Chouinard *** Non-Fiction
72. The Snow Garden, Christopher Rice
73. Gilgamesh, English translation by Stephen Mitchell Not in my top 20, but a beautifully formatted book.
74. The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of the Oil Age, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-first Century, James Howard Kunstler *** Non-Fiction
75. Confessions of an Heiress: A Tongue-in-Chic Peek Behind the Pose, Paris Hilton, et al.
76. The Limits of Enchantment, Graham Joyce
77. The Memory Keeper's Daughter, Kim Edwards
78. The Birth of Venus, Sarah Dunant
79. Magic Street, Orson Scott Card
80. A Slight Trick of the Mind, Mitch Cullin
81. Being Mrs. Alcott, Nancy Geary
82. The Turquoise Ring, Grace Tiffany
83. Chromosome 6, Robin Cook

Pattern: Bea Ellis Knitwear Let It Snow! hat
Yarn: Hat: Dale of Norway Heilo in #3152 Brown and #0020 Natural. Lining: Marks & Kattens Camomille in #208 Cocoa.
Needles: US4 16" circular and dpns, US2 dpns; bamboo

I finished the hat *just* before we left on Christmas Eve. It's going to be a late gift anyway, as the recipient is halfway around the world. I wove in all the ends, tucked in a gift card, stuck the whole thing in a cute bag, and ta-da! It's ready to mail.

Doing stranded decreases on double-pointed needles can be really tricky! Even trickier when you're talking to a group of knitbloggers at the same time.

Here's the stranding on the inside. I got so bold as to strand across 6 stitches. There was a row of 9 stitches, but as this is for a child, I decided to twist the background and contrast colors at stitch 5. It wouldn't do for curious little hands to go poking around the top of the hat!

My opinion on sewing versus knitting the lining to the hat: when my niece got her Traditional hat, the first thing she did was to twirl it around by the tassel and then smear it with birthday cake icing. Then she proceeded to poke her fingers through all the loops and, in essence, tried to tear the hat apart. I was wincing with pain as she did this, despite the assurances of my brother and sister-in-law that she did, indeed love the hat. I recovered the hat from her grasp and proceeded to tighten all the knots and make sure that all the ends were woven in properly, and discovered that a few of my stitches attaching the lining to the hat were already loose. Having fixed those, I resolved to find a better solution the next time around, since Let It Snow! was designated for another child.

The knitted-on lining feels sturdy and despite my persistent pulling, has not thrown any stitches out of alignment. I should've knit a few more hat rows before knitting the two together, as it shows on the top picture that the lining is weighting the hat down a bit. With hats that are put on and taken off quite often, it's better to not have to worry about stitches being ripped out. I'd use the knitted-on lining technique again.

I know I'm being the flaky KAL host now, but I figured everyone deserves a break. (Plus, I'm hosting yet another cold (augh!), fever, and other delightful bacteria in the system...)

Who's been shopping? Who's been neglecting their knitting to buy pressies, bake cookies, go to parties, and ignore their blog for a bit of holiday relaxation? Me! And if you're reading this, step away from the computer and go do something fun. We'll all catch up next week. Have a wonderful holiday, everyone!

(Still here? Some of you are just persistent! Make sure to check our gallery to see who's done with their project!)

Sweaters & Vests
◊ Kim of Knitter in Progress has joined! She's trying to decide whether to knit a hat or a Dale of Norway Olympic sweater, Albertville. Well Kim, seeing as I put you here..... just kidding! Kim's warm-up to the sweater was her fabulous Christmas Rose Bag.
◊ Jen has put her sweater in timeout. Hey, it's the holidays, and she's got more than half of it done.
◊ Jill has swatched for her sweater, yay! She's got some initial thoughts on stranded knitting, but Jill, don't give up. It gets better along the way.
◊ Beth has put her Poetry in Stitches sweater in her 2006 to-do list.

Socks & Stockings
◊ Jessica, whom I met at the knitbloggers get-together, has a dorky picture of me wearing my unfinished Let It Snow! hat.
◊ Liz has finished her stockings! Woo hoo, they look so good. Everyone, go take a look!
◊ Kate has decided to continue with her stocking! It's a great-looking sock, Kate, smurfy and imperfect as it is!

Mittens
◊ Liz needs to seam three mittens (one is already done). And she's doing another pair. Way to go, Liz!

Hats & Headbands
◊ Jillian bares all (ha ha) with her almost-finished headband!
◊ Julia will be working overtime on the Pirate Hat, 3 days left till Christmas! Go Julia, go!
◊ You'll just have to take my word for it that Andrea is almost to the decreases of her Flenten hat! Her colors are beautiful. We'll have to wait until next week to see them, though. I hope!
◊ Sarah has knit yet another hat, the really cool Triple Patterned Watch Cap. That was a quick knit, Sarah! It looks fabby!
◊ Susan has made some progress on her hat! Check out her really cool colors! I think we have another stranded knitter addict here....
◊ Nancy's Traditional hat is knitted with a third color! She left her pattern in the airline seat pocket, but she's going to try to figure the rest of it out!
◊ Jessica finished her husband's Pirates hat, and it fit him! Nothing that a little bit of blocking can't fix, eh Jessica?
◊ Your host has been trying to find her camera. You'd think in 800 square feet of apartment a camera would be an easy thing to find. Not. Anyway, Let It Snow! is finished; I will not be attaching a pompom or a tassel, as I like the top detail. But enough! More on said hat when said camera is recovered.

On with the festivities!

This is cool: Plant a tree and the site owners will make a donation to growaforest.com for every tree planted.

Inhabitat (one of my favorite, favorite sites) always has great gift ideas. Take the Eggling plant from Elswares. Or the MoMA lace bag. Come to think of it, Elsewares has some interesting stuff, too.

Comments closed for this post.

For those of you hungering for a Norwegian KAL update, I'll post on Thursday. In the meantime, you can look through all the links on the sidebar to get a good fix.

Thanks everyone for comments on the new masthead! It's in progress; I'm not completely satisfied with it yet. I was considering a site redesign, but ultimately decided not to. This is my look, and mastheads are easier to update anyway.

*Sunday's meetup was a great success, thanks to Lauren, who put it together. Despite the confusion of which coffeeshop we were all supposed to meet, we all came together at Knit Café. There were carpool buddy Lori, Kris, Allison, Julia (who is as lovely as everyone says she is, really), Spaazlicious Wendy, and Nancy, all of whom I've met before.

I finally met Marnie, who was wearing her pink Hopeful (and who happens to be spinning *the same* 16 ounces of olive green Corriedale at dk weight as me). And then there was Andrea (sorry for mangling your name!), Jessica, and Jillian, who are all part of our Norwegian KAL. In hindsight, I should've taken a photo of us with our KAL knits--coulda, shoulda, woulda, but didn't. Oh well!

Finally, there were the (competely new to me) knitbloggers who rounded out the group: Heidi, Hilari, Miyon, Kathy, Knit & Tonic Wendy (we'll get you spinning pretty soon, girly), and Jen (another rock climber, woo hoo). I know I didn't get to sit and chat with each and everyone there, but I'm sure there will be more opportunities to meet up again in the future!

Kathy, Lori, Julia, Lauren, Andrea, and I hung out at Mel & Rose after Knit Café closed. We had a KNITTERS' MOMENT! when a lady walked by our table wearing a beautiful ivory handknit, thigh-grazing, swing coat made in garter stitch and feather-and-fan... Being the knitting geeks that we were, we stopped her and analyzed her coat. Oh, it was beautiful. Lori, don't forget to share the pictures!

What a great way to usher in the holidays. Let's do it again, ladies!

Because I don't like to post without a picture, here are a couple more pictures of Germany. BF in the woods (so very Hansel and Gretel) behind the family's summer house, and

a maypole on a beautiful, sunny day. For Sandy, the sky queen.

Apart from changing my masthead, I have not done anything worth blogging about. My Let It Snow! hat is on its decreases, and I'll bring it to the Sunday meetup.

Speaking of meetup, if anyone from the South Bay wants to carpool with me and Lori on Sunday, let me know in today's comments. We're planning on leaving at around 10.15a from Redondo Beach.

Still spinning the merino and tussah mix; I've got about 2 yards of fiber left. Spinning from the fold is time-consuming in that I'm working with pieces no longer than 6 or 7 inches in length, but it lets me practice with spinning from the fold more.

I've been reading Andrea Tung's blog, in which she chronicles her progress of launching her new alpaca yarn line, Fable Handknit. Andrea sent me some yummy yarn samples about a month ago, and the last time I read her blog she was going to have more colors soon.

I found a couple of Filipino food blogs I'd like to share (because we eat the most interesting things): Beyond Adobo and Stefoodie. There's also Deep End Dining, whose authors are not Filipino, but there are a couple of posts on balut [pronounced bah-loot], which is certainly one of the Philippines' most intriguing dishes. My mom said that that was one of my favorite things to eat when I was little! Gak!

Reading: Still reading. I can finally read *and* knit at the same time! Orson Scott Card's Magic Street, Nancy Geary's Being Mrs. Alcott, Grace Tiffany's The Turquoise Ring, Mitch Cullin's A Slight Trick of the Mind, Robin Cook's Chromosome 6.

This site is called Cute Overload! ;). Don't say I didn't warn you.

A few people are doing holiday knitting, others trying to catch up with old projects, yet others keeping the fixation on colorwork and going along with it. Ready for the latest? Here we go:

Sweaters & Vests
◊ Rebekkah talks about almost succumbing to mindless purchasing! (Like it hasn't struck *you* before.) She wisely settled on color cards instead.
◊ Jill has been busy with her Christmas knitting; drop by and ask her about the KAL, will you?
◊ Sydney is almost done with Danger, woohoo! This was also her first foray into steeking.
◊ Julia will be moving to hats now; she'll be knitting Adrian's Pirates hat for her teenager.
◊ Catherine will also be moving to hats, since she'll be making Traditional.
◊ Beth has posted some photos of her Poetry in Stitches kit! Such colors, what a great pattern!

Socks & Stockings
◊ Jess has a sneak peek of stocking #1. Halfway there!
◊ Kate has paused (and I hope temporarily) at the heel of stocking #1. Kate, don't give up!

Mittens
◊ Nanette of Knitting In Color will be knitting Selbu from Sheila McGregor's Traditional Scandinavian Knitting. She's added her own twist, knitting little people on the cuff! Also... Nanette has written a book on stranded knitting, for anyone interested in even more colorwork!
◊ Terri has been busy, but she's given us a sneak peek of her mitten!
◊ Carie in her December 5 entry has more progress pictures of Selbu.
◊ Katie has finished one Frostrosen mitten! She overcame those pesky gauge issues and did a fabulous job, didn't she?
◊ My birthday buddy Véronique has posted a tip on knitting from charts. Quite a logical one, don't you think?

Hats & Headbands
◊ Prolific Sarah has finished yet another hat, the Triple Patterned Watch Cap, this time in so-relevant-for-holidays red and white! Check out those floats, they are sooo neat.
◊ Jessica has the first sighting of a Pirate on her blog! Looks good in black and white, Jessica! (And I have a feeling your son may like this, too!)
◊ Your host has reached the decrease rows of her Let It Snow! hat. Stranded knitting and decreases at the same time, how exciting!

Here's a closeup of the lining, whose edge was knitted to the hat. Here's how I did it: I used a crochet provisional cast-on and knit my 2.5" of cotton lining. I threaded my live stitches onto a length of worsted. Then as I undid the crochet loops I picked up the resulting live stitches and started knitting the pattern.

It must be noted that however many rows you did with the smaller needle for the lining *does not* mean you should knit the same number rows with the larger needle for the hat itself. It's a matter of measuring every now and then. When I thought the lining and the hat where about the same length, I went ahead and knit one more row of hat. The next row, I knit both the hat and the lining together, stitch for stitch, continuing in pattern. I picked up the lining stitch from back to front (that is, if you're facing the hat/wool side and the lining/cotton side is inside).

This method seems to work just as well as sewing the lining after completing the hat. I'll wait until I've finished and blocked it, though, before I give my final opinion. I have one more--Ufserud--to go!

Biting into a Vosges Gianduia truffle. Hazelnut and milk chocolate are a match made in heaven.

On the rock, this weekend, when stepping on a non-existent edge to reach for a handhold just beyond my reach. And falling. A split second of freefall where my heart leaps and my stomach churns, the rope finally catches, and I curse myself for not lunging higher. And laughing.

Finding the perfect long-sleeved top at the Prana year-end sale, and getting an additional discount for a frayed hem. Prana's sizing is inconsistent, and with Liz Claiborne buying the company who knows what will happen to the "quality". Nonetheless, I love me a good bargain.

The Chronicles of Narnia now on film. Regardless of the deeply religious undertones, it is still a great story. We *may* brave the masses of theatergoers to see The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

It occurred to me that I never showed any pictures of my European vacation. While I can't show all 1500, I'll make it a point to show a few every now and then.

As the host for the 2006 World Cup, Germany is gearing up for increased tourism. In addition to restoring some monuments, they've scattered these fiberglass animals in cities of which the animals are a symbol. In Munich it's the lion. I was enamored with the nature theme of this particular one; in addition it reminded me of the Narnian lion king, Aslan.

Also in Munich, a yarn store. Funny how we would walk through the little streets and accidentally come upon yarn stores! I didn't buy any yarn in Germany, land of yummy sock yarn. Oddly enough, I'm okay with that. If anything, it's an excuse to go back and get some. If you're looking for a yarn store in Germany, here's a great list to get you started!

I bought 4 ounces of Rose Merino/Tussah from Carolina Homespun at this year's Stitches West. I'd been loathe to spin with it, as it's so lovely to look at, but beneath all the (really nicely, thoroughly carded) loveliness was my problem: how to spin this? With multicolored roving you can spin it two ways: lengthwise in skinny little bits or from the fold. With the first half-ounce I experimented with both techniques, and both produced the barber-pole effect. Lengthwise in skinny little bits was fine, but it got a little tiresome having to separate and keep track of the color sequence of all the bits. So out of pure laziness I decided to stick with spinning from the fold. You can also see it this way: I learned a new technique!

My thicknesses vary because I'm still getting the hang of 1) spinning merino and tussah silk, two new fibers for me; 2) spinning from the fold; and 3) trying to get a consistent number of treadles per specific length of fiber drafted. It's kind of cool, a little frustrating, but I need to get through it. I'm as much a process spinner as I am a knitter, I've found.

Following link upon link upon link, I stumbled onto Knitterguy's site. He's posted a series of entries on spinning fine yarn on a Lendrum, sprinkling them with little tips for spinning. Like using Vaseline instead of 20w oil for lubricating moving parts. Very cool.

Thanks to Kitty Kitty, who sent me a link to this site, which talks about yarn thicknesses and counts. Remember my little cone of 18/2 tweedy alpaca? Well, it really should be 2/18: the 2 refers to the number of plies Mr. Tweedy Alpaca Cone has; the 18 refers to its thickness, which means the yarn has been spun 18 times the standard length of 500 yards. According to the site, "The primary standard to determine yarn thickness for wool and acrylic is worsted at 500 yards/pound." If you multiply my yarn thickness by the standard (18 x 500) it comes out to 9,000. Divide this by the number of plies (2) and my yarn comes out to 4,500 yards/lb. Interesting, no?

More random linkage, this time gift ideas:

Kai dental floss holders that look like piranha. I'd love one of those!

Design company and vendor CSA makes really cool PopInk plates; my favorites are the Happy Kitty Bunny Pony and Cannibal Kingdom sets.

I know, this isn't a gift idea, but maybe you could make it the front of a greeting card for all your math and science friends: π (that's pi) to 1 million places. (As an aside, did anyone ever read Carl Sagan's Contact?)

This is for you.

And of course, this. I know, I've posted this before, but what else can top this mindlessness?

Presenting the Norwegian KAL gallery. Is your finished knit not there? Please comment in the post to let me know if I can use your FO picture there. When you finish your project, with your approval I'll post a picture of it in the gallery and link directly to your site. The more, the merrier!

Sweaters & Vests
◊ Sydney started on her Ingeborg! She's posted sleeve pictures here and here. She's also working on Danger's second sleeve.
◊ Head on over to Julia's, because she's finished her Insomnia sweater. it looks amazing! Congratulations Julia!
◊ Liz finished her Nykvarn vest too. Looks great, doesn't it? I like the way she used a single motif on the back.
◊ Beth has made her choice of sweaters to knit and it's ">the Carpathian Black Roses jacket from Norsk Strikkedesign. Great pick, Beth!
◊ Catherine of Knittin' Notes has joined the KAL! She'll be knitting her own design: an hourglass weater with a snowflake border on the sleeves and the bottom of the sweater.

Socks & Stockings
◊ Jessica had to order more yarn for her Norwegian stockings. In the meantime, you can read about knitting Fair Isle flat vs. in the round.
◊ Jess is in the homestretch with her stockings! (And no, we're not bored of it yet! Here's one deliciously long entry on it.
◊ Jenny hasn't started her project, but it's her birthday! Go say hi. Go on.
◊ Liz is still having some tension issues with her stocking. Drop by and give her some encouragement!
◊ Kate has a great post on her learning how to do stranded knitting.

Mittens & Gloves
◊ Virtuella has posted her first pictures of her reindeer mittens! Like some of us, she's having tension issues, but she's going ahead with it. Go give her some encouragement!
◊ We're smitten with mittens! Carie posted progress pics of her Latvians and her lovely Norwegians.

For all the hat people, here's an excerpt of an email from Bea Ellis:

Your hat [my Traditional] came out really great. Sounds like you are all having fun. I used to teach knitting for 12 years, and did many workshops on two-color knitting. The hat and headbands were designed for my students, as I had a hard time finding good projects for the class. Little did I know that these would be used for on-line knit alongs.

Hats & Headbands
◊ Jillian is almost done with headband #1! How do you like stranded knitting so far, Jillian?
◊ Adrian has posted the link to her We Call Them Pirates hat! Get it here. Make a great hat in a week!
◊ Jessica of Rose-Kim Knits has joined our KAL; she's knitting Adrian's Pirates hat for her husband. Good choice, Jessica!
◊ Tiffany received her Traditional and Kristen kits and received a cool pattern booklet as well. Lucky Tiffany! She'll get started on her hats in the new year.
◊ Sarah has made two great hats! They're on their way to the lucky recipients in Alaska!
◊ Susan is happily settling in her new house. Her Let It Snow kit finally arrived, but let's give her a moment to settle down!
◊ Michelle has been working on steadily her Reindeer hat in cheery green and white. It'll be done by Christmas, for sure!
◊ Nancy will be knitting her Traditional in Vietnam; she'll be there for the holidays. Have a great time Nancy!
◊ Your host has started Let It Snow! in brown and cream.

My tension is even, I'm happy to say. I'm doing the cotton lining a different way this time around: I used a provisional cast-on and put the live stitches on a length of yarn. When the wool knitting has reached the same length (not necessarily the same number of rows, btw) I'll knit the cotton and wool stitches together. Adrian did this with success on her Pirate hat, so I know it's doable.

Is it me, or is anyone else inspired to do more stranded knitting beyond this KAL?

BF liked his hat so much that he wore it to pills and it's stretched to fit a watermelon, not a head. He asked me to redo the hat, and fix the sizing so that if it's a snug fit that will stretch slightly.

Sunny day. Bright colors. A hat that fits. Happy BF. This was reknit on Denise circulars #9, from the brim up.

Washed, the pilling isn't too bad. I guess it needed a washing. I guess I've been designated ribbed-hat-washer-girlfriend. Hmmph. Let's see who's getting their handspun, handknit cashmere socks for their berfday.

It's Friday and what does that mean? Why, it's the return of random linkage:

Got a yearning for crochet? Come on, give it a try. I found a crochet blog with free patterns for making cute little animals. Time to use up those yarn ends!

Heather "Dooce" Armstrong is such a good storyteller.

Paper cuts like you've never seen. Wow.

Established & Sons is a beautiful site featuring design.

Someone at Inhabitat had the same Thanksgiving dinner as BF and me.

Cool lamp. Neato tiles. Oh boy, I need a house for these things *now*!

Someone is so enamored with Eye-Key-Ah that they started a blog. Yes. They did.