The Best Baby Gift Ever

Well, I don't know if that's really true, and it might be a bit conceited to claim that something I had a part in is the best ever of anything, but, well, I think maybe it is. My friend Kristen, one of the lunchtime fiberphiles, is pregnant, and due in mid-August. She's the first of us to have a baby, and thus we have been inordinately excited. Almost as soon as we found out she was expecting the wheels began to turn, and everyone was thinking of what to knit for this, the first fiberphile baby. I wanted to make a blanket and someone else did as well, and then I thought that, instead of making this poor summer baby loads of warm wool blankets we could all make one together, from all of us, which would be truly special and unique. So that's what we did. We all (there were 6 of us, now 7)consulted on the pattern, and Rachel and I picked out the yarn and distributed it to the out-of-towners, those who have left us for bigger and better things in Portland and Lake Tahoe. We each knit 5 squares, and then Katrina, who was new to the group when we started but is now firmly entrenched, did the border and a fair chunk of the seaming (along with Rachel). Here we are at the quasi shower we held for Kristen at Remedy Teas on Saturday (have you been there? You should go.) . I'm sure Pam (in Portland) and Daisy (in Lake Tahoe) were with us in spirit. From the left, we have Shibani, Jennifer, Kristen, me, Katrina, and Rachel. None of us but Katrina had seen the finished blanket when we gifted it, but we were all completely thrilled at how well it turned out! Kristen loved it, and wouldn't even let go of it to put it back in its gift bag when we left. I love that we all came together to make something this special for Kristen, who truly deserves it. Here's hoping that it becomes her baby boy's favorite!
I'm going to skip the usual project write-up for this because I only knit a bit of it and we all did different squares and used different needles sizes and etc. The pattern is the Textured Blocks Throw from Vogue Knitting on the Go: Baby Blankets Two, and we used Cascade 220 Superwash, purchased at the Fiber Gallery in Seattle.

Knitting night cookie fest

This post is a tad belated, but Tuesday night we had our knitting club meeting at my place as a special Christmas treat. It was full of cookies and spiced cider and more cookies. Here we have Vivian (six months pregnant!), Anne-Marie, and Kristen enjoying the festivities:A good time was had by all, and I still have a few cookies left. Vivian brought some really tasty chocolate cookies that I now have in the freezer for emergency cookie cravings, and I was able to convince Kristen to take some home for her husband, but there were a lot of cookies for the four of us.
Before Vivian and Kristen arrived, Anne-Marie and I exchanged presents. You can see what I made her in my previous post, but she made me a neat cup cozy, shown here: I believe it's the first crocheted item I've owned, for a long while at least. It's pretty big - that's a 20 oz. cup inside (Full of tea. It would be way more mocha than I could handle.). I have to say, I took it to work on Wednesday and I think it kept the tea warmer than those little cardboard wrappers they give you, even in a brisk wind, and it's better for the environment! She also gave me The Knitting Answer Book, which I suspect will come in handy. Thanks Anne-Marie!
We had a slight fire incident while opening gifts. Yes, you read that correctly - fire incident. I had wrapped Anne-Marie's scarf in tissue paper inside a gift bag, and there were candles burning on the kitchen counter. She stepped back a bit to try on the scarf, and I was watching her when all of a sudden I saw more brightness than usual in my left eye. The tissue paper, which had been tossed on the counter, had encountered the candle and burst into flame. I blew on it (bad move), Dave ran over and blew on it (still a bad move), and then I grabbed it and flung it in the sink (finally, some sense). Here's the evidence: Should you be planning on trying this yourself, note that tissue paper burns very quickly and without much smoke. Combusts, really. And blowing on it makes it burn even faster. Funny, that whole oxygen feeding the flames thing! However, there was so little smoke that it didn't even set off the smoke detector which was almost directly over it. Good times!
I'm just getting ready to head to the airport to go back to Pennsylvania for eight days. Should be nice. They have snow, I will get to relax (please?), get some knitting accomplished, read a bit, etc. I've been a bit stressed as I was busy at work and I had to give a big talk today (It went well, thank you for asking.), so I haven't really had that much time to contemplate being gone for over a week. Hopefully I packed matching clothing and remembered my underwear...My parents have dial-up, but I don't want to vanish entirely, so I think I'm going to pre-write some blog posts, with photos, of the Christmas gifts that I've knitted but not posted about, so that I'll have something to post quickly while I'm away.
I wish you all happy holidays and lots of knitting surprises under the tree!

Lots o' knitting

Lots of knitting was accomplished this weekend. Why I'm not getting around to posting about it until Wednesday is a mystery, even to me, your esteemed (ha!) author. Dave was off racing his bicycle all weekend, so the only interruption to my knitting time was this little guy. Oliver managed to plop himself right in my knitting space whever I got up for another Diet Pepsi (I think I drank 3 of them a day both Saturday and Sunday, plus a lot of tea. I believe in caffeine. And hydration.). By Sunday night that pile of blue had turned into this, an almost-completed Short-sleeve Cardigan with Ribbing (aka Jewel sweater):While this photo seriously lacks color accuracy, it shows off the shape/stitches/etc quite well. You can see that all I have left is the sleeves and button bands. I actually knit the first sleeve last night, and now that I can try it on (I had the sleeve stitches on stitch holders, which were much too small for my burly arms to fit through), I think it should fit, once I get the button bands on, although the ribbing bit is REALLY tight. Knitting that ribbing almost killed me - I was in such a hurry with this sweater because I love the yarn and I'm so excited to have it done. It's like an obsession. This picture shows the color more accurately:At about 10:00 Saturday evening I decided I should really break out my Endpaper Mitts, which had been sadly neglected during the one-track-mind knitting of this sweater. These are my first Fair Isle project, and although it was slow-going at first, I find the process SO addicting. I was up until 1:00 with them. I intended to Tivo the Columbo episode that was on at 11:00, but I ended up being so into the knitting that I stayed up (with decaf tea - it was too late for the Diet Pepsi) for the whole episode. By Sunday evening I had this:Done except for the thumb ribbing, and a tremendous sense of accomplishment! Sorry the photo is a bit blurry - you get the idea, and when there are two of them they'll get a proper photo shoot. Several of the Fiberphiles got together Sunday to knit at Lighthouse Roasters coffee shop, and I was so proud to get to show off my almost-completed mitt (I finished the patterned part while I was there) because this had been a mostly stealth project. I'm going to cast on the second one at knitting club tonight, and I hope to finish it by the end of the April/May Project: Spectrum period. About that - please not to mention the green socks I'm making. You'll notice I've not talked about them lately. This is because I'm not working on them, having made an error last time I had them out. I think I might have fixed it but honestly I'm afraid to go back to them and discover a frameshift that requires ripping/reknitting/binning them all together. So I'm avoiding them. Don't judge.

Skis!

I picked up my skis last night, and I understand that the thing to do is put on ski clothing and the skis and take photos in the living room, so I did just that. Please pardon the mess on the tables.And from the side, so you can appreciate the twin-tips:The skis have wild bottoms:

Aside: The Frye box on the Poang chair contains the yellow shoes I was SO excited about last week. They arrived yesterday, and I think I'm going to send them back. They're a bit tight on the side of the toes, and they were pretty expensive, so I was always intending to send them back if they were anything less than perfect. The heel is a bit shorter than I'd have preferred as well, so back they will likely go.

Aside over: Oliver was totally traumatized by the skis. He did a very sneaky and thorough investigation of the boots when I wasn't wearing them, and hissed at the skis when I skied down the hall. Well, slid down the hall. It's hard to see the trauma here though, isn't it? He recovers quickly.

All of the Fiberphiles were in town the last couple of days. We've scattered a bit lately, but Pam was up from Portland for a conference, and Daisy was back in town for the closing on her old house, so most of us got together for dinner last night at an excellent Thai restaurant in my neighborhood. No knitting was accomplished, but we did get our waiter to take a photo:

From the left: Rachel, Jennifer, Pam (great new haircut!), Daisy, and me.

I am almost finished with the Peekaboo mittens - just one thumb to go, and all the other ends already woven in. I knit the whole second one in just a few hours last night - they're an ideal quick gift project. I was going to post another photo of them but figured I'd wait for the FO shot, since it won't be long in coming!

Showin' off the Madrona haul

Sorry it's been awhile, but I took a blogging break to acquire some yarn! The Fiberphiles and I descended on the Madrona Fiber Arts Festival in Tacoma, WA last weekend. We spent Friday night there, six of us in two adjoining rooms, and had a blast. For some reason that escapes me I didn't take any pictures (bad blogger, I know). On Saturday I met up with Marisol, and she hung out with the Fiberphiles all afternoon and much fun was had. She DID take photos, and I'll post them when I get some from her. This was my first meeting-of-someone-I-met-in-the-knitting-blogosphere, and it was great fun!

I know what you're really here to see, and that is the new yarn, right?!?

First there's the laceweight stash:The brown is Cashwool, 100% extra fine merino. There are 2700 m there, which is obviously quite a lot, but Karen at Acorn Street recommended knitting it double, even for lace. The greens are Zephyr, a 50/50 merino/silk blend. The top one is Peacock and the bottom Bottle Green. ~1250 yds each. Ooh, and I also got some Crack Kid Silk Haze in Liquor (dark burgundy), which I think will be used for the first lace project I attempt from Victorian Lace Today.
Then there's the Monarch sock yarn:From the left: August, Coulee, Purdy Plum, and Ivy. I couldn't help myself, there were SO many nice colorways. Kristen also acquired some Coulee, and I was lusting after it so much I just had to go back and get some for myself...
Last but certainly not least was the Socks that Rock:
This is: mediumweight Nodding Violet, lightweight Lucy (inspired by Lucy of Wendy Knits fame), and mediumweight Tide Pool.

Phew. All in all I got most of what I wanted, although I really wanted some solid(ish) sock yarn for lace, and there was pretty much none to be found this year. First fall off the yarn fasting wagon completed successfully!
While I was there I started and finished a hat, but I got a bit overzealous (distracted from all the knitterly chatting!) and it's way too tall for me and needs to be ripped back and refinished. I'll try to get on that soon! I also have another FO to show you, but for now I'll leave you to bask in the new yarn glow :)