Category: knitting

Just a Scarf

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Superman got nothing on meeee…I intoned as I worked on binding off this scarf. It’s a tune that’s part of K’s repertoire and I have no idea what the song actually sounds like since I’ve only heard her softly murmuring that line periodically. I guess it’s by someone named Charlie Puth? I don’t feel compelled to look it up, but I like the words.

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Anyway, I knitted a scarf. It’s not, as I had hoped, the longest neck warmer in the universe. It’s long enough to loop around my neck twice. I seamed the ends together to make it into an infinity scarf and that part’s a bit of a botch up job, but it’ll do. You can see all of my freckles in this pix — the one between my eyebrows is actually a scar from a particularly rough cystic acne month about 4 years ago and that spot refuses to go away (happily, now that I hardly consume dairy, I don’t have any cystic breakouts anymore). Here’s the seam:

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It took a couple of months to finish this up, though I’m sure this could be done in a matter of a few hours. I knitted in dollhouse-sized windows of time: just before starting dinner, or while K was taking a shower, or in the quiet moments when the sun or any of the people in my house hadn’t completely risen. I probably averaged about two rows a day.

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I haven’t blocked it yet, even though I know I’m supposed to wait to piece together the ends until it’s been blocked and stretched. I was impatient and I like its wonkiness. The whole process was wonky, really. I progressed from one ball of yarn to the next without any premeditated plan. Even the yarn fiber content is a mishmash of wool, acrylic, cotton and there might be a cashmere blend. I didn’t give much thought to the color combination or order and figured it would all turn out fine if I stuck with greys and blues. I was right. What you see above are both sides of the scarf.

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It’s a win as far as I’m concerned. The scarf keeps me toasty and I’m sure I’ll get around to blocking it at some point, but right now, I’m just going to enjoy it as it is. I hope you all had a lovely weekend! In between working on my SVE gift and other life stuff, I was on a cleaning rampage. Our living room hasn’t looked or felt this clean in eons!

Happy Friday + Randomness

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Happy Friday! The knitting is still going on, can you believe it? I try to knit a few rows every day, and I sometimes wonder if I’ll just keep at it until it’s the longest scarf ever. K would love to be able to say, “My mom knitted the longest scarf in the universe.”

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An inadvertent ombre effect is happening since I don’t have enough of any one color.

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That raised row was a mistake, but I like it.

It’s quite possible that I’ve finally caught the knitting bug…

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We went out for Indian food two nights ago, where some MMA competition was on TV. K watched for a while and sagely commented, “I guess you can’t be ticklish and be a wrestler. That’s a lot of armpit grabbing.”

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I am still coughing
But I’m feeling pretty good
Happy weekend, friends!

 

P.S. Furoku members! #9 is out, please let me know if you have any problems viewing/downloading (I added a lot of stuff this time).

P.P.S. Winners of the giveaway, Eleanor and Karissa, I’ll be shipping the books this weekend. Thanks for playing, everyone!

Ba-chan Withdrawals

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My mom left yesterday and we are downcast. Depressed, really. It was the longest visit at six weeks, and by the end of it, I couldn’t remember what it was like not having my mom around. As always, she left in her wake three heartily-fed and slightly thicker-waisted folks, a smattering of flower-adorned purses, and several hand-knitted and upcycled sweaters. I’ve shown you the brown cardigan and hot pink top already, and today, I have a purple number she created in what seemed like minutes. And from what I could tell, she unraveled a couple of thrifted sweaters to make this.

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K feels the departure most keenly. The two of them giggled and guffawed endlessly throughout the duration of the visit, and my mom spoiled all three of us, but gave K the most magnanimous gift of all: undivided attention. Because I’m always rushing around trying to get this thing or another done, I don’t know that I’m fully there with K, try as I might. It’s one of the things I decided I need to really work on this year: to adopt my mom’s ability to really listen and pay attention.

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Of course, it wasn’t always skittles and unicorns, as M likes to say. In the presence of your mother, you are always a child, and with it comes all the attendant childhood discomforts. And it couldn’t have been easy for my mom to share a room with K for so long (we have a very small house). But my mom and I have always been close, and who knows how much longer we can have these visits? I’m grateful for this extended time together, and we had so much fun visiting museums, exploring the city, celebrating multiple holidays and discussing, as we always do, the big and small events of our days. Unfortunately, she caught a cold similar to mine (so awful) at the tail end of the visit, so it was a less than ideal ending, but she rested a lot and left in good spirits.

bachan-and-kLook at them frolicking in the one and only snow day we’ve had in Seattle so far (my mom is doing a little dance in this photo). They are so sweet, those two. We miss you Ba-chan, and hope to see you again very, very soon!

 

Little Mittens

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I finally slept through the night on Tuesday, so I cautiously approached my sewing table to see if I had the energy to make something yesterday. I’ve been missing sewing terribly. I rooted around and recalled that I’d been planning to sew K some mittens since it’s been getting so cold lately and she’s either lost or outgrown the ones she had. Enter Oliver + S and my trusty copy of Little Things To Sew. It seemed a manageable project for an undernourished, bronchial-challenged, semi-invalid.

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I used fleece from my stash, and scrap fabric for the elastic casing (the scrap is from the first dress I made for K on this crazy sewing venture I started last year). It would normally be a very quick sew, I imagine. I had to pause a lot to cough so I’m estimating it took double the time it should, but it felt good to be sitting in front of my machine again.

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But oh, that did me in. Beaten by a little pair of mittens. I’m going to go rest some more, but I felt that it might be a little sad to just show a pair of mittens so I included one of my more ambitious knitting projects from a few years ago. A much loved bear with floppy, asymmetrical ears. I’m pretty sure it was a Debbie Bliss pattern. And aren’t those unpainted nesting dolls fabulous? They’re part of a craft project I’ve been wanting to do for ages.

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I hope K likes the mittens – she doesn’t know about them yet. Chances are good since they’re blue, but maybe they’re a little too big? Anyone else tried making these mittens?

Hannah’s Wardrobe

As promised, here is a roundup of Hannah’s new fashion items made by my mom. We have eight dresses…

 

Five knitted cuteness…(I’m not sure if that pink one is supposed to be a skirt or poncho, but it works as both!)

Four bottoms…

A purse, and goodness me, a swimsuit! That matches the one I made for K here!

They all look lovely on Hannah, but this one is my favorite:

And I’ve noticed that K likes to put her in this dress a lot, fully accessorized:

I’m bowled over, aren’t you? My my mom left town promising to make some shoes for H (shoes!!!), and I have no doubt that we will be receiving one of her famous gigantic boxes soon with much more than doll-sized shoes…lucky, lucky K.