Airport Chronicles

It's going on 15+ hours in the airport, and what have I learned?

Au Bon Pain has a kick-ass collection of soups. I went with the corn chowder for lunch and the mushroom soup for dinner, but it was definitely hard to pass up the pumpkin, veggie chili, and black bean soups.

I know where all of the power outlets are in Terminal D, and I have a few great sleeping locations. If you find yourself in the same situation, just ask and I'll give you the top secret locations.

And my february lady sweater is coming along, slowly, but surely. After I arrive in California, we're taking a road trip to Colorado, so I should have this puppy finished in no time!

So, I'll leave you with these sunset shots as I {hopefully} fly west.

Airport Chronicles

It's 2:32, I'm still hanging out in Terminal D. They've upped the offers for your seat ~ if you give it up, you now get the round-trip ticket, a night in a hotel, and dinner! Any takers?

I've gotten some work done on the sweater, but I'll save an update picture until the progress looks a bit more dramatic. Instead I give you more Christmas gifts::

The brioche scarf {this was a free pattern from Loop in Philadelphia, they don't call it the brioche scarf, but that's what's going on} modeled by Sarah::

Four hats modeled by a crew::
There are two Ingas, a Koolhaas, and a basic stockinette hat {this one was a birthday present}.


And another Thorpe::

The Airport Chronicles

It's 6:49 AM, my flight to Sacramento was canceled! I'm now booked on a 6:00 PM flight. 12 hours in the airport. Lucky for me and you, the Philly airport provides free internet access, so let the airport chronicles begin! {as long as I don't sleep the day away}

A few observations: the airport was much busier at 4 am than I expected. I'm guessing that the holiday season is taking quite a toll on the workers; don't make eye contact to avoid being hit by the shooting daggers. There are a couple of great art exhibits in the airport, I'll try to post some pictures later.

How will I spend my time?

Working on my February Lady Sweater! Luckily I put all of the yarn for this project in my carry on, so nothing can stop the progress.

Catching up on my evolution knowledge, and chowing on some strawberry mentos. Also, I wanted to show the hat in this picture ~ after knitting a ba-gillion hats for Christmas {you'll see them soon}, I bought it at the GAP because it has a funky stitch that I want to figure out and I like the general fit.

I have a lot of Christmas pictures to catch up on, so as the chronicles continue, I'll post some. First up are the Charade Socks ~ these have been in the works for almost a year. Kris picked out the yarn sometime last winter, and I've been slowly working on them ever since, so it was about time that I fished them for her birthday!
Yes, she was quite the trooper standing on the frozen snow for these shots:-)

ps - if you're in the Philly airport at the moment, United's giving out some free flight vouchers if you give up your seat. Find me in Terminal D and I'll fill you in on the details.

Me and My Shadow

This is definitely the season of hats. I haven't had a chance to weave in the many ends on all the hats I've been knitting, but you'll see them soon!

In the meantime, I knit a Thorpe hat for myself {you can find the free pattern on the right side of the Thorpe link}. The pattern calls for bulky weight yarn, but for this hat I used two strands of Lion Brand worsted weight wool held together. It made for just the right gauge, and a comfy hat! I used some green Knit Picks merino for the edges and braids. I think this was my first time finishing a hat with a crochet border. I followed the crocheting instructions in the Happy Hooker book, and it was as easy as could be!

In other awesome wooly news, check out the shirt I'm wearing in that picture. It was a recent gift, and it's a merino wool thermal from Icebreaker. I was looking at the tag to find the washing instructions{before I even realized that it was 100% wool}, and I found the shirt's "BAACODE". Each wool item from Icebreaker comes with a Baacode that you can type in at their website to track exactly where the wool for your product was grown. Click here to learn more and try it for yourself. How great is that?! It's just the beginning of really being able to trace the products we buy. I'm sure everyone has been exposed to the idea of tracing your food, and tracing clothes {particularly those made from natural fibers} is the next logical step. I also love the shirt because it is similar in design to my stenciled shirt.

ps ~ If you happen to win Icebreaker's trip to New Zealand, I make a great traveling partner;-).

Dear Sophia,

Hi! How are you? I know that you can't read yet, but I couldn't figure out how to write in sign language.

Anyway, I wanted to send my love::
Do you see what my love is made of? It's made of something that you love very much. It's made of a red shoelace. The same red shoelace that you used to use to play with your kitten, Molly. I found this very important red shoelace while I was cleaning out a knitting bag.

So I was wondering, did you put it in my bag when I came to visit? Were you hoping that I'd have as much fun with it as you do{did}? Well I tried to use it to play with Maeve's animals::
Yeah, this hodge-podge of characters didn't budge. They just don't have the spring in their step that Molly does.

I could take it to Shamokin with me and use it to play with these cats::
But you've met them before, and if you remember, they spend a lot of their time sleeping. I'm not sure if they'll play with it.

I think it's important that you have it back. When I was talking to your mom the other day, I heard you give a little yell through the phone because Molly was scratching your tootsies. I'm guessing that if you had your trusty red shoelace that wouldn't have happened! So, I'll send my love to you in an envelope, and maybe there will be a Christmas card in there too!

love,
-Katie
ps ~ I was checking out your mom's pictures, and I have to say that you're looking might fine in your cabled hat and green mittens::

pps ~ I'm taking curling lessons on Saturday, so if you ever have to learn, just ask your deputy doula Kate.

***************************************
And now for a knitting update! {I'm hiding this at the bottom of the post so that it may be missed by the recipient.} I won't even tell you what it is, I think the picture says enough::But you will get a full update with my modifications in a couple of weeks!

The same, but different

After much playing with connections and such, I'm back, and I've realized that I have a back-log of posts to get out, so here we go~

The details of shot cotton::
Can you see the greens and shades of pink/red frayed ends? When I wear this I love the juxtaposition of the sleek scarf with the messy edges.

And, I had to give you a few more pictures from our time on the lake. The "lake" is really two lakes, connected by a little trough just deep enough and wide enough for us to sail or canoe through. On this weekend, the larger lake was completely ice-free while ice was starting to grow in the shady bits of the smaller lake.



And then, there's a picture from C's office on Berkeley's campus. Berkeley in an evening haze::

Something I completely forgot about is how every coffee shop in the bay area has a big bowl of brown sugar sitting out next to the white sugar and honey. This may be something that's common along the West Coast, but I've only noticed it in Berkeley and San Fran, and I have to say that I love it, and I can't believe that I forgot about it. As soon as I got home, I filled up a glass jar with brown sugar and it's stored right next to my coffee beans. At this time of year, my beans of choice are Trade Joe's Wintry Blend {dark roast beans with some cinnamon and peppercorns ~ easy to blend at home, I'm sure, but I like being restrained to only buying it during the winter months, making it more special}.

Now, finally, on to my 'almost hat trick cowl'.
I wanted to learn continental knitting, and I have to say that a cowl in the round is the perfect way to learn. It doesn't have to be perfect, because you don't really see imperfects in something that just slouches around your neck. There's no increasing, decreasing, or yarn overs, so you can just focus on the knitting.

So, why is this an almost hat trick? Well I knit it on the plane ~ I learned continental knitting, while flying across the continent on Jet Blue. not Continental Airlines. Obviously there was a mistake during booking.

hmmm

thanksgiving.fall08.bwtree
Originally uploaded by Pairaschut

I would love to post some new stuff, but google and I aren't talking. I tried to be nice, but I think google just gave me the middle finger.

So I'm posting this through Flickr {which will do for the moment}. This is another lovely photo from Thanksgiving weekend. It's a color photo, and I posted it without modifications ~ doesn't it almost look black and white?

Back to google, I've cleared my cache, did this and that, but I can't access any google related pages. So until google and his homeboys get their act together, I'll be decorating for Christmas.

I was all excited to show you my new cowl too... you'll have to check back later.

I'm traveling with a new scarf::
This is another scarf from Bolt's line of shot cotton scarfs. So easy to make, so hard to photograph. I'll work on some better pics so that you can see the different colored threads woven together to make the fabric for these scarfs. The tanish fabric in this one unravels into beautiful greens and browns.

It's come in handy on this trip, when all you need is a light scarf to fight off any chills in the bay area... particularly when taking silly tourist pictures::

While in San Francisco, we stopped at the new Museum of Natural History... I love science, and I love natural history, but I don't think that this experience lives up to its pricey entrance fee.

We're now in the Tahoe area, where knitted items are key. I've been working on a 'hat-trick cowl' which I'll share with you in the next post.

In the mean time, we're taking advantage of the mostly ice-free lake to get in a bit of canoeing::
And every good ride in the canoe leads to an adventure::

*a happy thanksgiving to all, and to all a good night

WTF Fridays

Here's a little segment we're calling What the F*ck Fridays {all in good fun!}.

WTF #1 ~ Cold weather? It sure knocked me on my ass. Good thing I did a little knitting while burrowed under my mountain of covers::

WTF #2 ~ My right leg? It's shorter than my left. Check out this close-up of my pants bottoms::
Notice that the cuffs of my right legs have taken a trip through the wood chipper... ok, some have just taken a whirl through the paper shredder, but the wood chipper is next, I feel it coming with each step. You can click on that picture if you need a close-up of the damage.

WTF #3 ~ Same pattern, four times, FOUR DIFFERENT SIZES!WTF?

WTF #4 ~ It's Saturday.

Well now that that's taken care of, I'm off for a week in California! I'm sure there will be a couple of fun in the sun posts coming your way*

Caution {WEATHER ADVISORY}

Notice: This blog is suffering from a period of uncooperative weather.

It's been downright overcast, foggy, gloomy, misty, rainy; should I go on? It's making all pictures hazy and not blog-worthy. But do not fear, spirits are high ~ the upside of this weather pattern is that it encourages cozy evenings inside crafting, and there's been plenty of that!

Here you have the shot cotton scarf::
The scarf is made from Spool's kit. This is the simplest scarf to make, and I love the rough edges that show off the different colored fibers used to weave the shot cotton.

And I have the inspiration for my next stenciled shirt::
This is a picture I took of an Alexander Calder mobile that was in Philadelphia's Calder Park a few years ago {I think the mobile is gone now, but other Calder's remain}. Once the weather advisory has been lifted, pictures of the shirt will follow... stay tuned.

Enjoy your Sunday*

ya give sum, ya get sum

A post of gifts given and received.

From Emily some amazing gifts from Africa. I'm so touched by her package, which included such a fun mix of goodies. I feel bad that I haven't captured them all for this post, but that just leaves more fun for another time* Check out this amazingly large bag:: I filled it with all of the projects I wanted to photograph today while on my walk in the woods.

Included in her package were these amazing buttons and the beautiful bracelet:: Wow, the pressure is on to make some special projects for those buttons...{EMILY ~ did you get my emails!?}

I'm working on some new crafts for this holiday season, including the famous freezer paper stencils. This is my first creation (yes, the shirt is very wrinkled, but you'll get a better shot soon, sorry!)::

The stencil is based upon this picture that I took on the west coast::

And finally, a belated gift::New socks for your birthday mom!

Oh, just one more thing ~ some mushrooms from my walk today, a little gift from the mushroom gods::

More Winter Preparations

Wow, the past two weeks passed in a flash.

This past weekend, my sister, mom, and Nik got together for a canning fest. In a short 48 hours, we whipped up a couple batches of apple butter, pumpkin butter, marmalade, and tomato sauce. The stockings will definitely be stuffed with some tasty treats this year!

Between the stirring, tasting, and canning, the last Schu girl learned to knit. And while we had less time for crafting than we anticipated, I was able to experiment with freezer paper stencils for the first time {more on that soon}.


Oh, and we ate. First it was the black bean soup from Pepperknit's post. We dressed the soup up even more with a dollop of the roasted red pepper spread from Trader Joe's. yum. Then it was the harvest cake recipe shared on Apartment Therapy. Another yum. I just had a slice before writing this post, and I have to say that even three days old the cake is just right.


I noticed that throughout the weekend I would end up interjecting a blog reference into almost every conversation. How could I not when you guys are full of such great ideas? It would be a craft idea here, a recipe there, on and on. I love it that the introduction of blogs has created such a rich community full of creative people. fun fun

And while I'm at it, here are a couple more blog posts to check out::

January One has an awesome contest going on ~ Danskos anyone?

And have you checked out Mamie's new products? great for the holiday giving!

And finally, between the Christmas knitting, I finished something that I can actually talk about. This was just a fun cowl made from a combination of Malabrigo, Blue Sky Alpacas Chunky, and some buttons. I knit until I ran out of Blue Sky, and I was worried that it was a little tight around my neck at first, but with some wearing things have loosened up!


This pictures were taken in the bathroom at school. It has large, southern facing windows, and I realized that it provides all of the light I need to take pictures on dreary fall/winter days... you may see a whole series of bathroom shots this winter. Consider yourself warned.


I'll share more soon, have a great day!