Man in the Moon

Bits of another surprise project that I'm working on*

my friends

camel.cardigan
Originally uploaded by Pairaschut

If I never hear those two words again, I will be the happiest US citizen there is.

IF I have to hear those two words for the next four years (impossible, I hope), then I may have to start packing. The first thing in my bag will be many cozy sweaters to keep me warm as I hide out with our friends to the north.

Until then, here's an updated shot of my camel sweater. The tan yarn is from a camel and the blue yarn is the softest wool/silk blend. This may not get much attention due to holiday knitting, but that's ok because I still have to think about how I'm going to knit the sleeve cuffs - any suggestions?

Have a great day my friends*

ps - I'm working from a cafe today, where I ordered a bagel with "almond butter". I've had almond butter many times, but today I wasn't thinking of it being ground almonds, instead I thought I was going to get some real butter infused with almond essence. It wasn't, but now I'm imagining how delicious real butter with almond flavoring would be. yum

Finished for fall!

Just an update of some projects that were finished over the past month. A birthday hat for my brother::

This was just a simple hat of my own design. I cast on 90 stitches, ribbed the bottom, added the stripe, and finished it off with the star on top! I used some malabrigo (for the stripe and star) and berroco peruvia for the body of the hat; it was a great way to use up some left-over bits and I'm excited to know that it'll keep my brother warm this winter! {now I just have to get a picture of him wearing it!}

I also finished the February Baby Sweater that was a gift for a family friend::
I'm glad I restarted this, making it slightly larger and using the brown yarn made for a perfect little gift. I LOVE this baby knit. It was so fast and easy, and I definitely want to knit more of these. I'm evening thinking of doing the adult size version for myself. I really like this version.

And I finally sewed on the buttons for my Drops Cardigan. So here are some shots of the final product::
Again, I LOVE this sweater! I think it's going to get a lot of wear this fall. I used Malabrigo, making a soft and cozy sweater. I am worried that it's going to pill a lot, but I'll just take the pilling as a sign of how much I love it.
Some notes for this sweater:
I followed Canary Studio's lead and knit this all in one piece. I cast on the same number of stitches as she suggests here. After the cast-on, I knit down the body, with no waist shaping, and stopping when I was happy with the length. I then went back to the cast-on edge and picked up the stitches for the neck. When it came to the sleeves, I knit them in the round with no shaping at all, it made for a nice wide cuff (where again I used seed stitch to finish them off).
Notes on the neck section::
While knitting the whole neck section with the double seed stitch, I continued with the should seams (decreasing because I'm working 'up' the neck). To do this, I would just incorporate the decreases on the right side rows while still following the double seed stitch pattern. For decreases, I would either k2tog, ssk if I'm at a point in the pattern where I should be knitting, or if I should be purling, then I would p2tog. After doing a decrease row, it would mean that for some rows, I would have one, three or four knit/purl stitches in a row, rather than the two stitches for the pattern. While this seems like it would cause a problem, it doesn't. If you look at my shoulder seam area, you can see where the seams are, but it doesn't look like the stitch or pattern is messed up. Although, I didn't finish the shoulder seams until I was back at a point where the stitch pattern lined up correctly (two knit, two purl, two knit, etc). I hope this helps, and I'd be happy to answer any questions!

Yarn Malabrigo - 5 skeins (give or take, I bought 6 and have a lot left over)
Needles - size 8 US

And finally, a spooky picture of me and some fall foliage::

It's Fall!!

I haven't officially recognized the start of fall yet, but it's here! And I'm excited for all things fall. Like the pile of new projects {check 'em out now because you won't see much of these until the gift-giving season has arrived}::

Then there are my fall boots, paired with some knee-socks. There's definitely going to be some knee-sock knitting in my future::


The trees along the bike path are starting to change::

And there's baseball! My family got together last weekend for the Phillies game. We lucked out and were there for the game on Saturday when they become the National League East Division Champs! The weekend was also full of great company, much laughing, and some tasty drinks.

And the city skyline from the stadium::


Next up ~ some finished knitting and more excitement about fall*

Just a little something

owl.hat
Originally uploaded by Pairaschut

On this dark and rainy day here in Boston, I thought this would be the perfect project to share. This is the owl hat (I don't have the link right now, but it's a free pattern out there on the internet). Can you see the owls? They are cute little owls made from cables. I'm imagining the owls out it the deep dark woods trying to stay warm and dry on today.

I dressed the hat up with a little artistic moon - made by weaving some light green and off white yarns together. And finally, the self-striping yarn is Jasper by Berroco.

The yarn was given to me by Nicole, and I gifted this hat to one of my good friends Emily. Emily's working in Africa right now and was looking for a hat to keep her noggin cozy. It's one big circle of giving!

Another note about Emily - I was snow-shoeing with her in Vermont a couple of years ago when she said something to the tune of "I love the winter foliage", which made me think ~ knitted items are foliage we wear in winter. And the blog was named...

Racing Stripes

We had one jam-packed weekend. Yesterday was spent wandering {while wondering} around Boston eating, shopping, and enjoying the cool fall weather. The eating included a hearty lunch at Bouchee, a delicious French cafe that we stumbled upon on Newbury St. If you're looking for a recommendation, try the trout*


And I love the city for shots like this ~ an alley of fire escapes and beyond it just a glimpse of a church in the sun.


Today was spent in Portsmouth, NH, where C competed in the Portsmouth Criterium and won first place in his category! I love being a spectator at all of his races, it's fun to see all of the action and spend some time outside wandering {while wondering} around with my camera. Today the weather was beautiful, the races were exciting, and we got to visit a great New England town.

Here's a shot of him crossing the finish line::


The town was full of different shops, art, and cafes.




One of my professors gave a list of restaurants. Unfortunately we didn't hit up any of the recommendations, but we did stop into a cafe called Popovers for an afternoon coffee and - wait for it - popovers. The popovers were fantastic and inspired me to try making some very soon.

As I mentioned, I finished the van curtains. I covered the original curtains with a combination of two different batiked designs. We used the orange fabric for the inside of the van and the purple fabric for the outside.


I was running low on the orange fabric, so we added a racing stripe to the long curtain that covers one side of the van.{the curtains are wrinkled, but the stripe is really nice and straight!}

Between races and other fun, I started a few secret knitting projects ~ glimpses will come this week*

Lists

I saw my advisor in the hall last week, he's kind, in a tough love sort of way. Anyway, he could tell that I was stressed about my exams and said that I just have to keep doing two things to manage the stress: exercise and list making. Well, I get plenty of exercise, and lists? I write plenty of lists. Little did he know that most of my lists during my exams were about all of the things I wanted to do after the exams!

I now have my lists of christmas crafts. **If people have requests out there, now's the time to send this elf a note!

I also have lists of the fun autumn things I want to do. This lists includes lots of apples, squash, spices, and walks through the falling leaves.

I added the Writer's Almanac to my list of daily podcasts. I really love this one and usually listen to it as I drink my first cup of coffee.

I also have the lists of the great music I was listening to while studying. I listened to a lot of music through Pandora, and I can't praise it enough. If you haven't tried it out yet, just go to pandora.com type in the name of an artist or song you like and they play music they think you would like (based upon what you typed). It's very simple and provides hours of listening fun. Gillian by The Waifs is one of my new favorite songs. Here are a few lines::
Oh Gillian, you’re up with the sun
You’ve done a hundred things before half past nine
By the time most folk are up and gone
You’ll be starting on one hundred and one

There’s not enough hours in a day
To do all the things she’s just got to do
When the daylight fades and the night invades
She’s only just begun

Weary as you lay at night waiting for the sun
Planning out tomorrow now before this day is done
‘Gillian you work too hard’
But don’t you try to slow her down – she’ll tell you
‘Idleness is good for none work's how I get my fun
Idleness is good for none work's how I get things done’

The perfect song for all of the industrious, hard-working ladies I know out there.

I was up early this morning finishing the curtains for the van before a certain someone arrives for a visit. I'll post more details and pics of the curtains this weekend!