Caps Ahoy!

I decided to knit at least one more hat for my friend who's going through chemo. This time, it's out of Baby Alpaca Worsted Solids:







I couldn't decide on a hat pattern, but this one is fairly easy lace. Yes, I said the bloody "l" word. Lacy Cap pattern.

First, I have a pair of Sharky the Mittens to finish...

FO #6: Swirly Cap

Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of the finished hat. I finished mere minutes before my friend arrived, and I gave it to her without even thinking to take a picture. But it looked just like the pattern.

* * * *
The down and dirty details:

Yarn(s): handspun merino (dark cream color) and Filatura Di Crosa Golden Line Alpaca (dark chocolate color)

Pattern: Swirl Cap

Purchased: FREE download in Ravelry. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/swirl-hat-3

Needles: size 3 US
* * * *

Now it's back to working on the Sharky Mittens for Rose!

Still Knitting

Things are about to become a bit more tight for knitting pleasure.

In fact, it will be tight from now until March 2013. I'm starting an internship in the evenings and weekends, while working a full-time gig during the week. And since a girl's gotta keep the kibble money rolling in while finishing off her master's degree, there's no quitting the daytime gig. No worries about the Tank, she's going to be spoiled rotten by the Child O'Mine and the CoM's other half while I'm cranking out the work.

So, while I'm still knitting, it's not as much as before...although it's not as if I knit like I'm on fire and what I'm knitting would extinguish the flames. Case in point: the swirl hat should be done in a matter of one-two days. Not so much for me...some notes and tracked progress here.

Meanwhile, a couple of things have amused and astonished me.

First, Pandora. I love music. It's more important to me than television and movies for media entertainment. (There are limitations to my appreciation of some genres: speed metal, acid metal, most C&W music, gangsta rap. Maybe if I was younger, I could appreciate the styles, but I left that kind of thing behind in my 20's many moons ago.) When my brilliant faux nephew hooked me up with this internet radio, I've been listening to it all the time I'm home. I no longer listen to commercial radio at home. For $36 a year, I get ad free music, and access to music I didn't even know existed. It's a great deal if you can afford it.

Second, vicuna yarn. As I've said before, I'm a yarn snob. It's not as though I don't find the merits of using acrylics and acrylic blends, as well as the beloved wool for many projects. Yet, I adore cashmere, qiviut, alpaca, bison, mink, yak, guanaco, and camel yarns.

However, I have yet to see, touch or knit with vicuna yarn. Why? Go look and then we'll discuss. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Yes, you read that correctly. Just 217 yds of yarn for $300. If I were to create the cardigan I have in my pattern list out of this yarn, it would cost me nearly $2,000. I would never wear it outside of my home. I would have to invent a new way for it to be safe from being the world's most expensive pest smorgasbord. I understand that the animal is rare due to excessive hunting and now a protected species, and expected it to be expensive. Just not DeBeers diamonds expensive.

And now, a little groovy music to finish out the post and remove the thought of too expensive yarn from our minds...

Full Stop, Then Go

All current projects, full stop.

Yarn arrived from Jimmy Beans Wool today, so I'm going to start of a hat for a friend that's going to go through chemotherapy.

This is a cashmere and merino blend (sportweight):






And I'm going to carry this along with it:








The pattern is the Swirl Hat.

There may have been a little something-something for me in the package:










I must go, I have yarn to wind and apparently, a chin to scratch.

Change It Up

Project fatigue has set in.

Time to look at the stash. I need to pull yarn out for the first dead fish hat I'll be knitting.

Odd And Spicy

It’s been a bizarre weather pattern for our winter season.

Yes, we’ve had cold, but very little of the bone-cracking freezing temps that make us all wonder what the hell we're doing in the Midwest in late January. (Not complaining.)

Yes, we’ve had snow, but not the huge piles or at least one blizzard. (Again, not a complaint.)

And now there’s May weather for the second week of March. Many people I’ve talked to here are like me, a bit concerned. Throw a massive snow storm at us, fine. The other shoe to drop, though, may be a horrendous set of thunderstorms with freakishly huge tornadoes in the middle of it. May is tornado season, and if we’re having May weather...

Okay, to distract us from that thought, the contents of the Gran’s kitchen spice cupboard!

I went through it for her a few weeks ago. There were things in there that I’m sure hadn’t really seen the light of day since they were bought and put away. Case in point are these spices. Many of them were very old and useless. These were in poor condition, not collector condition, so they had to be thrown out. (Yes, I did check to see if they were worth anything. Hey, I’ve watched the "Antiques Roadshow" since it aired on PBS in 1997!) Heave-ho, away you go!

This was by the Euclid Coffee Co. And no, it was a sadly falling apart cardboard box, not the rare tin.




The rest are still fairly recognizable for those of us that have at least been in our grandparents’ kitchens:








And I still use Colman’s dry mustard for cooking (deviled eggs).



Here’s a brand I didn’t even know about until I read the tin (again, it wasn’t worth anything for the Gran). Apparently the National Tea Co. was around for quite a while, and ended up as part of Schnuck’s for a while. FYI: NATCO is an Indian spice and food business.




Writing about spices, this weekend I’m going to cook Chinese tea eggs with the spices from Ancient Wisdom and tea from Bigelow.





There’s so much to love at Ancient Wisdom. The shop smells wonderful, and being a tea drinker, I have a wide array of choices there. Plus, this is the shop that carries my favorite cooking spice: Five Elements - Fire. Also, they carry tea cups, mugs, tea pots. Finally, great acupuncture services!

Did I say finally? I have to add this - now there’s one of my favorite extracts there:



What? Knitting? Sure, between work, cooking, baking, and homework! Mitten one is 70% completed:






And I may have fallen down a bit and bought yet another sweater pattern. I think I’m getting close to critical mass on sweater patterns and declaring this fall the season of “Knitting Myself An Adult Sweater.” However, it may be a shrug that gets thrown on the needles first.

It all depends on how well my sanity holds out working a full-time job and doing a practicum to finish off my master’s degree from May 2012 through March 2013.

Changes In The Air

Things have been busy at Casa del Tank. The weather has been nice enough, and dry enough, that the girl and I have gone for a few strolls. This has worn the Tank out:



The Cold Virus from Hell left me a parting gift of a wicked terrible and painful sinus infection.

I'm wrapping up things to move to the next phase of my degree work.

I'm trying to get in better condition for the American Heart Walk coming up soon.

And after reading the directions for the shark mittens incorrectly, I tried to create two thumb areas in one mitten.

I blame the lack of naps this weekend.

I frogged it a bit and then re-read the instructions to clearly mark "right hand mitten" and "left hand mitten." Now I'm about 60% finished with the first mitten. Not a great photo...taken on my Mac as the camera battery needed a recharge. And I'm wearing it on my left hand even though it's a right hand mitten.



All in all a busy (and at moments confusing) time around here. Thank goodness for the unwavering affection of the Tank, and my knitting.

FO #5: Gift Scarf

One of my favorite people sent me some beautiful antique buttons. I immediately knew how to thank her for them.






First, best investment ever - Block N Roll that I purchased at Stitches Midwest last year.

Back to the scarf...

It received a rather severe blocking to open the pattern up and make it more of a short scarf.












The end result is lovely. I will say that I didn't do the button hole in the pattern.






People like to wear their scarves in a variety of ways, so I just attached the buttons as decorative.



* * * *
The down and dirty details:

Yarn(s): Plymouth Mulberry Merino

Pattern: Swoop Neckwarmer Button Scarf

Purchased: Knit & Knot Boutique Yarn Shop

Needles: size 5 US
* * * *

Scam Artist

Oh sure, she looks innocent enough...but she took advantage of my diseased state and muddled head from the plague and scored extra treats off of me until I realized what she was doing.




And then she had the audacity to be offended I caught on to her game and put the kibosh on it.

The Plague Arrives As Usual

I'm getting tired of this annual visit from the plague. This time it brought a fever with it. Groovy.

Meanwhile, vacation was great! I'm relieved the plague didn't arrive until I was home for a few days.

I decided against the shark mittens due to many little things that could disappear while traveling. I brought this scarf project instead:



And I knit quite a bit on the plane (TSA didn't bat an eye on either end of the trip about my Signature Needle Arts circs) to and from the Southwest. I found time to do a few more rows during my stay, too.

Now, it's back to my bed to contemplate my possible demise. Yes, I do feel that bad...especially when I remember great photos like this one from the trip:

Have Bag, Will Travel

I'm heading for fun in the sun in the great Southwest soon. I'm taking a project that cracks me up to knit and the thought of doing it in the middle of the desert:















*Knitting wool, in the desert, for mittens shaped like sharks!


*Made me laugh, and as Craig Ferguson says, "That's half the battle."

FO #4: The Guy's Socks

* * * *
The down and dirty details:

Yarn(s): Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light carried with Malabrigo Yarn Sock

Pattern: Basic Dude Socks

Purchased: Loopy in Chicago

Needles: size 5 US
* * * *

Chomp Chomp Chomp

Tank isn't a garbage diver, countertop or table shark, and unless it's sweet or meat she won't eat stuff that drops on the floor. She doesn't bother my yarn or project bags for knitting, and can barely muster enough energy to push her pillow around before she settles down to sleep on it.

Imagine my surprise when I came home to find the tall Ziploc container (that I had left on top of her food bin as I've done dozens of times so far) was in the middle of the living room. Looking like this:




That's right Tank "McJaws" over here went to work on the container:








I found all the pieces she had chewed off. Her mouth wasn't all tore up as I had feared (no blood, none), and fuck me, that lid was still on the container tight enough that I had problems removing it.

Of course, Tank McJaws was busy giving me the stink-eye for whatever her personal reasons were while I was repackaging the dog food. Probably because I didn't give her a treat for her efforts.

Okay, now it's time for radio silence, bambinos. I have a sock to finish between Gran Duty and homework this weekend.

Sock Countdown: 50 hours. Okay, more like 10 hours...I'm not so uptight over this project that I'm willing to lose sleep or give up reading time.