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October 27, 2006
Running in the rain
It's been a rainy couple of weeks in the Ozarks. Combine this with pitch black mornings (at 6am) and Zarah is not too excited about getting out of bed in the morning to go running. But, as long as its not too cold out, running in the rain is really not that bad. I never regret it when I do get up and run when its raining.
This morning it was about 55 degrees and just misting. It was actually quite nice, until lightning started flashing and I was afraid I would get caught in a downpour. I groaned, but my optimistic running partner chirped, "Who cares, we're already wet!" True, I guess, but it was way too early for such a good attitude!
I've got a 10 miler on the schedule for tomorrow - here's hoping for clear skies!
On a completely unrelated note: did anyone hear the news story on NPR this morning about the stem cell ballot initiative in Missouri? I didn't hear it, but my sister called me to tell me that they were reporting from a town hall meeting in my small hometown! (Hopefully we didn't come off sounding too hickish.)
Have a good weekend, everyone!
Illustration credit to gaotsin via flickr.
Posted by zarah at 6:24 AM | Comments (8)
October 26, 2006
This is what happens when you don't have a camera
You are forced to post random pictures you have taken when you were stuck in the car for way too long and frozen custard sounded REALLY good.
Because really, who doesn't love an Ozark Turtle? (With a straw hat, no less!)
It really is the best thing ever. (Except not so great for your diet, but oh well.) It's a sundae with vanilla frozen custard, hot fudge and caramel sauce, and tons of candied pecans. Yumma yumma!
(Photo taken at Randy's Frozen Custard in Osage Beach, Missouri. But I hear Andy's Custard in Springfield has the Ozark Turtle, too!)
Posted by zarah at 6:25 AM | Comments (3)
October 24, 2006
Yarn shopping...
I took a little trip to the yarn store this week, so of course I had to come home with lots of new ideas - and some yarn! Besides, now that I'm done (except the zipper) with the Cambridge Jacket, I need a new project or two. I think I'm having a bit of project ADD:
Exhibit 1: Lizard Ridge, Laura Aylor (Fall 2006 Knitty)
I drool over this pattern on a regular basis. Who doesn't have a few skeins of Noro kicking around in their stash? I got one more ball at Simply Fibers. I think I'll just knit this one a little bit at a time, as I can find new colors of Noro on sale. If anyone wants to cash in a ball or two of their Noro Kureyon stash, let me know!
Exhibit 2: Silk Shrug, Blue Sky Alpacas pattern
I did not go into the store intending to buy yarn for a new sweater. But... I had a discount to use, and it is really cute, and the yarn is so pretty... I just couldn't resist. I've got the size 4 Addi circular already, so hopefully I will get gauge and get going!
Exhibit 3: Sensational Knitted Socks, Charlotte Schurch
My LYS has a monthly sock knitting club called the Cold Feet Sock Club that is using this book as the basis for all its projects. Plus, it's Socktoberfest, who can resist a new sock knitting book? I've read very good things about this book, but I'll write up my impressions after I get a chance to look through it really well.
Posted by zarah at 6:24 AM | Comments (12)
October 23, 2006
Funky Scarf Swap
I sent my scarf to Annie of AnnieKnits - she got it a few days ago and LOVED it! It's a good thing, not everyone could work that green scarf like Annie!
Turns out I got a green scarf, too! It's from Janice all the way up in Canada!
I was starting to get worried about my scarf, because yesterday I got some wadded up mail stuffed in my mailbox, along with a note from the mailman saying it had been found on the street and there were suspected mail thefts in my area. Luckily (although I forgot until I got my scarf) I put my work address into swap-bot instead of my home address (just in case my swap partner was also a stalker? I'm a wierdo sometimes). It showed up today and I'm very excited! It looks like green wool and multicolored recycled silk held together in a nice K1P1 rib. It is perfect for me. I didn't give too much guidance in my questionnaire, but I did mention that I like Gaudi, so I guess she tried to create a scarf that looked a little bit like a mosaic. I think she achieved it!
Posted by zarah at 6:18 AM | Comments (6)
October 20, 2006
Running & Socks
Anyone's who has been reading this blog (or any knitting blog for that matter) knows that this month is Socktoberfest. But not every knitter writes about running... so I had to figure out a way to combine them. I was thinking about today's post and I kept repeating over in my head: running... socks... running... socks....
Well, duh! I should write about running socks! I love this picture* because it reminds me of exactly what my dog loves to do: run away with my socks. But when I think of running socks, I think of my cushy Thorlo moisture-wicking socks that I save for my long runs. We runners don't use a lot of fancy equipment for our sport, but keeping our feet in good shape is very important. I may still be wearing the same ratty running shorts from high school track, but I never skimp on good shoes and socks. Good socks really do make the difference in preventing blisters and black toenails when I'm running high-mileage days.
* PS. The dog is adorable but not mine. I'm a dachshund girl!
I slacked on my running this week, but I've got a 9-miler planned tomorrow, so that should whip me back into shape. I wish it wasn't so dark in the mornings, it makes it really hard for me to get out of bed! (Yet I'm always more tired when I sleep in than when I get up and run, go figure.)
Have fun at Rhinebeck, everyone! Good luck at Blogger Bingo and all the other crazy stuff you have planned.
Photo credit to zoomar via flickr.
Posted by zarah at 6:08 AM | Comments (5)
October 19, 2006
Someone is in my knitting spot!
(Actually, if you count Lucy that would be two someones!)
A few weeks ago, Crazy Aunt Purl asked all the other knitbloggers to snap a picture of their knitting spot. I'm a little late, but here it is! As you can tell, I'm not in it, but that's okay because my sister is... AND she's knitting!
My sister is living with me during October and November while she does her pharmacy rotations here in southwest MO. She has actually been knitting longer than me, but I think it's fair to say that's I've been a *bit* more obsessive about it, and have more advanced skills.
Well, you would think so, anyway. She's currently working on some baby socks for a friend's new baby. I showed her some completed socks and she declared that she hates picking up stitches, so she wanted to try short rows. O-kay. We can try that. Never mind that I've only just learned. And what do you know, she picks it up just like that. She ended up ripping out the first baby sock because the foot was too short, but the heel pretty much looked perfect. This is only slightly ANNOYING when it took me about two years to figure it out. I guess she just had a WONDERFUL teacher, right?
So anyway, we've been having lots of fun squeezing in a little knitting time in the evenings after work. It's great to have a knitting buddy right at home.
(I also love this picture because it shows my dog's favorite activity - sitting very near or (preferably) right on top of yarn. She just likes to be in the middle of things!)
Posted by zarah at 6:01 AM | Comments (7)
October 18, 2006
First half of Socktoberfest
Hasn't Socktoberfest been fun so far? I can't wait to see what Lolly has cooked up for the rest of the month. My main Socktoberfest activities have been knitting some socks for a Christmas gift and teaching my sister to knit socks! (I'll post on that tomorrow.)
I've shown some progress pics of the Gentleman's Fancy Socks before, but I finally finished the first sock, so I have to show it off! (Modeled by my lovely sister.) I finished this on the drive to Columbia last weekend for my cousin's wedding.
I have already cast on for the next sock and have completed the ribbing at the top. I don't have to have these done until Christmas, but I would love to finish them by the end of the month!
I'm sure I could finish them no problem, but some other deadline knitting is looming over my head. Teh Cambridge Jacket is nearing completion, but I still have to add the collar and trim, plus sew in a zipper, before the "birthday deadline" in early November. The zipper realyl scares me. I don't want to screw up the whole piece because I'm a crappy sewer. Maybe I'll take it to the yarn shop this weekend and see if I can get some help (or pay someone to do it for me!)
Posted by zarah at 6:18 AM | Comments (5)
October 16, 2006
My crafty cousin Amber
The sewing bug is biting again!
Last weekend I went to my cousin's wedding and got to see lots of relatives that I haven't seen in a long time, like second cousins an first cousins twice removed and stuff. The wedding was really beautiful, but I forgot to take my camera so you'll just have to imagine.
Anyway, the morning after the wedding the whole family was sitting around eating breakfast at the hotel and catching up. My cousin Amber got these awesome sewing magazines out of her bag and starting passing them around. I knew she had some cool job in New York, but I didn't really know what. Turns out she's the editor of Threads magazine! I loved flipping through the pages and seeing all the great projects. Apparently they work for a year on all the articles to make sure that they're perfect, no mistakes. I'm no great seamstress, but they had some ideas for adding embellishments to clothes you already have and stuff that even I could probably do. Hmmm.... what to sew?
I'm still waiting on my Funky Scarf Swap package, but it's coming all th way from Canade so I'm trying not to be impatient.
Posted by zarah at 10:08 PM | Comments (10)
October 14, 2006
One of a Kind Woolen Gifts
I couldn't find a good link to it, but just FYI - there's a great article/how-to in Martha Stewart Living (Nov. 06) on making felted items (gloves, hats, pillows, etc.) by felting thrift store sweaters. If you're feeling Christmas gift guilt* already, this is a great way to give your family and friends the knitted love without spending hours doing it yourself! (I'm all about the low-stress holidays.)
* If you are, it's totally normal. To quote Martha herself, "There is something about the holiday season that makes me crazy with creativity, crafting, and do-it-yourself projects."
Have a great weekend!
Posted by zarah at 11:03 AM | Comments (3)
October 13, 2006
Hee hee hee.
Posted by zarah at 7:50 PM | Comments (2)
October 12, 2006
Socktories: My first short-row heel
Socktoberfest continues...
Last week, I had so much fun reading everyone's Sock Histories. I love hearing all the different ways we create the same basic product - one that people have been knitting for hundreds of years! One of my goals for Socktoberfest was to challenge myself to learn some new sock-knitting techniques. I decided to tackle Short Row Heels on the Gentleman's Fancy Socks I'm knitting this month. In true Zarah fashion, I pretty much winged it. I knit a pair of baby socks (Better Than Baby Booties) a couple of weeks ago as a short-row warm-up, so I felt like I had the basic idea down. I just took the principles I gleaned from the baby socks and applied them to this one.
Also, some of you have asked for the details of how I changed the sock pattern to knit on Size 1s instead of Size 0s, so I'll go ahead and give you my modifications up it this point. (Apparently I am not the only one with an irrational fear of Size 0 needles!) I will also give some details about how I figured out how to modify the pattern, in addition to a short description of my short-row experience. I'm sure many of you are far more proficient at this than me, but I'll do my part to help those that are interested.
First of all, the pattern: The pattern repeats over 4 stitches, so I need to make sure the number of stitches I use is divisible by 4. Now, I want to increase the needle size from 0 to 1 and keep the size of the sock the same.
The pattern is essentially a ribbed sock with no cabling (requiring extra stitches) or lace (requiring fewer stitches). So I turn to the handy-dandy Universal Sock Pattern and see how many stitches it recommends to use over size 1 needles: 72. This is divisible by 4, even better! (If your pattern does't turn out that way, just add or subtract a couple of sts to get the right number.)
Next, I take a look back at the original pattern to see if there's anything else going on I should know about before casting on. Hmm... typical Nancy Bush pattern, looks like there's some calf shaping. I come from a family of scrawny chicken-legged people, so this really isn't all that important. Plus, it turns out that the number of sts after calf decreases is the same number I am going to cast on with - so I could follow the heel shapping as written if I wanted to. I decide not to worry about the calf decreases because the ribbing should keep the sock tight enough around the ankle.
Then, the easy part. Cast-on, follow the 4-st pattern repeat down to the heel.
Now things get really tricky: the short rows. I have read on other blogs that short-row heels are not as deep as heel flap heels, so I knit an extra inch before starting the heel to compensate.
In the baby sock pattern I practiced with, half of the total stitches are used in the short-row heel construction. So I knit half of the stitches onto one DPN. Next, I followed the same directions I used in the baby sock pattern until 1/4 of the total number of stitches in the sock remains between the "pairs" of stitches created by the yarnovers, then followed the directions to close up the stitches and make the second half of the heel. It looks pretty good, eh? I've never tried the wrap-and-turn short row method, but I'm pretty sure any variety would work just as well.
Posted by zarah at 8:13 PM | Comments (7)
October 10, 2006
We have reached Knitting Nirvana
The Mason-Dixon girls are at it again - this time they've whipped up The Perfect Sweater, a sweater designed by blogommittee back in the pre-book days before we all knew the wonders of Peaches 'n' Cream Cotton. The sweater is knit with Cascade 220, and there are a couple of shops offering great deals on it in conjunction with the release of this pattern. (Click on the link above for more info, you yarn hos!)
Someday I would like to knit this nice basic sweater for myself - I think I would wear it a ton - but first, I have a few sweaters' worth of yarn to deal with!
Exhibit A: 4 skeins of green Cascade 220 Quattro, destined to become Forecast.
Exhibit B: 11 skeins of Sierra Aran (Elann.com), destined to be the Sunrise Circle Jacket.
Exhibit C: 3 mega-skeins of Tess merino superwash, soooo very close to being a Cambridge Jacket!
IMG_1469.JPG
Originally uploaded by kerner.
Sorry for the crappy photo, it's rainy out today.
As you can see, I've knitted up to where the sleeve cap shaping begins on both sleeves. Here's my question: I blocked them, and they are 1-2 inches too long. Should I rip back at this point, or keep going and see if it works itself out once the sleeve cap is on and set into the armhole? I've only made one other sweater with set-in sleeves, so I'm fairly clueless about this. I would really appreciate any advice you could give me!
Posted by zarah at 5:55 PM | Comments (7)
October 9, 2006
Socktoberfest Socks
Just as promised... my camera is finally working again! Here is a picture I took a few days ago of the socks I started to celebrate Socktoberfest.
Isn't it pretty? I dyed the yarn myself - full immersion in brown, the overdyed the whole skein in green. I think it looks very manly. =) It's going to be a Chirstmas present for my grandpa. (He's allergic to the stretchy stuff in socks - the perfect hand-knit sock recipient!)
I'm using the Gentleman's Fancy Sock pattern from Knitting Vintage Socks. You might remeber that one of my Socktoberfest goals was to knit more Nancy Bush patterns... unfortunately I will have to deviate slightly from the pattern to squeeze in one of my other sock-goals: short row heels! I have actually already turned the heel on the sock pictured here...
It turned out pretty good. I was winging the pattern a bit since it's written as a heel flap, but I think I managed to only have one tiny hole where I rejoined the heel with th rest of the sock. Turns out I learned how to knit yarnover short rows whenever I knit the Short-Row Hat a while back. The instructions for that pattern were so clear I didn't even realize I was learning something that was supposed to be "hard." (PS - if you want to learn short rows, and you have some yarn with long color repeats in it, this hat turns out really cool. I'll probably knit it again as a Christmas present for someone.) I guess it just goes to show, most things are much harder in your mind than in real life!
I can't wait to get my Funky Scarf!!!! It's swap week!
Posted by zarah at 10:34 PM | Comments (7)
October 6, 2006
The Countdown Begins
This is getting serious, folks. The Route 66 Half-Marathon is in 6 weeks. I've been pretty lax in my training so far, but it is time to kick in into gear.
Last weekend I ran a 6-miler. If I increase one mile each weekend, that will have me running 12 miles the weekend before the race. (A half-marathon is 13.1 miles if you didn't know.) I don't think it should be a problem to increase the mileage like that, but I wish I had a couple of rest weeks built in just in case.
Just so you know I'm sticking to my workout plan, I ran three mornings this week and am planning to run 7 miles this Saturday.
Edited to Add: Now I know why more people don't have running blogs. This is probably pretty boring to most of you - it's certainly boring to me! But I love being able to click on the "Running Fridays" category and have a record of how my training is going. I'm trying to think of ways to spice up my running posts. Any requests for training advice or any other running-related posts?
Photo credit to jovike via flickr.
Posted by zarah at 6:05 AM | Comments (5)
October 5, 2006
Found It!
Well, Amanda Cathleen definitely called this one! As soon as I got my new battery charger ordered, I found the old one! It was in the back seat of my car, along with other random detritus of my life: running gear, empty expandable files, old church bulletins, etc. The new charger already shipped, but it probably won't hurt to have a spare one hanging around just in case this happens again! No camera really puts a cramp in my blogging!
Did you guys watch Project Runway last night? I liked it much better than most reality reunion shows - but I couldn't believe that Keith was trying to say that he was "set up" to get kicked off the show. I don't believe that for a second.
I'll return to my regularly scheduled bloggin tomorrow - the camera battery is charging as we speak!
Posted by zarah at 6:53 AM | Comments (4)
October 4, 2006
Sock History
Good news! I have a new camera battery charger is on order. In the meantime, I'll have to amuse you with archived photos and random thoughts about sock knitting!
When did you start making socks? Did you teach yourself or were you taught by a friend or relative? or in a class?
I taught myself to make socks, about 2 years ago. I had only knit scarves and a hat before I tried it. I just got a pattern and starting knitting!
What was your first pair? How have they "held up" over time?
I saw some fun self-striping sock yarn at a craft store (Lion Brand Magic Stripes, I believe) and I decided I should give it a whirl. I downloaded the free sock pattern off the Lion brand website and away I went. I don't wear them very much because they are too big, but sometimes I will wear them around the house in the winter.
What would you have done differently?
I didn't pay attention to gauge at all, so they turned out way too big. Plus, I have learned that I prefer socks with some ribbing all through the sock, so they stay up better.
What yarns have you particularly enjoyed?
I really like Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock and www.wool2dye4.com supersock that I dye myself! I refuse to knit socks that are not superwash. I am learning that I prefer solid colored and self-striping yarns to the multi-colored hand-dyed yarns - the pooling just drives me CRAZY!
I wish I liked think socks, because I love the idea of knitting socks on bigger needles so I finish faster... but size 1s create the perfect gauge for me.
Do you like to crochet your socks? or knit them on DPNs, 2 circulars, or using the Magic Loop method?
I'm a DPN girl! I like using five - four hoding the needles and one working needle.
Which kind of heel do you prefer? (flap? or short-row?)
I usually do heel flaps, but I just learned short row heels and they look pretty nifty too! I think they both fit okay.
How many pairs have you made?
Four, plus one pair of baby socks and one pair on the needles!
Posted by zarah at 7:59 PM | Comments (3)
October 3, 2006
Dang.
Dang it! I lost my stupid camera battery charger. I have socktoberfest sock beginnings to show you, too! Does anyone know where I put it? (Tonight I start the full-out search. Could it be in one of my million craft/tote bags? Probably.)
I might start volunteering to teach knitting at one of the Boys & Girls Clubs in Springfield. I contacted the volunteer cordinator today, so I'm excited to see what happens! Any advice for teaching knitting to kids?
Posted by zarah at 6:10 AM | Comments (8)