sweater, horray!... scarf, grrrrrrrrrr!

soooooooooo... i have officially begun my first sweater! well, i started one last year but it was poo... so, i have officially started my first sweater i'm going to finish! it is the central park hoodie from knitscene magazine modified to be a smidge more boyish. i'm using paton's classic wool (cause it's all a boy can aford right now, riiiiiiiiight) in a deep olive color.





i cast on last night and have been a knitting fool since. i've finished the ribbing and four cable repeates! here is the progress two cables back.... being attacked by the cat that ate chattanooga!!!







now, i have finished knitting the two halves of the certain something for the certain someone. enter the problem. since the something was knit in a chevron pattern and has a scalloped end... well, three points on the end form the zig zagging... the other end does too once you bind off. i didn't realize this... i assumed it would be straight like it looks when is on the needle and that i would need to knit two parts and then graft it together. which i did. but i messed up. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. so i ungrafted it and haven't had the heart to go back to it yet. tomorrow. pictures to follow once i have it sent off to mr. certain someone :)

kool aid rocks!

the first attempt...





me soaking my thumb after burning the shit out of it when i lifted the plastic wrap after microwaving.








so, i got totally inspired after the first attempt and decided to dye four different 110 yrd hanks of fishermen's wool four different shades of red. now... i shouldn't show this here yet becuause this yarn is for a certain project for a certain someone who will probably see it here first...





one is strawberry, one is black cherry, one is tropical punch, and one is cherry with stripes of the other three.


i also need to show off the amazing yard counter hank maker thingy my brother made me. it is made from an old piece of our house and parts of broomstick handles that my father never got rid of. it is wonderful for measuring out yarn for dying or after unraveling a sweater!

florida and baby

nothing knitted, but all dressed up

and now for a nonknitting related post....


this weekend were the miss annie awards (chattanooga's version of the tony's). my whole family went and i thought i would post some pictures of us all dressed up.




















and finally, i do believe my not so internal monologue on this one was "she needs to eat some cheese!"

foray into lace

i recently realized that for as long as i've been knitting, i don't have nearly enough scarves! i guess i've given most of my knitted pieces away as gifts, and i certainly don't regret that, but i want more scarves!!! i decided to knit the cherry leaf scarf (http://www.kidsknits.com/free/cherryleaf.htm). i wanted to see if i could knit something "lace" but keep it masculine. i'm knitting it in rowan felted tweed in a yummy deep brown with blue and caramel flecks...





i think the color and the leaf pattern keeps it manly... not that i really care if its manly or not... :)




i taught steven r. to knit. here he is at my parents house working on a wrong stitch rib scarf.

summer reading

gah!!! i'm sitting in a pile of books trying to fit my entire life from this summer into two checked bags and two carry-ons. at this point, one of the carry-on bags is ENTIRELY books! i thought i would jot down some of the books i read this summer:


the object of my affection - stephen mccauley
the road to wellville - t. coraghessan boyle
garlic and sapphires (the scecret life of a critic in disguise) - ruth reichl
i am not myself these days - josh kilmer-purcell
the pillars of the earth - ken follett
molto agitato (the mayhem behind the music at the metropolitan opera) - johanna fiedler
a treasury of royal scandals - michael farquhar
the lovely bones - alice sebold


alrighty, just wanted to get those down so i can actually remember that i read them later. ok, and i totally wanted to take a break from the packing.

knitting on the bus...

my summer time in new york is winding down and steven r. and i are heading back to chattanooga on wednesday. now, if i was a smart person, like steven r., i would have bought my plane ticket by now. but i'm not. and i haven't. and tickets are now 7000 dollars. sooooo, i'm thinking of taking a little adventure and greyhounding it back to chattanooga. it takes 20+ hours and i have to make two transfers but it is half the price of a flight. i haven't made up my mind yet, but it certainly sounds like something that could end up as a great story.
speaking of steven r., here is a picture of the two of us taken ealier this summer in central park:

(steven r. on the left, steven m. on the right)
now for some knitting pics... i've been making mittens this summer. i'm trying to get my pattern for them just right and have as many as possible for christmas gifts this year. they are made from cascade 220.

also on the needles... a scarf from a cone of wool i bought at school products and a hat for my amazing niece made from a pattern from 'itty-bitty hats' by susan b. anderson.


the ribbons are a little crazy.