In Action

I finally got around to making that pie.













Pre-baking















Apple pie!


The bird did help quite a bit with the venting, but I think I left the pie in a liiiittle bit too long, and it did boil over a teensy amount on one side. He hasn't been used in years, so I'm thinking he's just out of practice. He'll have another chance soon, I'm sure.

Travel, a Gadget, and a Little Bit of Knitting

I went to Seattle and I only took one photo.













Then I went to Massachusetts and didn't take any photos at all. I spent time with my grandmother, who was in the mood to get rid of old kitchen stuff. We made a pile to keep, a pile to have a yard sale with, and a little pile of things she was done with but which I wanted to keep.

















This little guy is one such item. He's the only thing I carried home with me on the plane, since he's small and relatively unbreakable, and because I want to use him soon. He's a pie bird, which (as my grandmother explained) is a device placed in the center of a two-crust pie to vent the steam from inside to keep pies from boiling over. Genius! I've always had trouble with apple pies leaking all over the inside of the oven - and then smoking the next time I preheat - but now I think I'll be all set. I'll post again once I've put him to the test.

I've been doing a ton of knitting, but at present I have almost nothing to show for it. Some of it is secret, and some of it is just really dull unfinished sweater, and a little bit of it is nearly finished adorableness which I'll be posting next. But for now, a sock in progress:













This is the cuff of the Through the Loops Socktoberfest Mystery Sock 2009. The yarn is Araucania Ranco Multy, which I picked up at My Sister's Knits last week or the week before. (It was in the 50% off sale bin and I can't resist sale bins.) I went to Kristen's blog last night (after midnight) to see what the gauge was and the first clue was up, so I cast on and stayed up past two to finish the clue. I think I'd get more knitting done if more patterns were this modular and more people were willing to spoon-feed them to me a little bit at a time.

La La's Simple Shawl

The Omelette Shawl is finished. It's more of a scarflet than a shawl, really, since I only worked five repeats of the lace pattern (as many as I could with a single skein of the Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock) before starting the border. I extended the border quite a bit, using almost a whole ball of Rowan 4 Ply Soft, and finished it with a picot bind off, which I hate working but love the look of.
















I'm pleased with the finished product, but in hindsight I wish I'd had the patience to incorporate the other skein of the Shepherd Sock. Live and learn, I guess.

Three Hats

There are two new hat patterns available from iknityouknot!

Gaussian is named for the bell curve shape it makes when laid flat. The yarn is Malabrigo Yarn Chunky in Frank Ochre (which makes me picture a dusty Steinbeck character) - a single skein will make the hat, and possibly a pom pom if you are so inclined. Pattern is available for $3 on Ravelry, or in my sidebar.































Blockhead is an extremely simple Fair Isle hat with a turned up lining to keep your ears warm in the colder months. I made mine in Reynolds Whiskey, using one ball each of Blood Orange and Ice Blue. The color possibilities boggle the mind - I think I'd like a black and white one. Pattern is available for $3 on Ravelry, or in my sidebar.

















Special thanks to Nancy for test knitting and to Nicole for modeling. (Don't you love how her necklace just happens to be the exact same colors as the hat? I do!)















I've also been test knitting! Bicycle Boy, the latest Weaverknits design, is a close-fitting cap ideal for wearing under a helmet. It features a Fair Isle bicycle chain motif and a chain ring cleverly delineated by the crown decreases. Mine is knit in Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed, which is VERY SOFT (but in some cases plagued by vegetable matter), in colors Gypsy (aka blue) and Imagine (aka blue-green). Pattern is available on Ravelry for $2.5o.














The very appropriate model is my dear friend Hannah, who, as a member of Join the Cycle, is on a cross-country bicycle trip with co-riders Casey and Melissa. The trio stayed with us for a few days this week, but are back on the road. You can read about their exploits here.

Knitting an Omelette?

No, it's my La La's Simple Shawl, made in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock (color is Sunshine Stripe, a Purl Soho exclusive color - thanks Jenny!) It just happened to be Tyler's breakfast's twin on Sunday morning. For some reason, yellow and white together always make me think that things look like eggs (including Big Bird's forehead, which has reminded me of scrambled eggs since childhood). I don't even like cooked eggs, really: they're too squeaky.

And speaking of Tyler, I'm almost done with his new* sweater!













*According to Ravelry, this thing has been in progress since 2007. That is a long time to wait for a sweater, but this thing has given me problems. I started with an Elizabeth Zimmerman Seamless Raglan Sweater pattern, but the proportions didn't make sense with the measurements I'd taken, so I tweaked the numbers quite a bit. Then I tweaked them back towards the guidelines to avoid gorilla armpits (mostly successful, if he keeps his arms up).

Then I knit for ages and ages, and the knitting was finished. He tried it on, and it was about 4" too long. So I let it languish for a looong time, and he was very patient and good about not bringing it up. A few days ago I got a very innocent "So, do you think my sweater will be done in time for cold weather this year?" I had promised him it would be done for cold weather LAST year, so I immediately made him try it on again in case it had magically shortened itself. It hadn't, and he hadn't gotten any taller, so I set about to shorten the damn thing.

The sweater is worked in the round from the bottom up, with a knitted-in hem. This meant that I needed to either take the whole thing apart from the neckline down to below the armpits (not gonna happen, dear) or cut it near the bottom, remove length, and reknit the hem in the opposite direction, then sew it in place - not an attractive option, since I really like the finished edge on the original hem. I ended up snipping the yarn 4" into the Stockinette above the hem and picking up the live stitches above the snip (all five million of them), then unraveling down to the row above the hem and picking those stitches up as well. Then I kitchenered the two sets together, which took two days. It was worth it, since the length is now perfect.

Now I just have to teach myself duplicate stitch and apply the crest. Maybe by spring?

Defluffing for Summer

Last week in Chicago we had temperatures in the 90s.

Ruth is ready.














I know she still looks quite fluffy, but consider her baseline:

New

New Summer Blouse
(does "blouse" sound antiquated?)













Pattern is McCall's 5388, View B
Fabric is a pale blue cotton with white ginkgo leaves, which I bought at JoAnn Fabrics years ago.
I shortened the whole thing by about 6" because I didn't have as much fabric as I needed. I like this length, though, and probably wouldn't have wanted it longer.
Check out this finishing inside the underarm:













New Finished Sweater

















Pattern is Green Tea Raglan from Interweave Spring 2007
(which I started knitting in Spring 2007)
Yarn is Nashua Creative Focus Superwash in color 11
I ended up with accidental bracelet-length sleeves on this, which I am not sure I don't hate. I'll try wearing it as-is (and maybe I'll love it) but there's a good chance I'm going to snip the sleeves at 3/4 length and reknit the edging. Also the neckline is a little weird, but that I'm getting used to. (I think it stands up like that because I used wool instead of the recommended bamboo.)

Newly Big Tomato Plants

















Okay, so maybe they've been big for a while, but I just wrangled them into a tomato cage and tied them up, so they're newly tall. No buds yet, but I'm thinking any day now.
By the way, the secret to getting leggily overgrown tomato plants into cages is to cut the cages almost all the way up one side and then open them like a clam shell, instead of trying to get them up into a cage without breaking off a lot of branches.