Embarrassing

I am embarrassed to say that I have been wearing this sweater for several years sans buttons.  

(I blogged it was washed and blocking on 12 Nov 2009.  Sad, eh?)

Tonight I sewed the buttons on.

X and O Kauni Cardigan is finally complete.

Blocked

Washed and blocking.

Awaiting drying and buttons.

Behold the Kauni cardigan!

It's time

It's time to finish knitting the Kauni cardigan.

It's been neglected for a very long time (last touched in March) awaiting only the front button bands. When I picked it up, I wondered what made me bury it in the pile.

There is NO reason. I loved knitting with its light-weight yarn and bright colors.

This'll be finished on this cold, dark, damp evening. (Have you adapted to standard time yet?)

Girl of the House has come down with an "influenza-like illness". High fever and a headache. We've been a bit subdued around here the past few days. Makes for nice snuggling time, though!

A Picture for My Mom

I'm babysitting her Christmas Cactus while they are wintering in Texas.

We tend to keep our house too cold for the cactus to be happy enough to bloom, but apparently this year it's hardened up and decided it HAS to bloom, cold weather be damned. (We aren't telling it that it missed Christmas.)

Of course there are only four blooms so far...

HI MOM!!


In other progress, I've finished both sleeves on the Kauni cardigan.

I'm particularly proud of the way the sleeves match in color. I attempted to get them both started at the same point in the color sequence, and I think it worked!

Now, on to the collar and the front bands.

Junior cook

One night a week here at the NoSheep homestead, Girl of the House makes supper.

Tonight's her night. (Especially after last night she gave me the "It's good, and I like it, just not tonight..." line. Gotta say, she learned that one from her older brother - thanks so much Ben!)

We've got a mighty fine pasta dish coming to our table, full of tomatoey goodness.








I've got a good start on the second sleeve of the Kauni cardigan.

I catch myself saying "just one more repeat - when the next color starts, I'll quit for the evening."

And then knitting another round or two. Help! I'm mildly obsessed!

random wednesday

We've been baking up a storm lately.

Finally got us one of those new-fandangled mixers. We killed off the old mix-master.

We got a good tip on where to buy a nice mixer for a reasonable price (thanks Coleen!) and bit the bullet. Now we feel like we're on the Martha Stewart show!

However, for those of you who have one of these big old beasts of a mixer, a question. Where do you keep your mixer? It's too tall for my lower cabinets, and it's WAY too heavy to lift into an upper cabinet. It's too tall to fit on the countertop under the upper cabinets by a hair. The pantry? Then where do I put the food?! So, for now, it's just out on the countertop.

Girl of the House is becoming the master of it, and we're eating cookies and fresh bread. Yay for dough hooks!!


The Kauni cardigan has one whole sleeve!

I'm crocheting the other steek and picking up the stitches for the other sleeve this evening.

(We just returned from the Alpine Ski team banquet for GotH, so there's not that much time...)



The merino/alpaca/silk is plied and skeined. I didn't try to match up the two bobbins - just plied as it came.

I rather like the randomness of the color.

My Kauni cardigan is getting a sleeve!


Why, yes that is a new sofa. Thank you for noticing.

We finally parted with the 18 year old sofa. I think we got our moneys worth.

(I truly understand why our parents have ancient sofas. There's no point rushing into anything, is there?)



Georgie likes it very much.



I've also been spinning up some merino/alpaca/silk I dyed last year.

Funny how two bobbins can look so different?












Paul and I headed out for a walk after work. It's in the teens here today. All the snow will start to melt again tomorrow - it's due for the upper thirties.


Our old topless silo.




View from the Waterford bridge.










Paul took more amazing bird photos this weekend.

Here's Mrs. Red-bellied woodpecker.

Late to the party

I return to steek, yet again.

The Kauni cardigan is ready to have the sleeve steeks cut.

The sleeve stitches will be picked up around the steek and knit down to the cuff.

I've always sewn my steeks on the sewing machine, as I did last week for the Lopi cardigan.

For this cardigan, I've decided to try a crochet steek. I took the instructions from Meg Swansen's Sweaters from Camp . On the interwebs, a really good tutorial is on Euny Jang's old blog, See Euny Knit.

The visible yellow is the crocheted steek.




And I'm late to the party. This is a great way to steek! Why have I never tried this before?!

Look at that nice neat edge after I've cut. I'm very pleased! This a technique I'll permanently add to my repertoire.






Here's the newest colorway from the crockpot.

Yes, I can use something other than blues and greens!






Personal growth? Perhaps, but not of a very important variety. But I'll take it wherever it comes...


Hey Minnesotans! Did you all have this fabulous sunrise today?

There was a column of light extended far into the sky. Gorgeous.

I didn't take the camera with me to work. I tried to take a pic with my cell phone with very little success.

Paul took this photo before he left for work. Like I said, I'm going to have to wrestle him for the camera!

Saturday in the sun

This morning while Paul was out chopping wood, I met some friends for a walk in the Carleton Arboretum.






The sun's shining, and temps are in the upper 20s.

Nikki's dog, Katie, was happy for the run.








There'll be portobellos to eat this weekend. Yum.









I've made more knitting progress on my Kauni cardigan.

I've decided to keep the dark section. We'll see how that turns out.














This is definitely my corner of the kitchen counter.

Crockpot full of merino roving, the camera bag, and my work PC.




Ain't life grand?

A question

I picked up my treat, the Kauni cardigan.

I knitted on, enjoying the color changes.

However, I've noted a problem.

I spent quite a bit of time in the planning phase, attempting to line the balls up to ensure there would continue to be contrast throughout the sweater. Looks like it didn't work as well as I had hoped.

The blue from one colorway and the purple from the other colorway aligned themselves, disregarding my intentions. Aaaaaargh!

You can see the problem. To top it off, it appears this is right at bust level. I know I won't need that kind of attention to my bust.

My dilemma: to continue on, or rip back and redesign. What do you think?

Wouldn't you know?

You know that knitting I was going to put off til after the holidays?

The one I just knitted a few rows? Just to try it out?






Can you see the problem?














How about now?








There - the blue row. Only one checkerboard row?









Serves me right. Should have been doing more holiday gift knitting.

Less Kauni, more holiday

I've managed to tear myself away from the Kauni cardigan and start some holiday knitting.

A surprise project, to be named later.






I am still knitting on the Kauni.

I can't wait for the next row, to see how the colors will look.
So I end up "After this row I'll stop. OK, after this row I'll stop. Well, maybe one more."










Girl of the House went to town last evening for Northfield's Winter Walk, our big winter to-do. Downtown was all decorated, lots of special events, even a parade. It's mostly a shopping extravaganza. (We dropped her off, sneaking the back way into town. Don't like the crowds. And, man, it was cold!)

Her middle school choir walked in the parade, singing carols. After the parade, they broke into small groups, walking about town, caroling.

Just a few more rows

then I'll start that holiday knitting...

Couldn't resist...

The Kauni yarn was calling, whispering to me, luring me to it.



Well, it couldn't hurt to knit a little swatch, could it? That wouldn't take too much time away from holiday knitting?

(Swatch lesson learned from the Retrofit disaster.)






Oooh, that's fun! I like that!


Couldn't hurt to make the yarn into balls, could it?



It turned out that my four balls of yarn were really seven balls in disguise.

Only one ball of blue/purple/black was a complete ball. The other three balls were knotted and restarted in a different color order somewhere in the ball.

This required much more time than I anticipated - winding and rewinding.

I deserve a reward, don't you think?

Holiday knitting be damned...

I need to try this out!

Inch and a half of corrugated ribbing, and now onto the pattern. YAY!








And, by the way, I finished my carry around alpaca sox. Wore 'em to work today.

Funny, how small luxuries are so satisfying.