Country Road...

I consider myself a Southern girl at heart.  After all, I grew up south of the Mason-Dixon line and there's nothing I like better than bacon and grits for breakfast unless it's smoky barbecued ribs for dinner.  Can't get much more Southern than that.  Mmmmm, ribs.

Yarn Widower rolls his eyes at this. Bethesda, Maryland is hardly considered the South.  So then I have to point out that I was born in SOUTH Korea and that trumps his South Jersey provenance any day.  And while you're puzzling that one out, let me tell you about our trip to Tennessee.

First we spent a week in the Smoky Mountains.  We rented a cabin built into a hillside overlooking the mountains. It was quite lovely.

We watched the sun rise every morning....

and the boys serenaded the mountains every evening.

Bennan joined us on a hike.

Up to his usual antics

Here he discovers that mountain streams are a heck of a lot colder than South Florida beaches.

More to come....
spoiler alert: there's yarn in them hills!

Destination Vacation

Yarn Widower, Bennan and I are going on a road trip.  This got me thinking about packing for trips.  It seems to me that I always bring too much and I still forget the crucial thing that I meant to bring but forgot in the last minute shuffle of leaving the house.  Binoculars, hiking poles, chargers for various electronic equipment...

I usually bring too many articles of clothing.  I think about every possible situation and soon the pile gets a wee bit large.  My friend Gwen does not have this problem.  She selects a color theme and carefully maps out her vacation wardrobe.  It's amazing to see.

courtesy of bugheart.blogspot.com

Not only is Gwen a very talented knitter/photographer/artist friend but she has an extensive and truly envy-worthy wardrobe.  I especially admire her dresses.  I also love that she builds in contingency plans - life can be somewhat unpredictable.

This is Bennan's first Road Trip.  We did a trial run a few weeks back when we went to visit some of Yarn Widower's relations in Central Florida.  I'm happy to say that he did great.  He loves riding in the car and new places excite him to no end.  So when Yarn Widower decided he sorely needed a vacation, we made the necessary arrangements to bring Bennan along. Although I do have to say that for someone who only requires neckwear, he's got an awful lot of stuff to pack. 

As for me, I face the age-old dilemma of what to wear by stuffing whatever's clean into a bag and hope for the best.  But I think of Gwen's careful planning - next time, for sure, I am going to pick a color scheme.

Sick

I've been sick.  Not sick in the head (although I've been that too) but I mean physically ill.  I won't go into too much detail here except to say that it's really weird to have shaking chills in August in Florida when the heat index is well over 100. 

The good news is that I got to put my woolen knits to good use.  Socks, scarves, sweaters - knitting saves the day.

I'm feeling much better now, thanks.

Knitting - there is no cure

I have been working on a black linen skirt.  And like many of my projects, it both delights and maddens me. 

First off, I cast on 508 stitches for the hem.  That's a lot of stitches. And after knitting the second row, I realized that somehow I'd miscounted and I was about 10 stitches short.  Frog cast on #1.  After triple checking the number of my stitches, I was on my merry way.  I completed about 2 inches before I realized that I didn't like the looseness of the lace section.  My bad for neglecting to gauge swatch the lace.  Frog cast on #2.  I went down a few needle sizes, did a rudimentary gauge swatch and finally finally got started on the skirt.

And then I went to Knit Knite.  I had cast on the correct number of stitches with the needle size that best fit my needs.  Heck, I had even jerry-rigged two circular needles so that I could knit in the round without having to scrunch all the stitches onto one knitting cable.  Third time's the charm.  I was all set.  Except I kept getting nervous looks from K-Ro and Carolyn.  After my third row, I put down the knitting and asked them what was bothering them.  "I'm afraid for you," said K-Ro.  "Are you sure you didn't twist your stitches before joining?"  Carolyn concurred, "Are you sure you didn't just knit a moebius?"  I was confident and sure.  But they still seemed dubious.

"Here, I'll show you."  So I laid out the knitting, all 508 stitches that I had triple checked and as I got to the join, I realized that I had indeed twisted the stitches.  (For my non-knitting friends, this is an incurable tragedy.  One that can only be fixed by pulling out the stitches and starting over.) I gasped my disbelief.  No, can't be, check again.  But it was true.  I had twisted my cast on stitches when I joined to knit in the round.  All of a sudden, I felt very very tired.  Frog #3 seemed imminent.  I sucked mournfully on my soy chai.

If I had to frog this thing and start all over again, it was simply not going to happen.  I was going to have to make do.  So I twisted the stitches to line them up properly and carried on as though nothing had happened.  Since I had only three rows going, it was not that noticeable anyway.  Plus, I could always point to the hem and say, "this is where K-Ro pointed out that I had fucked up big time."

red circle = twist to untwist

See? Barely noticeable.  Usually mistakes in my knitting bother me to no end.  But not this time.  This was one mistake that I could live with.

A few days later, I had completed the lace hem and decided to block it before I had to gather it.

There was one scary moment when it looked like the stitches were twisted - the ramifications of which I will not go into here.  But no, as I smoothed it all out, it was indeed untwisted and laid flat.  K-Ro and Carolyn had saved my ass because had I blithely continued with the twisted cast on stitches, I would have only realized it now, having finished the lace hem.  And no amount of finangling would have saved it then.

It's good to knit with friends.  Especially the ones that doubt and question you (but in a nice way and only when you really need it).  Thank you, K-Ro and Carolyn!

Free Pattern! (that is, until August 16th)

I love free patterns.  When I saw this one, I knew I had to share.  Okmin Park's Every Way Wrap from Interweave Knits Fall 2009 is now available for free download until August 16 as part of an online knitalong. 

http://www.interweaveknits.com/galleries/bonus/fall-2009/every-way-wrap.asp

It makes a beautiful finished project and is perfect for gift- knitting. Maybe you remember I made one this past winter for Mrs. Truong.  I highly recommend this pattern for anyone who wants to try reversible cabling.  Click here for more pictures of this lovely garment. If you are using the pattern from the magazine, click here for the corrected chart symbols.  Although after briefly scanning the free pdf, it looks like they corrected this.

So go ahead, get yer free copy while it lasts!

Green Markets

This past winter, Yarn Widower discovered the beloved Floridian holiday tradition of taunting our snowbound Northern friends.  Whenever he saw that there was yet another snowstorm preparing to dump onto the Northeast, he would call up his brother-in-law and complain obnoxiously that it was so cold here that he was forced to wear a light jacket outside.  "I can't believe it!  It's 65 degrees.  I'm freezing!"

My first spring in Florida, I gaily planted herbs and veggies only to watch them wither in the unforgiving heat of Florida's warmer months.  I learned the hard way that the growing season here is backwards.  Unlike the North, it starts in October when the nights finally start to cool off and lasts until early April when everyone is chased back indoors into air conditioning.  Of course this makes perfect sense.  Why else do the snowbirds migrate here but for the balmy winters? 

It's July now.  It's hot here (as it is in many parts of the country).  Iced tea, beach trips and juicy slabs of cold watermelon.  Yeah, we got all that.  But here's what we don't have right now that I really really miss about Northern summers - Farmer's Markets.  Here, they're all closed for the summer.  It's the off season. I have to make do with fruit from California and pictures of the West Palm Beach Green Market I took back in January.

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A happy customer

My favorite veggie stand Stephens Produce

Malabrigo Monkeys

In the knitting world, there are some patterns that every self-respecting knitter knows by name: Clapotis, Fetching, Koolhaas, Swallowtail, etc.

Cookie A's sock pattern Monkey definitely falls into this category.  There are no monkeys to be found anywhere on these socks.  Apparently, they are so named because the designer was so obsessed that she wrote down the pattern just to get the monkey off her back.  Or something like that.

Pattern: Los Monos Locos by Jennifer O'Sullivan
an offshoot of the original pattern (think of fan fiction) that revises the sock to be knit toe up. Crazy!

Yarn: Malabrigo Sock (100% merino)
Colorway: Ochre
440 yards/skein (I used almost the entire skein for these mid-calf length socks)

Needles: US 1
I originally started with US2's but I wanted a tighter than normal gauge to ensure that these would wear well.

First off, I love this yarn.  It knits so beautifully.  Soft yet sturdy.  And the color is the most gorgeous earthy yellow.  I need more of it.  And yes, the pattern is obsession-worthy.  Once I had memorized the lace pattern, I found it intoxicating and hard to put down.

The heel construction was interesting.  There's short rows but no need to pick up stitches.  I've always thought short rows were kind of magical in a heel.  Not having to pick up stitches, that's earth-shattering.  Woo-hoo! 

But my favorite thing about the heel is the slipped stitch pattern called "Eye of Partridge." It's pretty.

Eye of Partridge:

Row 1: *sl 1, k1*, repeat
Row 2: knit all stitches if knitting in the round, purl if knitting back and forth
Row 3:* k1, sl 1*, repeat
Row 4: knit all stitches if knitting in the round, purl if knitting back and forth

Initially, I had some problems with it - there was a lot of ripping back because I kept getting the rows mixed up.  It's hard to tell visually whether or not I was supposed to slip the first stitch or knit it.  So I linked two of my stitch markers together (orange meant slip the first stitch of the row and green meant knit the first stitch) and just toggled the stitch markers when I slipped it for the all knit row.

Thus ends my little sock knitting adventure.  Three socks in June, spilled over a bit into July. Now it's Christmas in July.  Except I don't like to knit Christmas gifts - too much stress for a holiday I don't really celebrate anyway.  So I'll just knit birthday gifts instead... Besides, Yarn Widower's been asking for a pair of socks.