twenty nine

Happy Birthday Lars!

I have to say I am proud of my cake masterpiece. It’s an “inside out german chocolate cake” recipe that I found online. It’s dense and chocolaty, and has a pretty smooth glaze. Six of us were able to eat about half of the cake.

The candles are made from a cake of beeswax that I had. The idea came from a Martha Stewart craft, although I didn’t have sheets of wax (they are hard to find and expensive) so I melted my wax into a small foil lined pan to make a thin sheet of wax. I then used little cookie cutters to cut out the letters and sandwiched the layer together (two of each letter) with a small wick and toothpick. They burn fast so are really only good for one time, but definitely worth the effort for the cuteness.

fare thee well flock

I am now on my brief sabbatical, of undetermined length, between jobs. So my time is designated for resting, being healthy, and naturally doing creative things. I saw an awesome baby card yesterday with an octopus on the front knitting socks with a few different sets of legs and finished socks hanging out on a few of it’s other legs. The inside of the card said something about getting ready to be busy with baby. I’m trying not to be like the octopus right now, even though there are so many things that I want to sew and knit with my “free” time right now. I have told myself to enjoy this time and that there is nothing that must get done before the baby arrives. Which is true since the only this the baby really needs are the parents not cute mobiles and burp clothes (however I plan to finish both eventually).

One thing that I did feel like I needed to finish before the arrival were the goodbye gifts for my co-workers. I made a bird (above) for each of my colleagues with a tag that reads:

“It is a fact that in the right formation, the lifting power of many wings can achieve twice the distance of any bird alone.”

It’s a fitting quote since the team works closely together and is truly a wonderful group because of all of the qualities that everyone brings to it. Leaving my co-workers was the hardest part of leaving work and I was happy to make a little something to give showing my appreciation for all of their support over the years. And to be honest, giving gifts is often more about the person giving them than the recipient, and these gave me closure from the team and the job as best it could.

The pattern is a hybrid that I made up based on the Spool bird pattern and the bird pattern from Last Minute patchwork Gifts by Joelle Hoverson.

anti-progress

We are back from our September trips and trying to get settled back into things. I had big plans for my knitting since I had lots of travel time in a plane and car however I have returned will less knit up than I left with.

The first issue came up with the argyle vest. I have been working on it the last few months and had a good 10″ or so of argyle. Early on when I started increasing (there is a one stitch increase on each side about ever 16 rows) I noticed an error that I fudged by moving over a few stitches to match up the pattern and adding a stitch where it was needed. It seemed like a good idea at the time and I didn’t think that it would really affect the over all pattern. The stitches are so small it’s hard to even see a small mistake. Later I realized that I had missed an increase on one side so I again added in a stitch where needed.  So it was knitting up well and looked fine but then while on the trip I realized that the pattern wasn’t matching up right even though it looked fine. The diamonds on the left side had too many stitches in them and the diagonals on the middle diamond weren’t lined up (there were too few stitches in the diamond?). Overall, I realized that there were some flaws within the way the pattern was coming out and it probably had started near the beginning covering up mistakes.

So I was left with a big dilemma of what to do. I could pull out the whole thing back the ribbing and start over (tear), or pull back a good portion back past the first mistake and start from there. The hard part about the second option is that frogging argyle isn’t as easy as frogging a single color since the yarns are twisted at each color change. The second challenge is that there would be big long pieces of yarn attached as they were pulled out.

I decided to frog back to the mistake and not start all over, and patiently tried to pull out the stitches without crying. Thankfully my sister-in-law was there to save me. She suggested the embroidery thread toggle things (I can’t remember what those are called). So although it’s not fun and very time consuming to frog, at least the thread isn’t so tangled. the plan is to fog back to about where the first set of diamonds ends.

The other project that I brought with me was smaller and I had finished a significant part of the project when I realized that it wasn’t going to fit the recipient because the lace pattern that I picked didn’t have the same stretch as I had expected. So I had to pull that one back too (a lot) and figure out a new way of doing the pattern. This is one of gifts that I have been working on and actually plan to have done by the time I give it. I was worried that I had no prospect of getting it done but now I have more hope and it’s coming along now that I got it started again.

So frustrating, but really why knitting can be fun and challenging, and feel so good when it finally works out.

duvet cover and striped socks

I love my down throw (you know, a small down blanket perfect for being cozy all year long) but I’m not in love with the snowman pattern on the throw. They are cute, but get tiring after awhile. This fabric makes the perfect cover and now the down throw is all season and just as cozy. It actually took a lot more work and sweat to sew than I would have liked just because there was a lot of measuring and sewing long edges (boring) and making the pieces the right dimension (the fabric was not as wide as the throw so needed to be pieced). Now I am really ready for fall, the striped socks say it all I think.

log cabin crochet

I started this baby blanket before my niece was born. I have now put the finishing touches on it and get to see her for the first time next week and give her the blanket. She’s about 9 months now, but hopefully can still get some use out of the little blanket. The squirrel puzzle is her Christmas gift so she will have to wait on that one.

The blanket is a 22″ square with Knit Picks superwash merino (which I think they don’t carry it anymore)

Since starting this blanket last fall I have happened upon some other log cabin crochet and knit items. See Joelle’s Giant Granny Square and log cabin wash clothes from Purl Bee