Defunct

I'm abandoning this blog and will be focusing all my blogging energy here from now. Thanks!

Woolly socks

These only took a couple of hours and they seem to keep Hank's feet pretty snug in his galoshes. I used this pattern with a bigger gauge wool yarn (4 sts/inch) and size 8 needles because Hank's feet are pretty big for a toddler (size 10).

Cabin Fever Felting Spree!

We're having some crazy, apocolyptic weather here in Portland. It's been snowing for a week and, because it rarely snows here at all let alone for days at a time, the city's not set up to do much in the way of plowing (or sanding or graveling or salting or anything). This is especially true of where we live - on a steep hill on the outskirts of town surrounded by woods. The roads up here have never been plowed and it doesn't look like the city is going to start now. We broke down and bought chains for our truck and have made the trip into town a couple of times in the past week but then got so much snow this weekend that we haven't left our neighborhood since Thursday. We are, for all intents and purposes, snowed-in.


I grew up in snowy places and am surprised to find myself really snowed-in for the first time in my life. I wouldn't say it's all great - after a week up here I think I'm starting to feel the effects of cabin fever (spells of total loopiness and sometimes really agonizing restlessness) - but in a lot of ways it's been cool. I'm always bemoaning the lack of snow here and getting so much of it has been awesome. We took some unforgettably pretty, snowy walks with Hank. We met some neighbors that we may not have met otherwise. We shirked most of our responsibilities for the week. We skied and snowboarded through our neighborhood.

We also roughed it a little. I made the snowy 3 mile trek across the bridge to St. Johns and back for groceries. And we've been doing some stuff that we do for fun out of necessity: Colin's baked a loaf of bread every day and I've been knitting warm things for Hank - mittens and socks for playing in the snow. We've never had this kind of snow so he's never needed extra warm things to wear in it.

Which brings me to the knitting:

Hank's mittens were really thin, sorry numbers. I realized he ought to have felted mittens for playing in the snow so I knit one in garter stitch out of green Lamb's Pride and felted it in the washer to see how it would turn out before I started the second. It was sort of stiff and awful and he flatly refused to wear it. So I felted a pair of red and white mittens that I'd knit for myself last winter along with my mittens which were originally for Colin and too big. The results were mostly good. Mine were much improved. I felted them only enough to make them warmer and just the right size.


Hank's were less successful - they accidentally went through the wash one too many times and they're smaller than I meant them to be but they do the trick.


Suddenly, I started looking around the house and seeing lots of knitting projects that could benefit from felting. Hank had a pair of slippers, for example, that were way too big on him and I thought they'd be just right if they went through the washer once. Sadly, they turned out to be a total felting casualty.


Poor bears. They seem to be asking, "Why did you do this to us?" They were way too long to begin with and after felting they remained as long but skinnier and misshapen. Anyway, I moved on to wool socks for Hank. They're almost done and when they are I'm knitting myself a Christmas stocking. If we remain snowbound (and we might - it's still snowing now), I may even finish it in time for Christmas.

Happy holidays!

Colin's Applique Apollo 11 Sweater

Colin's sister, Maile, and I made this sweater so that he could dress as Danny Torrance from The Shining for a Halloween Decemberists show at an evangelical college in Illinois. It was a group effort: Funk dressed as Jack Torrance, Jenny as Wendy, and John and Nate as the horrifying, dead sisters. I was thinking of trying to knit the Apollo 11 sweater (see previous post for haunting movie still) and even ordered the yarn for it, but I think I got it out of my system making this one.

Too-Tall Chullo

I knit this for Hank but he wouldn't even keep it on long enough for me to see if it fits. I have a feeling that, if he would wear it, it would be hilariously tall on him. It's pretty tall on me.

This was my first earflap hat and I mostly like it but would change a few things the next time around, namely the garter stitch hangy-downy things. I wish they were i-cord or braided yarn or nothing. I used more leftover Rowan Kid Classic - I bought a lot of it last year - and knit the hat from the tips of the earflaps up, decreasing only on the red stripe rows between patterns. After I finished, I picked up stitches around the band and earflaps and knit a garter stitch border. I used my all-time favorite knitting book, 1,000 Great Knitting Motifs by Luise Roberts to choose the patterns. If you're into stranded knitting, it's the bomb.

I was actually inspired to knit this hat by mind-blowing Peruvian chullos like these:


I'm not sure how they're knit - the earflaps are beyond me. My version came out unsurprisingly more anglo. I guess it looks sort of Norwegian.

Monkey in a Sweater

This photo was taken 2 years ago, on Hank's first Halloween. The sweater is hand knit, using the babies neck down cardigan pattern from Knitting Pure and Simple and Lambs Pride worsted weight yarn. This pattern's a real winner. I've knit it a lot and it always comes out nice. It's totally seamless, which is the only way I roll when it comes to sweaters.

Happy Halloween!

Young Pink's Fair Isle Sweater Vest

It's embarrassing how many times I've seen "Pink Floyd's The Wall". I don't think it's a terrific movie but it made a huge impression on me when I was a kid. I first watched it as a middle schooler, and, really, it blew my mind. I was so into that album then (I still am) and the music combined with young Pink's bleak British early adolescence and the trippy animation really resonated with me. Now, as an adult, I can see where it's goofy and heavy-handed but I still love it.

I was watching it last year with a knitter's eye and was struck by how beautiful Fair Isle sweater vests are. I thought it was sad that that totally ubiquitous English fashion never really made its way to the states and decided I wanted to knit something like it for Hank. So I searched youtube for clips from the movie, paused it on a couple of good ones, and charted the pattern for young Pink's sweater vest as best I could.

Here's what I came up with:



I don't know that I really achieved what I was aiming for. The pattern's pretty close but something about the yarn isn't right. The grey isn't warm and heathery enough. The gauge is too big. I actually thought of trying again but decided it was too nerdy and bordering-on-crazy to have even done it once and moved on.

Here's a scene from the movie that features both the sweater vest and the gorgeous song "When the Tigers Broke Free":



This crazy knitting project got Colin and I joking about the idea of knitting sweaters from iconic movies. At some point we were watching The Shining (because we watch it...a lot) and I was like, "Oh my god. I should knit the Apollo 11 sweater!"


I was actually kidding. I'm so scared of The Shining that I wouldn't even want to knit Danny Torrance's sweater, let alone put it on my own kid. In fact, this picture sort of makes my blood run cold. But for whatever reason, Colin thought it was a great idea and pestered me about it. And because I'm loathe to turn down a knitting challenge, I'm considering facing my fear (the fear that, by knitting the sweater from The Shining, I'll conjure the ghosts of the characters in the movie and they'll haunt me and my family). If I do knit the Apollo 11 sweater, it'll be an art project and an homage to Stanley Kubrick, who's one of my creative heroes, not a garment for my child to wear. That's where I draw the line.