Coloring my world

Though there are an abundance of patterns out there that I wound never want to change, there are plenty around that I would--if just for the chance to make them my own.


On Ravelry, at the click of a button, I found about 400 tea cozy patterns that I had to narrow down. I eliminated the crocheted items because I can't crochet...not enough needles. I focused on worsted weight wools and eliminated everything else. I didn't want to pay for the pattern. Call me cheap, but hey, why not? I wanted to use multiples of rich, bright colors, so I selected only color work patterns. I even looked for a tea topper two ways: cozy and cosy.


When all was said and done, even when I added the more costly patterns back in, nothing spoke to me. That's when I recalled that there was such a pattern I liked in the Kristin Nicholas book, Color by Kristin.


I'm ashamed to tell you that even though I take care of all of my books, my copy of Kristin's book gives new meaning to the term dog-earred. While Stinkerbell McBookeater did not chew this book, her canine pal did. Bad dog. Still, it's only the cover that got chewed and all of the inspiring patterns are still intact.

I put the book and several worsted weight yarns I collected into a basket I picked up at a new shop in my neighborhood. Using the pattern for Kristin's cozy as a jumping off point, I then set out to think how make it my own. I selected the Mountain Colors Moguls yarn in Bitter Root as the cuff of this piece and chose a Fair Isle stitch pattern from the dictionary of stitches in Kristin's book. I'll stick with the mitered top as in the pattern.


This will be my weekend project and I'll show photos of my progress. By Sunday, I'm hoping the tea will stay hot between trips to the teapot.

A note on those yarns: with the exception of the Moguls, everything else in that basket is Michigan made from Stonehedge Farm & Fiber Mill. If you've never knit with this gorgeous merino wool, I encourage you to give it a try. You'll never look at Cascade 220 in the same way once you've felt the soft hand of Shepherd's Wool.

Fade Isle Knitting?

Not one to let my needles be still for long, I stumbled across a hat pattern I just had to have. I perused the pattern, free of course, and went shopping for yarn right upstairs in the yarn studio.

Abandoning everything else I had going, I cast on to knit tam C using Galway in a pale green for the main color and for the contrast, Nashua Wooly Stripes Tweed. This clever use of a striped yarn as contrast allows the Fair Isle knitter to use only 2 colorways. Ultimately, this means NO ENDS TO WEAVE! Not too shabby. Not being much of a fan of the pattern recommended Noro yarn (I hate knots in my yarn), my selection for the contrast was much more subtle than the usually vibrant colors of Noro. The entire time I was knitting the hat, I felt I'd made a mistake with the colors and was creating a hat with a pattern that wouldn't be discernible, but I didn't let that stop me.

I'm so glad because I could not have been more wrong.

Gorgeous. And it fits. This one just might be for me.

Because I don't look good in a hat with ribbing, I changed up the pattern a bit by throwing in a braided cast on for fun. I knit 4 rows of corrugated ribbing as in the pattern and then threw in a braid with the arrows pointing in the opposite direction of the cast on braid.

Next up? I think that gorgeous teapot that I bought from Debra needs a Fair Isle cozy on cold winter nights.

What's a little tendonitis?

Especially when the outcome is as pretty as this.


I've been determined for a week to finish this poncho I started late last winter. Despite the aching feelings in my left wrist, and the one edge I knit in stockinette instead of garter stitch (that I refuse to fix), here is the completed pattern, Erika, from last year's Rowan Classic Winter Solace. Though I've been exaggerating that I've been knitting miles and miles of stockinette stitch, the truth is, it only feels that way. I've only knit 9/10s of a mile of yarn to get to the end of this.

What I'm searching for now is another hat or cowl to cast on for charity knit night tonight at Sue's. I'm thinking something chunky to change it up a bit.

3 Guesses...

Who has been overdosing on HGTV again?

Here is one of the colors we've chosen as an accent color on one or two walls in an undisclosed location. Oh my, but that is some dark, dark paint. It's Rainstorm, by Behr. The primary color is Millstream and the ceiling and trim will be white. I had fun playing with the colors on the Behr website where one can slap virtual paint on the virtual walls of your own room. You just have to upload your own photos and get to painting.

Want to venture a guess as to which room I got bold enough to let walls speak so loudly?

True Confession

At times, even a fur coat is not enough.

Sometimes, I demonstrate a profound lack of intellect.

While my kitchen is miniature small, I find I have decent enough storage and the space is OK for one cook. There isn't much room for two people wielding sharp knives. It's comfortable for me though, and everything is new which is a plus. The big advantage to a small space is that it takes no time at all to clean. However, there is something that I missed on inspection when we bought this home, and the irony here is that there weren't any appliances present to block my view of what was missing. I just didn't see it and so did not recognize that what should have been there, simply was not.

There are no heating vents.

While there are plenty of things to keep things cold like granite, tile floors and stainless steel, the only thing keeping me warm in there are a couple of rugs and a small space heater that I picked up on Saturday. It also helps to be clad in wool.

The buddy system helps.

Did I mention it's cold here in the Big D? Freezing, frosty, nippy, chilly, frigid, and near wintry. Oh wait. Wintry? That's right. Thursday night into Friday morning will bring a rain/snow mix. As I write this at 11 AM, it's only 37 degrees (that's 3 degrees for my friends who measure in celsius).

Miles and miles of stockinette take time to knit and help keep my lap warm. Sadly, I have not learned to knit and cook simultaneously.

Tell me again...why did I need to buy a home with character?

Roots

There.

That looks about right for the amount of caffeine I need to get through a day. Perhaps it's why I can't sleep at night, even though I cut myself off rather early in the day. Truth be told, I'm down to about 3 big mugs of coffee a day and maybe a cup or two of tea. Rather than believe the lies in respect to the harm caffeine may cause me, I'm going to believe in the antioxidant power of the coffee bean. Don't try to dissuade me, because if I don't have my coffee, I look and feel like this:



Coffee was my mother's favorite drink and my dad used to make his own muddy Turkish coffee that I pretended to adore. Maybe I did like it, or maybe I was aiming to please by showering praise on my dad when he brewed that miserable concoction. Whatever.

I'm off to brew a pot of coffee in honor of my parent's memory and then I'm going to make my mom turn over in her grave by going out to vote for democrats. Sorry, mom.

What are you doing on this beautiful, Día de los Muertos?

Where's in the World is Finder?

My MacBook has been crippled for about a month, maybe more, at which time, Finder mysteriously left town. For those of you who don't have a Mac, here is a description of Finder's all important job:
The Dock in Mac OS X provides fast, one-click access to frequently used applications, folders, files, and even downloads from the Internet. The Finder makes working with your files and documents as easy as browsing your iTunes library.

Though most applications continued to work, I could only FIND them the hard way. I tried to shut down my computer, but because Finder wasn't working, it couldn't shut down any of my applications like mail, Safari, or iPhoto. I kept getting an error message that the finder application wouldn't open because it couldn't be found. I couldn't slurp up photos from the internet, open certain applications or download security updates. For whatever reason, Finder had left me and I was too lazy to go talk to an Apple Genius, but only because whenever I go to an Apple store, there are 759, 243 people in front of me.

Long story short...my son came by to download his photos from the Penn State game (Michigan's third loss in a row), and said, "your Finder isn't working." No kidding. Really? So he fixed it. He shut off the power, rebooted and when he did, Finder was back from vacation.

Sheesh. Simple as that? I had thought of this as an option, but was fearful that if Finder was really lost, nothing would open with a hard restart. Since it wasn't his laptop, my son had no such fear.

Sometimes I think too much.

For Skippy: Trevor on a Stick eating Thai food somewhere in the middle of Pennsylvania.

Since it's All Saint's Day, I suppose I have St. Anthony to thank (in addition to my son) for finding Finder.

I'd show you my own pictures from the weekend, but it was rather dull. Miles and miles of stockinette were knit, but I swear, this project will never be finished. While I started it last February with the intent of wearing it by spring, I fear it won't be done until next spring.