Two new hats for Spring

Here are the two hats I worked on during our time in Oregon.

The first is Strudel from Woolly Wormhead's Going Straight. You might remember me starting this hat several months ago for a knit-along and then losing the project in our move last summer. Well, I found it and decided it was time to finish it up. I rewrote the pattern a bit to better fit my head by removing one of the cable repeats and also shortening the open eyelet section. I realized on the last repeat that I wasn't going to have enough yarn to finish the project so I also removed two of the short rows in the last section in order to have enough yarn to complete the cable repeat (otherwise the cables wouldn't line up when grafted.) I finished with just a tiny bit to spare so I was really happy.

Hat number two is the Spring Beret by Natalie Larson. A customer was knitting this hat before I left for Oregon and since it was a free Ravelry download I printed a copy out to take on vacation with the hopes of finding the perfect hand painted cotton to make it. I found some Kraemer Tatamy Tweed worsted in the perfect colorway at Soft Horizons Fiber in Eugene. I was a little apprehensive about using a cotton acrylic blend, but the sales lady assured me that it has a very nice hand. She was right, the yarn was perfect for the hat and wonderful to knit with. I bought two skiens just in case so I have an extra skein that I might make a matching pair of lacey armwarmers out of in the future. I originally made the slouchier version of the tam, but ended up ripping back and removing a pattern repeat to make it a better fit for my head. Even with the ripping back, the pattern is a fast and easy knit.

Worms!!!

After years of talking about it, I finally set up a vermicompost bin in my house. I love worms and the idea of living with a few thousand of them in my basement makes me so giddy I can hardly stand it. Anyway, here are the pics of my wormy adventures today. Thanks to Raellyn for sharing her worms with me and helping me set up my bin.

Here is a closeup of my worms. They need some time to settle into their bedding so right now they are all huddled together in the middle of the bin under the paper. Having this many worms in one place totally freaked Philip out, it was kinda funny.

This is what the bin looks like in its finished state. I made the bedding out of shredded phone book pages, rings from toilet paper tubes, and some soil.

Tomorrow I get to start adding my food scraps to the pile which will really get things going. I am keeping the bin in the basement since it stays cool and dark year-round.

Something a little green

After a week with Robert and Bambu and their amazing garden, Philip and I decided we wanted to grow more plants. Nothing to crazy, just enough greenery to lighten things up.

To keep things simple, I started with herbs for the kitchen. We have several seeds for herbs in the freezer so I went ahead and germinated the cilantro and basil (the herbs we use the most) and potted them on the kitchen window sill in the flower pots I painted last summer. I already have little sprouts peeking up out of the dirt and they have been getting bigger as the day goes on. Friday, I scored four more terracotta pots at the thrift store and I painted them red yesterday and filled with them with dirt and seeds (too impatient to germinate before planing this time) for chives and rosemary.

This weekend we are working with our neighbors to till up the front flower bed, two side beds, and the raised bed in the back. The plan is to fill the front bed with easy-care perennials, plant sunflowers and possibly some swiss chard and Brussels sprouts in the raised bed and whatever we want in each of our side beds. I already transplanted some mint from my dad's house in front of our porch which will be really nice for summer cooking and iced tea. Our neighbors also have an unused trellis that they said we can use. We really liked the clematis that covered Robert and Bambu's house so if we can find some we are going to place the trellis on the side of the porch and let the clematis vines crawl up it. While it probably won't provide us with much privacy in the first year, it should be big enough next summer to make a nice little wall, plus it will make the porch smell amazing.

The tricky part to this gardening adventure is that I want to do it on a budget of $25 (most of which will go toward the plants for the front bed that we are sharing with our neighbors.) So far we have spent about $6 on seeds and used pots. If we stay on budget and actually manage to make things grow we are going to add a garden gnome.

Oregon, a post about food and beer

Philip and I are back from our trip to the Pacific Northwest. We had a great time in Oregon and I have been using the better half of this week to recover from all of the amazing food we ate. Here is a breif synopsis of the trip.

We left early for the airport on Tuesday so that we could stop by Ramsi's in Louisville for lunch with my dad. Philip and I split the vegan seitan parmesan panini and my dad and I shared a side of plantains and as usual the food was amazing (which was fortunate since the airport pickings were slim.) We flew into Portland and met up with our friend Amanda and her girlfriend Lisa around 10pm. They took us to the White Eagle Saloon (a McMenamins pub) for drinks and the best tater tots we've ever had. After that we were pretty much spent (plus it was after 3am our time) so we went to bed.

The next morning we stopped for coffee and caught the Amtrak to Eugene. Robert, Philip's brother, met us at the station and took us to the Morning Glory for a vegan brunch. I had the biscuits and gravy (actually they were out of biscuits and substituted dill rolls which really complimented the oniony gravy) and Philip ordered the taco salad.

The next few days were a blur, but they included eating giant pizzas at the Pizza Research Institute, micro brewed beer and root beer at the Steel Head Brewery, record and yarn shopping, lots and lots of walking, a great nacho adventure, and we saw wildlife including a bunch of snails, a nutria, and a deer (which is about as much nature as Philip and I can stand.)

Every morning, Philip and I would sneak out while Robert and Bambu were still sleeping and we would walk up the street for coffee and sometimes breakfast at the diner that was about six blocks from their house. We did this for a couple of reasons, first, Robert and Bambu only had a French press for coffee which didn't make anywhere near enough for Philip. Secondly, no matter how hard we tried we never really got used to the time difference so we were always up way earlier than our hosts and we didn't want to make too much noise. At the diner we could sit and talk and make plans for the day, plus it was really nice going for a walk in the mornings, it kinda reminded me of our trips to Fair Grounds on the weekends in Norfolk.

All of the places we visited in Eugene and Portland were fabulous except for one place, the Eugene City Brewery. We hit the Eugene City Brewery because they are the Rogue location in Eugene and we had some time to kill before the happy hour at another place. The brewery has over 35 beers on tap, yet they have no beer list. There is a small list of the featured beers, but other than that you are supposed to just tell the waitress the kind of beers you like and she will pick one or a selection out for you. Well, our waitresses choices were horrible and Philip felt too guilty to tell her so she kept bringing him things he didn't like.

After our week in Eugene we returned to Portland for a night of karaoke at the Alibi, a tiki bar we discovered on our last trip. We drank fruffy drinks with lots of fruit and umbrellas and Philip and Amanda sang a fabulous duet.

Back from Oregon

We're back from Oregon. We had an amazing time, but I probably won't have time to write a good entry about the trip until Sunday or Monday. Instead I will leave you with the picture of the snoring guy on the Amtrak ride from Eugene to Portland. Enjoy, we did!!

Merkins and other triangular things

The new issue of the Anticraft went up today and the theme is merkins! I have two merkin designs in this issue- Miss Mary Merkin and Be Prepared as well as two reviews and you can probably tell that Philip did the cover art for the issue.



I also finished the Flower Basket Shawl that I started over a year ago. It's not that this was a difficult pattern, I just had needle issues that really slowed me down. Actually, I recommend this pattern for any first time lace knitters; the directions were clear and easy to follow and the shawl can be made with any weight of yarn you choose. My version is the shawlette made with 1 skein of Malabrigo lace. I actually strayed from the pattern a bit by knitting it on a smaller gauge with more repeats. I was three yards short of finishing, but luckily I own a yarn shop and so I stole three yards from a skein (in a slightly different color) to finish the shawl (for those interested, the skein in question is marked down on the clearance shelf.) This is probably going to be my last project on lace weight yarn. I love the way the shawl looks, but it is way to light and dainty for my tastes. From now on, all lace shawls will be fingering or higher.

Now for my needle issues. I started the shawl on a pair of Addi Turbos, but they really weren't sharp enough to work the lace pattern with a lace weight yarn (had I used fingering weight this wouldn't have been an issue.) This was around the time when the Addi Lace needles came out so I decided to get a set of them in the size I needed. The Addi Lace offered the points I needed, but they came with a whole new set of problems. First, the Addi Lace are slower than the turbos. This is supposed to be a selling point since they offer more control over your stitches. Unfortunately, I didn't want or need that kind of control so the drag was an annoyance for me. The second problem I had with the lace needles (which has since been fixed by the company) is that I was one of the people who's hands had a chemical reaction with the brass needles causing the coating to wear off and the needles to start corroding and smelling really bad.

The weird smell was the breaking point for me so I switched needles again, this time to the Knit Picks Options which were supposedly what I needed, fast pointy needles. My needles took over 2 months to get to me due to USPS issues. When they finally arrived I put them together and transfered my stitches to the new needles and continued the shawl. Maybe because I had heard such good things and maybe because I had built them up so much, but I was really disappointed with the Options needles. I liked the speed and the sharp tips, but they came with a whole new set of issues. First, they felt cheap. It might be because I am so used to knitting with Addis, but I could really feel the difference in the quality. Second, the holes used for tightening the cords slightly snagged on the lace weight yarn which slowed down my knitting a bit (and one of the cords has a hole that was slightly off center which made it snag even more leaving that cord completely unusable.)

I am sending the Addi's back to Skacel for another pair (hurray lifetime warranty!!) and I am giving the Options needles to a friend who likes them. In the meantime I will just stick to knitting lace with fingering and higher yarns so that I can use my beloved Turbos. I think that I am still going to search for the perfect lace needles. I have my eye on a few other brands that I would like to try and if anyone has suggestions, I am totally open to trying them out.