Life as a Spectator Sport

The best thing about swaps is that you get things you would probably never buy for yourself. This skein of Trekking Pro Natura, for example. I had glanced at it in several different yarn stores, even picked it up and liked the soft drape, but put it back because, after all, I have plenty to sock yarn already. And I might not have bought this colorway--my yarn purchases seem to be running much more to purple, dark red and blue lately. But I love it! It is 75% wool, 25% bamboo, and unbelievably soft.

Same thing goes for the coffee. I tend not to buy any coffee but what I get locally, because it's organic, it's good, and it's relatively inexpensive compared to the same quality of coffee anywhere else. So even if I had seen them somewhere, I would probably never have tried these exceptionally good samples from the Salt Lake Roasting Co. in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The fiber is a layered batt of alpaca, Corriedale and silk, a combination I had never tried before, and it's the prettiest and softest fiber I've ever spun. I'm dying to see how it's going to turn out. I think there will be enough for a soft lacy scarf.

And the cup is just what I had asked for in the swap questionnaire, something with a logo or design that would remind me of the giver. It's also huge, not cereal-bowl sized like the mug from the last swap, but it holds more than my one-cup French press pot will make!

So I'm looking forward to the next swap after Christmas, and enjoying the goodies from this one.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Another baby bonnet

I seem to be in "small project" mode, even though I've got several large projects that need to get finished.

Here is a little bonnet, approximately 6 month size, in the old traditional Feather and Fan lace stitch. It needs a bit of ribbon through the eyelet casing at the bottom, but other than that, it's finished. I dug through my ribbon but didn't have any in an appropriate color. I used roughly half of a 50g. ball of Jaeger Baby Merino, so it cost about $3.00 and a couple of hours to make.

The pattern is at Knittin' Kiti Original. There are three patterns on the page, and you have to scroll down to see this design.

There are errors in the pattern, however, and if I make another one, I will probably use this pattern instead. It also has some additional design suggestions.

Years ago, I saw a baby blanket in the Feather and Fan stitch, and I may make one of those too, but in a different color, probably white. The ball band on the Jaeger Baby Merino says it can be machine washed on the delicate cycle, so it would be a good gift for Shelley.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Lacy baby cap

Shelley learned yesterday that she had lost one of the twins she was carrying. She suspected for a couple of days that this had happened, but it was a blow to have it confirmed nonetheless. I couldn't think of any way to comfort her, nothing that would make any real difference, but I dug out one of the little caps I had already made, wrapped it in baby gift wrap and took it over to her. It seemed to help, and when I asked if she wanted more, she said yes, but smaller--newborn size.

It seemed like a good time to make this lacy little cap from Dawn Adcock

This is made with two strands of Jaegar Aqua, a mercerized cotton, held together. I will absolutely not do that again! P3tog with two strands of non-elastic yarn about the size of #7 bedspread cotton was not fun. In spite of that, however, it worked up extremely fast, just a couple of hours this morning.

I was afraid it was going to be too small, but it turned out fairly stretchy. It would certainly fit most newborns on their trip home from the hospital, and I'll make at least one more in a superwash wool in a larger size. If I was going to make this again in cotton, I would probably also use a larger needle than the #5 suggested in the directions. It's quite thick, fine for an outing, but not something you'd want Baby to be lying on for any length of time.

The only other change I will make is to use i-cord for the ties. Dawn suggests either a crocheted cord (which is visible in the picture), or ribbon threaded through the eyelets in the cuff. I'm going to unravel the chained crochet and make i-cord to sew into place instead. Other than that, it's finished and ready to take over to Shelley.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Europe, thataway!

I don't usually have time for personal photography on a business trip, but this time I did get some interesting pictures.

This first one was taken from the balcony of my hotel room overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. You probably have to like ocean pictures to find it "interesting," but the overcast sky and endless expanse of water stretching all the way to Europe and Africa spoke to me.


Acres of cotton bales, each one weighing tons. Wisps of cotton covered the landscape for miles on either side of a cotton gin just west of Suffolk, Virginia. I couldn't get the picture I really wanted here, as there was no place to pull off the highway at exactly the right point. But I think it conveys the huge amount of cotton present.


As we drove through South Hill, Virginia, I could see what looked like a large advertising balloon in the sky ahead of us. But it was moving across the sky, and I realized suddenly that it must be a dirigible headed for the small regional airport on the east side of town. I stepped on the gas, hoping to grab a picture of it, and though I didn't get the one I wanted--it had already moved beyond the tarmac right in front of the terminal building--I did get several snapshots. There was a ground crew at the far end of the taxiway, and people walking out to where the dirigible was sitting, bouncing up and down just a bit in the strong breeze.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

New progess bars

I've had progress bars for my Unfinished Objects for the last year, but they had to be updated manually, and I seldom remembered to do it. Now the progress bars are imported from my Ravelry page, so they're always up to date. I may tweak the colors just a bit so the green is exactly the same one as on the rest of the page, but other than that, they're perfect. Ravelry rocks!

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