Carla Knits - Blog

Time for some Jane Thornley knitting

2009-03-21T21:10:00Z

I fell really, really hard for some wonderful colors of Klee silk yarn from The Sanguine Gryphon. Then I had to use it ... right away, immediately. Forget about all of those other works-in-progress.

They were just perfect for Jane Thornley's Come Spring Vest. So here is what I have so far:

Closeup:

In addition to the Klee, I am using:

    - Tilli Tomas beaded Cleopatra ribbon in "Ant"
    - Jade Sapphire Maju Silk
    - Great Adirondack Cyclone in "Paprika"
    - Colinette Giotto ribbon in "Lichen"
    - Alchemy Silken Straw in "Chicasaw Ground."

Here are the yummy balls of Klee:

Colorway: Ancient Sound

Colorway: Fig Tree

Colorway: Villa R

This week only, Gryphon is having a sale on all of her green yarns (St. Patrick's Day), and the Ancient Sound and Fig Tree are 10% off. Here's the link.

A different kind of Greek sock

2009-03-06T21:18:00Z

This is the second kit from Sanguine Gryphon's Fairy Tale Sock Club II:

Theseus and the Minotaur socks! How cool is that?

I am this far:

I finished the first Embossed Leaves sock and am almost done with the second:

The pups are fine. Jerry Lee loves the futon in the guest room when I leave the door open for him:

I know that expression, he is up to something...

Marilyn sticks with her doggie bed because the old girl can't jump up on the furniture any more:

More Fashion Tips for the Telecommuter

2009-02-11T23:32:00Z

The shoes and skirt do actually go together quite well by themselves, but today I really wanted to wear my Wollmeise Happy Socks:

I love working from home!

I can't start any new sock projects until I finish something. These are for Linda, in Schaeffer Heather yarn. I finished the first one back in September, and have been working feverishly on the second one since I realized that I had already missed her birthday last week:

And, just in time for spring, I just got this skein of Wollmeise in a swap:

Fashion Statements

2009-02-08T18:42:00Z

I have had a shoe addiction a lot longer than I have had the yarn addiction. I have gotten a lot more selective about when I indulge in the shoe addiction, probably because I have the yarn thing to distract me.

Recently I found the most "OMG I have to have them" shoes on sale:

No, I didn't actually go out in public wearing them with those socks. The nice thing about working from home is that I can wear whatever strikes my fancy to work...

I also got the same shoes in a kind of peachy orange. (Please remember that I live in Florida, so these are very practical colors, my black shoes just get dusty down here.)

And then I realized that my beloved socks don't really go with the shoes. Therefore, I decided that I need to plan my sock knitting better. So this is what I did today:

The Sanguine Gryphon Eidos yarn in Ion and Polimarchus

These work with both of the colors of shoe!

Itata yarn from Araucania

Wollmeise in Pfefferminz Prinz and Vergissmeinnicht.

Wollmeise in Frosch.

Calypso from Creatively Dyed Yarn.

Scarlett Fleece and Castle Fibers sock yarns.

Tausendschon yarns

More Tausenschon

How on earth am I going to decide which ones to do first?

Yes, this is how I spent my Sunday morning. That, and working on this:

The "Embossed Leaves" sock pattern from the book "Favorite Socks" in Eidos yarn from The Sanguine Gryphon. No one does green like Gryphon!

Why I am so lazy

2009-01-31T20:25:00Z

They give off sleep vapors when they nap:

Still working on my big huge Casbah blankie. That will keep me out of trouble for a while.

Fibonacci Rib Sock-but-not-Sock Throw

2009-01-18T01:18:00Z

I am really pleased with how my Handmaiden Casbah throw is turning out:

I like the way that using the two strands blends the colors, and the mixed up 2x2 rib gives it texture without having to follow a complicated pattern.

Although the pattern is easy when you understand it, I am having trouble coming up with an easy way to explain it. Basically, it is a 2x2 rib that is shifted over 2 spaces after a certain number of rows. Originally, I was going to make each segment six rows long, but that looked too rigid. Instead, I decided to use the Fibonacci sequence to determine the number of rows. So the pattern is:

13 rows - k2p2 rib
8 rows - p2k2 rib
5 rows- k2p2 rib
3 rows - p2k2 rib
2 rows - k2p2 rib
3 rows - p2k2 rib
5 rows - k2p2 rib
8 rows - p2k2 rib
... and then you repeat from the beginning

I cast on 250 stitches using 2 strands on #9 needles. That makes it very wide (about 54"). Basically, it needs to be a multiple of 4 stitches plus 10 stitches for the border sections.

The border sections are 5 stitches wide, so each row is:

Ktbl (knit through the back loop), k1p1k1p1 -- then follow the "Fibonacci rib pattern" until 5 stitches remain -- k1p1k1p1, slip the last stich with the yarn in back.

Clear as mud?

Well, I tried to diagram the stitches, but that makes it look even more frightening. Here is the diagram of the "Fibonacci rib":

2008 In Review

2009-01-16T02:06:00Z

This is a little late, but I really enjoyed Uncle Jay's review of last year and thought that you might too.

Happy Socks

2009-01-12T17:15:00Z

They are finished! These are my happy socks, because when I look down at my feet and see these, I feel happy!

Pattern: "Waves and Piers" by Charlene Schurch from "The Little Box of Socks"
Yarn: Wollmeise Sockenwolle 100%, "Johannisbeer und Brennessel"

Sock Yarn, But Not Socks

2009-01-11T17:15:00Z

Last week I saw a colorway of Handmaiden Casbah that I just had to have. I don't know what it is about these colors, but I just fell in love with this combination and had visions of a gorgeous ruana:

Then I started thinking about knitting something that big on teeny tiny needles and I knew that I would never finish it.

But, I just had to make something to wrap myself up in this wonderful yarn. I played around with it a bit, and finally came up with a pattern for knittng a blankie (sophisticated people call it a "throw") using two strands held together.

Here are the beginnings of it:

I am using #9 needles and I really like the way that knitting 2 strands mixes up the colors. I like pooling, but I don't like it when colors come out in stripey little segments. This avoids that effect.

I am doing a broken 2x2 rib and using a Fibonacci sequence to determine number of rows in each segment in order to give it more texture. I'll write down the details later.

This is sort of an odd color combination, and I don't know why I fell in love with it so hard and fast that I suddenly needed a throw made out of it. It is a huge investment because Casbah is a cashmere blend, and Handmaiden isn't cheap. Normally I agonize for a long time over this sort of project, but this was just love at first sight. I hope that the love lasts, because I am going to living with this blankie for a long, long time.

Selfish Knitting

2008-12-29T15:51:00Z

I am so in love my Wollmeise socks, which I am knitting for me, me, me:

Color: Johannisbeer und Brennessel
Pattern: Waves and Piers from The Little Box of Socks

The Annual Christmas Treasure Box

2008-12-28T17:14:00Z

My wonderful friend Karen, who lives far away, has a delightful Christmas tradition of sending off boxes packed full of little individually wrapped gifts that she collects throughout the year in thrift shops and dollar stores.

This year's package included:

- an inflatable pink flamingo
- a Reindeer Blinking nose
- a very entertaining book with the title "Looking for Mr. Right"
- a hanging lamp that clearly belongs in a bordello (and, apparently, my house)
- gingerbread scented shower gel
- various tasty treats from Trader Joes
- other assorted little toys

And, the best of all, this wallet:

The guilty secret about Christmas knitting

2008-12-20T21:24:00Z

Having committed to giving nearly everyone knitted gifts for Christmas has this wonderful advantage: I can spend this entire weekend before Christmas knitting and listening to an audiobook and consider it a virtuous activity. I don't even have to pretend to care about the dust bunnies floating around, because I must finish the Christmas knitting!

I am listening to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society from audible.com. Some books don't come across as well in audio form, but the reading of this one is positively brilliant. I have barely been able to take the headphones off since starting it.

Back to my listening and knitting ...

Amazing chicken noodle soup

2008-12-19T02:11:00Z

I've never had much success with making soups, although I am generally a pretty good cook.

I came across a recipe in the December 2008 issue of Cooking Light that sounded incredibly good and looked really easy, so I decided to try it: Coconut-Curry Chicken Soup. (Yes, they have the recipe available for free, follow the link.)

If you are not a fan of hot Thai food, don't let the name scare you. It is very flavorful, but not hot and spicy. The coconut milk makes it creamy, but doesn't taste like coconut. It is a really, really good, hearty homemade chicken soup full of all sorts of goodness: spinach, slightly crunchy snow peas, noodles, and really tender chicken. I sent some home with Julie, and she called me the next day to say that it was "the best soup that she ever had." Seriously. It is that good. I've been eating it since Sunday and now that it's gone I think that I need to make some more.

If you want to try it, here are the things that I needed help with:

Precooking the chicken: I always grill chicken, but I didn't want it to be crusty. Julie told me to put the chicken breast in a pot of water, bring it to a boil, and cook it for about 20 minutes. It came out perfectly and was easy to shred with a fork. Yes, some of us get to be almost 50 without knowing how to boil chicken.

I couldn't find Pad Thai noodles, so I got wide lo-mein noodles in the Asian foods section. The package said to cook them for 5 minutes, so I used that cooking time instead of the 3 minutes in the recipe.

Curry powder: I suspect that my very special curry powder probably made some difference in how smooth and silky it tasted. I have a lot of Indian and Pakistani spices, which I get from Penzeys. They have a gazillion curry powders. I used the Maharaja Curry Powder.

I couldn't find those insanely hot little red Thai chilis at the market, so I didn't use them, and didn't miss 'em.

On the knitting front, the last time I posted a picture of these, there was only one. Now there are two:

On the long-suffering-pup front, Jerry Lee allowed me to get a picture of him looking pensive in his holiday regalia:

Pushing the sock kool-aid

2008-12-17T21:29:00Z

Knitting Daily is really pushing sock knitting big time. Check out this Dancing Sock Video.

And, there is a great quote from Carol Sulcoski, author of a new book called "Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarns." In an entry debunking popular misconceptions about sock knitting, she writes: "It is true that you can buy socks for a pittance at any big-box retailer. I say to this: So what? You can also buy big white nylon underpants that go all the way up to your armpits for a pittance at a big-box retailer, and I wouldn’t want to wear them."

I have been feverishly trying to get my Christmas knitting done, but I took a teeny-tiny little break to try out my new Wollmeise Johannisbeer und Brennessel yarn. I was supposed to knit only an inch or so, but I kind of got carried away because I love the yarn and colors so much:

Then I had to put them aside in order to finish the Christmas gifts. I have soooo much knitting to do in one short week. Eeeek! This is why I normally don't commit to knitting Christmas gifts.

I am so mean

2008-12-17T02:58:00Z

Jerry Lee and Marilyn are not entertained when I get weird festive ideas in my head:

What? Are you nuts?

No way you're getting a picture of me in this silly thing!

Random observation

2008-12-02T18:39:00Z

When you don't have kids, and you are divorced, you get to eat the chocolate from the Advent calendar yourself. It's a good thing that dogs aren't allowed to eat chocolate.

Yes, more Wollmeise, and another pair of gloves ...

2008-12-02T02:52:00Z

This last part of my order arrived today. This color is called Johannisbeer und Brennessel.

I want to wind it and start knitting with it right this minute, but that is for socks for me, and Christmas knitting comes first.

I finished the lace-up gloves and am now working on a pair of long "gauntlets" in Wollmeise:

The color is Poison Nr 5 and it is very difficult to photograph. IT is shades of deep reddish purple with some magenta highlights. The black has a definite reddish tint to it.

Wollmeise: now I really know what all of the fuss is about.

2008-11-28T21:22:00Z

I just got my second order of Wollmeise, and this time I managed to get jewel tones, which I love:

Colors from top to bottom: Indische Rot (dark), Veilchen (med), Vergissmeinnicht (med), Krauterbeet (dark), Pfefferminz Prinz (med)

Pictures just don't do justice to the intense colors, especially the purples. The second from the bottom is purple with shades of olive green (called Krauterbeet). It is simply stunning. I almost didn't order this color because the purple always looks blue in pictures on my monitor.

Wollmeise colors are all available in three different shades: light, medium, and dark. That's why I have those noted in the list of colors.

This stuff is so beautiful that I am almost afraid to the knit with it.

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I went with a friend to her mother's house. She sent us home with plenty of leftovers, so I am in turkey/cranberry sandwich heaven.

I always make real cranberry sauce, which has a totally different taste from the canned stuff. I only recently discovered that a lot of people don't know how incredibly easy it is to make cranberry sauce. You throw a cup of water and a cup of sugar in a pan, bring it to a boil, and throw in a bag of cranberries. Just let it boil for about 10 minutes, until the cranberries pop. Let it cool. Voila. That's all there is to it. The recipe is always on the bag of cranberries, so you don't even have to remember where you put the instructions.

I always laugh because my girlfriend asks me if I will bring the cranberry sauce and acts like it is a big deal, like I will be slaving over a hot stove.

I love sandwiches made with chunks of real turkey and a thick layer of real cranberry sauce. No butter, just the cranberries. It's low fat and yummy.

The Fingerless Glove Mania Continues

2008-11-26T14:48:00Z

One Christmas glove nearly complete:

This is the Lace-Up Fingerless Glove pattern from Leigh Radford's book "Alterknits." I had to modify the pattern to use fingering weight yarn, as the original called for worsted.

This is knit in Bugga! cashmere blend from The Sanguine Gryphon (in Arge Moth). It's a Christmas gift for one of my "Fairy Goddaughters." Her brother is my godson. When he and his two sisters were little, I was living in England and used to send them exotic toys and gifts that I picked up in my travels and countless castle tours. These were such a hit that they started calling me their Fairy Godmother.

I don't have exactly the right color ribbon for these, but I think that the Rusty Bucket color looks nice. I also have a purple one, so I think that I will send a pair of purple ribbons along as well, in case she likes that better.

Something for Dog Lovers

2008-11-25T23:07:00Z

Linda sent me a link to this amazing video. If you are a Border Collie lover, in particular, you have to see it.

After watching it I tried to get Jerry Lee to dance with me, which got him all excited but terribly confused. I never taught him the word "Paw", so he kept looking frantically for his "ball."

Jerry Lee does like to sing along with the Dixie Chicks ... there is one song that always makes him howl. He also howls whenever the theme music for Law and Order comes on.