And I Thought the Bird of Paradise Was Impressive

Here's how it looked a few days after that photo I took--things just keep unfurling from its blossoms. Amazing. Now if only I could get that silly song from the 70s out of my head: "May the bird of paradise fly up your nose / May an elephant smash you with his toes / May your wife be plagued with runners in her hose / etc."

Yes, I continue to knit on the Smoothie scarf, the Percy scarf, and the Moderne Baby Log Cabin, all of which are coming along. Pictures later this week. Happy knitting, all!

Happy Easter and a bit of naughtiness

(Thanks for steering that bit of chucklery my way, Tom and Bill.)

Ahem! Back to our regularly scheduled sedate knitting blog:


Started something else! [All together now: What a surprise!] It's the same sort of scarf as the Percy (and I am continuing to work on it too), but I got some Sara Superwash through DBNY that was just begging to be knitted up into a scarf. (The close-up swatch color is much more accurate.) I love the yarn and how every once in a while there is a fleck of--blue!--from out of nowhere.

In news unrelated to knitting:
DH planted a Bird of Paradise bush last year (or even two years ago?), and it has slowly grown and slowly become a promising bit of foliage in the yard. Imagine my surprise when I went 'round the side yard the other day and saw its first bloom almost ready to burst open. I pointed it out to DH, and we both marveled. But it kept niggling at me, so the next day as I came home from school, I vowed to bring that bloom inside. I reasoned (unreasonably?) that if I cut the first bloom the plant could put out more blooms. Here it is, now opened, in all its unfathomable beauty.

And here it is, gracing some porcelain busts that my DMIL made in the past few years and which she gave to DH recently.


Which reminds me, I saw some photos of Australian daisies on a blog last fall and was stunned by their beauty and otherworldliness. If any of you has such a flower in your own yard (wrong time of year?), I would love to see more of these. Don't know if one can even get the seeds Stateside, but I think they outdo our tame little white daisies by a mile!

Happy knitting (and gardening!) y'all.

A Crowning Moment

After some delay, here are two pics from DD#2's monkeycam--wearing her Quidditch sweater! Here are a few of her comments in an email when she received it:

mom! everyone has been complimenting me on my sweater and asking where to get one. when i tell them my mommy made it, they are all in awe of your knitting prowess, and when i tell them it's your first sweater, they remark that it looks like something store bought and they couldnt tell you were a sweater novice.

this is also the third day in a row i've been wearing it...

george was remarking on how well it fits me and i was saying that by what you'd been telling me i wasnt expecting it to fit very well, but it really does!

anyway...if you ever want to earn a few extra bucks it seems like tufts students are really into tufts colored sweaters. and the harry potter fan friends also really like that it's the Quidditch sweater with tufts "house colors" :)

Seems silly to say anything more, but envision me with an ear-to-ear grin.

Moderne Baby Blanket

Yes, it's got a few issues. I picked up stitches on the wrong side early on, and now I'm thinking I'll have to duplicate-stitch it in the right colors to hide it--wonder if that will work? And I'll have to frog the green edge because it was supposed to be brown. No worries.

And I started a lovely scarf in Meriboo, so soft and pleasing. It's a nice stitch pattern, similar to mistaken rib. I cast on a multiple of four + 1 and then K3 P1 to the last stitch and K1. (Repeat every row.) I learned this pattern from my knitting friend and colleague, Enid.

It's called the Percy Scarf since it is going to be this gray and a green that together match Mr. Bad Kitty's fur and eyes.That's what I knitted on while camping with DH. Does this fire make me look too diabolical?

Mwah-hah-hah! . . . uh, er, no, I guess not.

We had a great camping trip except for two things: no marshmallows for roasting and a too-soft bed that left my back aching all day yesterday. Guess DH's future camping trips with the wife will have to include a sheet of plywood under the mattress! For fun we watched Albert Brooks and Julie Hagerty in Lost in America, a great movie about camping. ;^) We also watched Sideways one more time to find out why we should love pinots and hate merlots (but I'm not convinced).

Here are a few of the wonders we encountered on our hikes--
redwoods all around; in various stages of growth and decay;
this is burl wood that was shredding on the ground from all the winter rains. DH noted that it looked like yarn. That's my kind of association!

Here is a path inviting you to walk down it--

and here is something on the path to avoid stepping on--a banana slug! Eeeeew.
And here's the winery we stopped at, after all our camping travels were through--Savannah- Chanelle in Saratoga, CA.

Here's me and my camping buddy at the falls:
and here is his new camper and truck to haul it with:
Happy knitting this week, all!

Things I've Been Working On Over My Spring Break

Well, I started, frogged, and restarted the Moderne Baby Blanket (a la Mason-Dixon Knitting), and I'm liking it better this time. I'm using Bazic superwash wool, which is changing the gauge a bit, but so far I don't think it will pose a problem. Pics when I get a little further on it. I frogged the Thermis I made a few weeks ago--didn't love it and wanted the Bazic for the blanket. I'm using citrine (an olive green), ancient mariner (Prussian blue), brown, and natural for the blanket's sections, and I think I will edge it in brown (I tested out several versions using the chart, and one scheme has it edged in natural--that just seems dumb, even if it is washable!)

I went thrifting last week with DD#3 at Savers (see her review here), to look for fabric to use as backing or perhaps or quilting. There I found a bassinet mattress cover in quilted yellow velour, probably never used, as well as a crib sheet and some baby blankets and printed diapers (total cost for six items, 5 dollars). Never saw diapers with a pattern before--they turned out to be perfect, matched to the quilted bassinet cover for super thick burp rags. I know that is not the best name for them, but it's what we've always called them in our family. BFF Monica's little squirt, Nicolas, is the spit-uppiest little baby ever, and he is regularly rejecting more than half of his meals--all over whoever is holding him. Now we all have the extra clean diaper or whatever to protect ourselves with, but this last time, let's just say that once he got my shirt, then he got my pants, and for good measure the third time he got my shirt again. I think these double thick soakers might do the trick. One is edged with blanket binding and the other is just sewn together. I'm hoping to find out how well they work for her so I can make a few more if she needs them. She's doing a lot of laundry at their house!

I've been knitting on this 2x2 ribbed camel hat for some time, originally as a neck warmer and the farther I go the more likely to be a hat instead. This is that one precious skein I bought from Nomad Yarns through freshislefibers, and which is 100% camel, spun by hand in Mongolia as a cottage industry. It's nice thick-n-thin, and there are authentic bits of straw in it, and it is knitting up to be a great, warm hat for someone or other. Like my dice stitch markers? Got them (and a few other sets--no one can stop at just one!) from YarnLust, who makes really cool ones, and who can put various sized loops (small, medium, large) on them for whatever sort of knitting you are doing.

Off camping tomorrow with DH in the new mini-camper (it's all set up for one--him--but on the maiden voyage, I get to go along!) for a few days in the Santa Cruz Mountains. OK, they're hills, but compared to some places, they are mountainous I guess. The camper trumpets itself on the side and back with the label "Zoom," which is hilarious considering the speeds he says he got to on the grades between Santa Rosa and here, which are not serious mountain grades. We'll be yabba-dabba-do-ing to keep it going! If you get that cultural reference, you are not a youngster. ;^)

And yes, I'm taking my knitting along. Duh!