knit and perl

Very few potatoes were harmed

2008-12-14T16:49:00.003-05:00

When I heard on NPR that some wrapping paper is not recyclable and little of it actually gets recycled, we decided to make our own wrapping paper with a "Recycle me!" statement.

We got Eliza's Big Brothers Big Sisters buddy involved, and potato-printed up several sheets of the stuff.

All it took was butcher paper, poster paints, some sharp objects, and a few big potatoes. We are very pleased with the results! It kept us busy for the afternoon, no one got bored, and the mess wasn't even all that bad.

Rugby gear

2008-11-11T21:22:00.004-05:00

I arranged a barter with a Mount Holyoke Rugby player - She acquired me a dining hall tray, and I promised to knit her something rugby related. I didn't think a rugby ball would work, and a rugby shirt seemed a bit excessive in exchange for a tray. Rugby doesn't require much in the way of gear, since there are no pads or anything, but all players must wear mouthguards, so I put together a mouthguard cozy. I crocheted the edge with chains for buttonholes, and I found some buttons from the Value Village days in Maryland. It looks very cute, and will hopefully do its part in preventing concussions!

bag bag (bag bag?)

2008-11-09T17:29:00.002-05:00

I finally got sick of the plastic bags flooding onto the kitchen floor and trying to eat the cats. So I made a bag bag. It was wicked easy! I should have done it earlier. I took a rectangle of fabric, sewed it into a big old tube, put some elastic bands in each end, added a door handle hanger, and voila! It looks like something my mom bought in France years ago, and it makes me feel very European and tidy.

But the best part is that they're so easy that I'm thinking of making them for the aunts and uncles for the holidays. Since I have 4 aunt-uncle sets, I'll probably have to throw them in a plastic bag or something so the cats don't scatter them all over my apartment. Then I'll have bag bags in a bag bag bag. Even better, to get them to LA where my family is Christmasing, they'll go in my suitcase, which will magically be transformed into - you guessed it - a bag bag bag bag!

Green Tomato Gazpacho

2008-07-27T10:16:00.006-04:00

My CSA farm just opened for U-Pick! Because of the heavy rains this spring, they only really have flowers right now, but I walked around to check out where all of the veggies are this year. There were a few green tomatoes lying on the ground in the tomato rows, and it seemed sad to leave them to rot. I thought about making fried green tomatoes, but I don't think I've ever been successful at that, and I wasn't that excited about frying in warm weather. As I was thinking about green tomatoes, I recalled a green tomato gazpacho from my time at The Food Project. I couldn't remember exactly what went into the gazpacho we made (I think it was 9 years ago - probably nearly to the day, since it had to be green tomato season), but I do remember loving it, and I figured I'd give it a try. I'm pretty happy with the way mine came out - it has a cool fresh acidic taste that was perfect for a warm and humid summer night. Most of the ingredients are local: the tomatoes from the Hampshire CSA, the garlic from the garden I watch, the peppers and scallions from the Northampton farmers' market. The flowers in the photo came from the CSA, too!

Green Gazpacho (serves two)
2 green tomatoes
1 green Cuban/cubanelle pepper
2 scallions
2 cloves garlic
large handful green grapes (about 20 grapes?)
1/2 green apple
juice from 1/2 lime
1/4 c. red wine vinegar
1/4 c. olive oil
diced hot pepper, salt and ground black pepper to taste
1 tsp sugar (optional/to taste)

Chop up all of the ingredients. You could probably use a food processor. I just put a cutting board down in front of the Red Sox game and diced away. Combine everything. My grapes weren't very sweet, so I added a tiny bit of sugar. Stir. Chill for at least an hour. I served it with an attempted recreation of an Indian bread that I saw a friend from India make, but any hunk of bread would probably work.

Fruity Baby

2008-07-24T20:20:00.003-04:00

I've knit fruity baby hats a thousand times. It's kind of exciting not to have to carry around a pattern and have it look good anyway, though! This is for the son my group's departing intern. He's due on Halloween - could you guess? She promises baby-in-hat pictures. I don't have a baby to try it on right now, so it's currently being modeled by my furniture.

Look what I made!

2008-07-19T20:32:00.005-04:00

The turtle, not the baby. I made it months ago and just found this picture! Mmmm, turtle.

New in Blue

2008-06-14T13:18:00.004-04:00

Some friends were moving and needed to get rid of this chair. It's very comfy and rocks, but the slipcover was stained and the off-white color wasn't great for my room and showed cat hair easily. A jar of blue dye seems to have solved the problem! I thought that dying would be much more complicated than it was, but you can do it in a bucket with cold water if you are dying plant-based fabrics (there was no tag on the slipcover, my guess was cotton or cotton blend).

You do need a lot of salt to help the dye get into the fabric and soda ash to fix it. Places that sell the dye should also sell the soda ash. In the end, the project cost about $15 (and the chair was free!) My dye job isn't perfect. There are a lot of color variations, but I kind of like it that way. I'm not sure if the problem is - maybe my fabric wasn't actually cotton or had a lot of something else blended in? Maybe I didn't stir enough. Maybe I didn't fix it for long enough. In any event, I'm much happier with my chair!

the perfect project for the homespun!

2008-06-03T20:21:00.002-04:00

I spun this yarn a while ago. I started it in Maryland and finished shortly after arriving in MA. But it sat around for a while before I decided what to do with it. Even then, I cast on, started and frogged about 5 scarf-like-things before feeling optimistic. But this is the right thing. I was partially inspired by Ice Queen from knitty (if you look carefully at the pictures you'll see some beads) and partially by the Not So Rugged Scarf from Knitting with Balls. But I'm quite pleased with how it looks. The beads aren't too noticeable, but the reflect light nicely. Now, if only I had managed to finish it when it was still cold out!

What I did during my camera's vacation

2008-06-01T10:12:00.003-04:00

I spent weeks frantically searching for my camera. Finally, the night before she was planning to leave for the summer, Eliza dumped out her messenger bag and found it hiding at the bottom. I was sad to miss photos of two adorable projects of my own invention that have already been given away as gifts: a pair of tiny Red Sox attached to a magnet for one co-worker's birthday and a cigarette box cozy for another. I might try to steal them back for a moment to get pictures.

I also just finished a scarf out of horrible red heart acrylic for some gay Presbyterians. I knit 'till I couldn't stand it anymore, then added a fringe to get as much length as possible.

Bunny for Domestic Violence

2008-03-11T21:04:00.002-04:00

My Knitting Liberally group is making stuffed animals to give to kids at NELCWIT, an organization helping survivors of domestic abuse in Greenfield, MA. This pattern is from the book Last Minute Knitted Gifts, and I made it out of Valley Superwash donated by Webs yarn store. For the ears I used the leftovers from my monkey socks.

Monkeys take Dupont Circle

2008-02-19T20:06:00.005-05:00

I had a brilliant idea for Christmas for my grandma. She lives in the Georgetown section of Washington, DC, so I wanted to buy her the Neighborhood Fiber Company sock yarn in the Georgetown colorway. Sadly, they don't make Georgetown. So I settled for Dupont Circle, which is nearby (indeed, it's the closest metro stop, so I went through Dupont every time I went to visit her). I took a quick look at the yarn online, and it looked like a cute purple semi-solid. I put in a call to A Tangled Skein, my favorite NFC supplier, and a few days later the yarn was in the mail. When I opened it, I discovered that there is no way to call this yarn purple. It is pink. Very pink. My grandmother isn't really a pink person. I cast on and knit halfheartedly. The socks looked really big. I frogged. I cast on again. I knit quarterheartedly. Finally, I threw up my hands in despair and made a donation to the Georgetown Public Library restoration fund (the library burned down last year). Thankfully the donation went over very well as a Christmas present. Tears (of happiness) were shed. I don't think my socks would have done that. But I finally got around to finishing them. They're quite comfortable, and look excellent on moi. The only problem: since I didn't buy the yarn in person, I got an extra skein, just in case. Now I probably have three socks worth of NFC Dupont Circle sitting around. I don't know how many pairs of pink socks my wardrobe can absorb!

Recycled sweater legwarmers

2008-02-11T20:26:00.000-05:00

I started off with a ribbed Salvation Army sweater (I think it was originally old navy or something). I cut off the sleeves, picked up the stitches on the first intact row, and cast off. I'm really excited about the way they turned out. They kept me super cozy on the way to work this morning in sub-20s weather. The only problem is that the cast off edge is a bit tight. If I were to do this again, I'd try to find some yarn elsewhere in the sweater to salvage. Then I'd knit a few more rows in pattern, and cast off incredibly loosely.

Scrap Wrap update

2008-02-11T20:24:00.000-05:00

I just joined the official Inauguration Scarf knitalong blog. Here's the most current picture of my wrap, taken for my knitalong blog debut! It's kind of ugly, but I think it will have a lot of character when it's finished.

Another tea cozy with a flap

2008-02-09T16:09:00.001-05:00

I got an e-mail from someone named Amanda who knit a tea cozy from the Winter in Washington tea cozy pattern I posted a few weeks ago. (She clued me in to the math problems. Thanks Amanda!). She e-mailed me a photo of her final product. She says her teapot is different. It doesn't have a real spout, instead what she described as a 'beak' at the top. But I think it still worked out! Here's her picture.

inauguration day scrap wrap

2008-01-30T15:42:00.000-05:00

A bunch of people in my Knitting Liberally group are making 'inauguration day' scarves. They're knitting two rows of a different color of yarn scraps they have sitting around each day as a countdown to the inauguration of a new president. Although I sadly disposed of many of my yarn scraps when I moved last year, I've generated a few more. One problem with the scarf idea from my perspective is that you either have to weave in 732 ends (ick) or you have a scarf with a fringe on one side (also, in my opinion, ick). So I'm going to make a triangular wrap instead. I cast on two stitches on the 20th (that's a lie. I did it all this morning and caught up to where I should be), and I'm going to increase one stitch every three days. The fringe will be on the angled side, the bottom of the wrap. Another advantage: I can get rid of some larger scraps - 20 yards or so from a project that used most of a ball. I might have to acquire some more scraps before the whole thing is finished, but the KL folks are planning to have a scrap swap sometime soon to deal with this problem.

In case you're interested in Knitting Liberally, it meets on Tuesday at 5 at the Yellow Sofa in downtown Northampton (sometimes it's hard to find this sort of information, and now, voila, it's googleable in case it wasn't before).

Elly-phant

2008-01-21T13:31:00.000-05:00

Arg. This pattern was a serious pain in the butt. It was poorly written and laid out, it required a lot of seaming (including right up the face!) and parts were unclear.

However, I think the resulting critter is adorable. It's much bigger than expected, but elephant and turtle will get popped in the mail tomorrow!

If I ever feel the need to knit another elephant, I will find another pattern, or modify this one heavily to involve a lot more knitting in the round (and I will write it out clearly so I can actually figure out what's happening while knitting without going crazy!)

Leibniz and Newton for tea

2008-01-13T18:12:00.001-05:00

Differentiate this:
This goes to IESL next time I'm in Amherst. They acquired a teapot last semester, and I promised to knit them the nerdiest tea cozy I could think up. I would have put Student's t distribution on it, but I didn't think I could make it fit. I used super cheap Bernat acrylic. It's a tiny bit short for my teapot, but I can't remember how big the IESL one is.

Someone asked for the pattern. The cozy itself wasn't that great, but here's an excel version of the chart (the real one is scribbled on graph paper, and I don't have access to a scanner!)

Just like everyone else

2008-01-11T14:45:00.000-05:00

More Wristies. This time, the pattern is Fetching, which I'm pretty sure is the most popular pattern on the internet. I used Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora. Trendy or otherwise, I think they're pretty cute!

Teatime in Washington

2008-01-05T11:45:00.000-05:00

When Veronica moved into her house in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, I promised to knit her a tea cozy out of the Neighborhood Fiber Company's Columbia Heights yarn. Sadly, they don't yet make Columbia Heights. Her house is right near Mount Pleasant, though, so I decided to go with that. I put a flap in the top so it's possible to add or remove tea bags without taking the whole thing off. It doesn't cover the bottom so it can be slipped on and off a teapot relatively easily. It is currently being modeled by my teapot which is an average sized and kind of round. Veronica's tea pots were all taller, so hopefully it will fit. It's pretty stretchy, so I think it's sort of one size fits all. Pattern and picture with flap open below.

One note: NFC yarn is a bit hard to come by. Since I'm no longer living in Washington, I get by calling A Tangled Skein, which is an incredibly friendly little yarn shop in Hyattsville, MD just a few miles away from the DC line and on DC public transportation. They can call Neighborhood Fiber Company and get whatever you want. Then they'll pop it in the mail for you. If the person who picks up the phone is confused, just ask to talk to Cheryl.

Teatime in Washington Tea Cozy with Flap
Materials:
One skien Neighborhood Fiber Company studio worsted (shown in Mount Pleasant)
Size 6 DPNs
Small size 6 circular (optional - the whole thing can be knit on the dpns)
Stitch holder (or scrap yarn)
Button, needle and thread
Crochet hook
Yarn needle
Tea pot

Gauge: 22 sts/30 rows = 4 inches.

On Jan 29 I fixed a few things that I miscopied from my messy notes. They are in pink!

Cast on 88 stitches. Join to work in round. Place a marker or a bit of scrap yarn to remember where a round begins.
Rows 1-8: knit in 1x1 rib.
Row 9: knit all stitches.
Row 10: knit 44 stitches. Put next 44 stitches on holder. Turn work.
Work the next 15 rows back and fourth in stockinette stitch on these 44 stitches, slipping first stitch of each row. (16 rows total on these 44 stitches).
Break yarn.
Reattach yarn to the first stitch of the reserved stitches (on the non-marker side).
Work the next 16 rows back and forth in stockinette stitch, slipping first stitch of each row.
Knit the next row, continuing past the marker to rejoin the two sides. You've just closed the spout hole.
Knit 3 more rows back and forth on all 88 stitches. (4 rows total back and forth on all 88 stitches).

Next row: slip 1, k2tog, k to 3 sts before marker, ssk, k2, k2tog, k to 3 sts before end of row, ssk, k1.
Next row: s1, p to end.
Repeat the previous two rows two more times. (So you've knit a total of 6 rows, 76 sts remaining)

Next row: k1, k2tog, k to 3 sts before marker, ssk, k2, k2tog, k to 3 sts before end of row, ssk, k1, place marker, and join to work in round again. This is the handle hole.
Next round: Knit all sts.

Next round: k1, k2tog, k to 3 sts before marker, ssk, k2, k2tog k to 3 sts before end of round, ssk, k1.
Next round: Knit all sts.
Repeat previous two rounds 5 more times. (So you've knit a total of 12 rounds, 48 sts remaining). If you're using a circular needle, you'll have to switch to the double points in here when things get tight.

Next round: *k1 k2tog* to end. 32 sts remaining.

Work next two rounds in seed stitch.

Next round: k6, loosely bind off 20, k6.

You will now work back and forth on these 12 stitches to make the flap.

Start by knitting the remaining 6 stitches in the row. Then cast on 2 (I used the knitting on method)
Next row: K1, p to end, cast on 2 sts.
*Next row: k all sts
Next row: k1, p to last stitch, k1*
Repeat the rows between stars until flap measures 2.5 inches and covers hole, ending with a knit row.
Next row: k all sts.
Next row: Bind off all sts.

With a crochet hook, pick up the stitch in one corner of the bound-off edge of the flap. Do seven stitches of single crochet in this and the next 6 bound off stitches. Chain 4 (or however many stitches are necessary to allow the button to slip through - I used a small button). Single crochet in the next 7 bound off stitches, to end. Pull the end through the last stitch. Weave in ends, and sew button to tea cozy so that the flap fits nicely over the top of your tea pot.

Brew tea. Pour. Enjoy with pinky raised.
in an emergency, this tea cozy makes a reasonably good hat.

Eliza's finally finished birthday sweater

2007-12-08T17:46:00.000-05:00

Yes, Eliza's birthday is in October, but it took a lot of bus rides to and from UMass to finish this sucker. Fortunately, she seems quite fond of it. In fact, about the only time she took it off since I finished it two days ago was to fry latkes (and only then because I insisted). The pattern is Notre Dame de Grace from Interweave Knits. I used Berrocco Peruvia, which is 100% wool and also 100% feltable, but she promises to wash it lovingly by hand. Note: I made her everything in these photos!

a (temporary) friend for Ms. Peron

2007-12-06T21:45:00.001-05:00

I finished a Knitty Sheldon for one of Sally's twins! Still working on an elephant for the other. Sheldon was a pretty easy knit. One comment: I didn't read the pattern all the way through, so I put the eyes on the wrong end! You knit his body from tail to nose. Also, my childhood advice specialist (thanks mom!) suggested not using anything plastic, even the 'safety eyes' recommended in the pattern. I just used embroidery thread to stitch some on to mine. He looks kind of silly in the photo where you can only see one, but from the front he looks very cute! Ms. Eva Peron doesn't look all that interested, which is good, because he gets shipped off soon.

In other news, I finally got around to signing up for ravelry a few months ago, and I've just been added this week. Ravelry is like facebook for knitters and crocheters, except it includes forms that make it really easy for you to enter information about your projects and yarn. Very useful for me, since I have a tendency to, say, knit one sock with a slight modification, put it down for a few weeks and have no idea what I did. You can also see what other people are knitting, and when you enter a pattern, you can see all their comments. Any ravelers in the (admittedly small) readership? Unsurprisingly, I'm knitandperl.

spinning and midterms

2007-11-12T16:24:00.001-05:00

A five-day midterm had me in the house for the whole weekend! I needed a few breaks, though, and I finally finished spinning some wool I started working on in Maryland but haven't devoted much time to recently. It's very thin and slubby, but I love the colors. Perhaps a bumpy blue and green scarf is in my future!

soft, purple and on sale!

2007-11-03T09:17:00.000-04:00

This Debbie Bliss alpaca/silk is unbelievably soft and was on clearance at Webs! I suspect they discontinued the color. I bought it unsure of what to do with it, and it turned into this narrow scarf for my college roommate's birthday. I knit it side to side (the long way) using an alternating seed stitch/ garter stitch pattern, which gave the scarf a nice bumpy effect that you can't really see in the picture.

I haven't been knitting or posting quite as much as I'd like because graduate school bears a reasonably strong resemblance to Hobbes' description of life - except for the short part. But I'm slowly chipping away at a big knitting project, so stay tuned!

warm arms and dissertations

2007-10-01T18:52:00.000-04:00

I haven't been doing much finishing recently (I acquired a pile of mostly-knit donatables from a friend whose sister used to knit, adding to my finishing woes!) but Eliza says she needs this year's wristies before it starts to get cold, so I finished them up! The pattern is from Stitch 'n Bitch Nation, although 1) the chart contains major errors (click here and scroll down), and the wristies look awful if you knit according to the pattern in the book and 2) I missed the direction that said that the cabling is supposed to be symmetrical, not identical, on the second one, so they're identical. At least I got the thumbs on the correct sides, though! I knit them slightly smaller than gauge, becuase they looked big enough. The only problem is that the thumbs seemed a bit narrow, so I picked up a few stitches when I got back to them. Also, I managed to get both of these out of one skein of noro, but I had a total of about two feet of yarn left over.

For those of you dying for information about grad school, my lab went on a retreat last weekend, and we each had to give a dissertation proposal (or in the case of us first years, a "dissertation proposal"). Eliza photoshopped this image for my title page. (For those of you who don't know, my research this year is on topic models, which has to do with extracting groups of words that occur in similar places, and part of which you can read about here if you're feeling interested and mathy).

Knitting in Northampton!

2007-08-30T21:30:00.002-04:00

I've moved, which means it's time for a new knitting group. I was sad to leave the Takoma Park/Silver Spring knitters behind, but the Northampton club seems friendly. One of them was knitting a mathematical object far more complicated than the now common variations on the mobius strip or kleinbottle. (K7 on a torus, for the topological graph theorists in the audience). They meet from around 6-9 at the cafe La Fiorentina (that information was a bit difficult to find online, so hopefully I've put enough google keywords in here to make this page findable by anyone searching for it!) I've popped my head in to Northampton Wools, a smallish local yarn shop, but I haven't yet had a chance to explore the infamous Webs yet.

We now meet at Sam's Pizza on Main Street right in the middle of downtown Northampton. People usually start to show up around 7:30 and stay until around 10 when Sam's closes, but if you come at 7:30 and no one is there, take out your knitting so we'll recognize you and stick around for a little while. The pizza is tasty, they serve salads, pasta, desserts, and booze, they have free wifi, and Sam, the owner, and his staff are all wicked friendly. Sam's is next to Broadside Books and across from Pulaski park.

Recycled T-Shirt rug

2007-08-14T16:23:00.001-04:00

I also finished this T-shirt rug today. It was inspired by a pattern in some knitting book (Alterknits, I think). It took about 12 shirts. I cut them in a spiral from the bottom to the start of the sleeves to make one continuous piece of yarn per shirt. I wish I had been a bit more careful about color changes at the beginning, but I didn't want to have to go out and buy more shirts. I'm reasonably pleased with it, though.

Booties!

2007-08-14T16:17:00.000-04:00

I spent some time between bouts of packing today doing a bit of end weaving. I finished up these booties for one of these babies. Sadly, I lost the pattern about a third of the way through the second one. I tried to find it online (where I originally found it a few years ago) but it seems to be gone! So the second one is a very close approximation to the first. I clearly knit a couple of stitches I should have purled along the side of the foot, but I can't figure out quite what I should do to fix it, and it's not all that noticeable, anyway.

boring seed stitch scarf

2007-08-14T08:59:00.000-04:00

My parents brought this yarn back from Italy several years ago, and I've only now gotten around to knitting it up. The pattern is just a simple seed stitch. The yarn has a lot of color and texture, so you can barely see the stitch pattern anyway! The yarn is called Magico and I think the company is Filatura Di Crosa, and it's 90% wool, given what I could glean from the Italian on the label.

on the perl side

2007-08-07T17:20:00.000-04:00

Some readers (and by that I mean Eliza) have complained that this blog is tending more towards the 'knit' (knitting, cooking, general play) and less towards the perl (CS, linguistics). I spent much of the day at work reading the works of the founding fathers of Optimality Theory, and was reminded of one of my favorite online OT commentaries (click here!). So, dear reader, check it out, then go forth and draw up tableaus. Er, tableaux.

Intermezzo: A cooking magazine you shouldn't subscribe to

2007-08-06T17:24:00.000-04:00

I really like to read cooking magazines, and I've been getting some very enjoyable ones. Intermezzo is not one of them, I had my third go-round with their customer service today. Two years ago my sister subscribed me to CHOW, a fun cooking magazine that sort of focused on younger people than, say, Gourmet. Intermezzo bought CHOW or something, CHOW stopped printing (Aside: their website, http://www.chow.com/ is still around, and is reasonably good, but I liked the magazine better) and Intermezzo converted my subscription to their magazine. They did not offer my money back or anything like that. In the YEAR since the subscription conversion, I have received exactly two issues of this so called 6-a-year magazine. Several e-mails to customer service have assured me that issues are in print (although no such assurance in the most recent exchange of e-mails). Furthermore, the magazines were full of mediocre essays about other people taking cooking classes in foreign destinations and things like that, with few recipes or tips. I kept the whole issue of CHOW, which I occasionally look through (and use) for recipes, but I couldn't even find one recipe I wanted to cut out of the most recent (and by most recent, I mean something like February) Intermezzo. It's too bad they had to kill CHOW, but Intermezzo doesn't cut it as a substitute.

Baby things

2007-07-28T17:33:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine is having twins! So I've gotten started making baby things. These socks come from leftover washcloth yarn (thaki cotton). I found that most baby sock patterns make a really wide gusset. Mine knit up a bit narrower, and they look a little more like adult socks. They're long enough to fold the cuff over. Here's the pattern:

These knit up into teeny, tiny, newborn size socks.
On size 3 double point needles, cast on 24.
Join to work in the round.
K1P1 every row until work measures 2.5 inches.
Divide for heel: Put 12 sts on one needle (this is now Needle 1). Heel flap is knit back and forth on these 12 stitches.
for 12 rows:
Odd rows: slip 1, knit across
Even rows: slip 1, purl across

Next row: slip 1, knit 7, k2 together, k1 turn work
Next row: slip 1, p5, p2tog, p1
Next row: slip 1, k5, k2tog, k1
Next row: slip 1, p5, p2tog, p1
Next row: knit

Pick up and knit 6 slipped stitches along the side of the heel flap, putting the first 2 on Needle 1.

Knit across needles 2 and 3.

Pick up and knit 6 slipped stitches along the other side of the heel flap, putting the last 2 on Needle 1.

Next 4 rounds:
Needle 1: K across
Needle 2: K1, K2tog, Knit across
Needle 3: K to last 3, SSK, K1
(after repeating 4 times, 24 sts remain)

Continue knitting in the round until foot measures 2.5 inches from heel.

(I changed colors a few rows before reaching 2.5 inches)

Next row: K1, K2tog, K6, SSK, K1 twice
Next row: K around
Next row: K1 K2tog, K4, SSK, K1 twice
Next row: Knit around

Graft toe together using Kitchener stitch!

I got the hat pattern out of a baby hat book , but I can't currently remember which!

Stash Vomit

2007-07-20T22:09:00.000-04:00

So I've had this ball of yarn that I've been tying the really tiny odds and ends I have sitting around to for years. I thought maybe someday I'd turn it into a rug, but, to be entirely honest, the whole thing is ugly. The colors don't go. There are lots of big knots. Everything is a different size. In preparation for the move, I decided to say goodbye. But first I unraveled it all, to make sure I hadn't like left myself a note in the middle or anything. I didn't. And sadly, I forgot to take a picture before the Great Unravel. For about the first time ever, the cat was helpful in a knitting related project.

The chickens get into the to-ma-toes

2007-07-08T15:56:00.000-04:00

no chickens, actually. maybe next year, when we'll have access to a chicken coop as well as a full acre of gardening space! but here is our first container-grown tomato of the year (it's hiding a bit), just before we picked and ate it.

Worry doll

2007-07-06T23:05:00.000-04:00

Debbie from my knitting group loaned me this little worry doll pattern. I acquired enough recycled silk yarn from e-bay to knit an army of these guys. It's hard to see from the picture, but he has copper bells in his hair. I had heard very bad things about recycled silk from e-bay (dirty, breaks a lot, etc). There were a few little twigs and pieces of grass in the yarn, but no dirt, really, and it didn't smell or anything. It isn't super soft, but it's just fine for the doll. As for breaking, it does come untwisted sort of easily and if you work it too much lots of strings sort of start sticking out. But for this project, I found the e-bay yarn to be just fine. But I've never worked with the nicer, more expensive stuff, so I guess I can't really compare.

Felt

2007-07-02T19:49:00.000-04:00

Felted sweater extravaganza! Three sweaters turned into a set of coasters, a cute knitting bag, and two oven mitts (no picture yet, I'll put one up someday).

miso tofu

2007-06-28T22:35:00.000-04:00

dinner with out of town friends!

This served 3 small eaters for dinner with enough leftovers for one lunch tomorrow.

marinade:
2 tbsp red miso paste
2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 c water
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp rice wine
2 large cloves garlic, pressed or minced
1 tsp chopped ginger
sprinkle of red pepper flakes
several leaves Thai basil, chopped

1 package firm/extra firm tofu

1 red pepper
2 large carrots
1 zucchini
1 long broccoli stem
1 small clove garlic
sprinkle of chopped ginger

Combine marinade ingredients in a square baking pan and stir to combine. Cut the tofu into 12 squares. Place them in the marinade and turn to coat. Let sit (maybe for half an hour?), turn, and let sit again. Julienne the vegetables. Heat a wok or cast iron pan with a small amount of canola or sesame oil. Cook tofu over medium heat, turning after about 5 minutes (or when the bottom is brown). Cook until the other side is brown. Remove from pan and set aside. Add chopped garlic and ginger. Then add broccoli stem and carrots. Cook for about 2 minutes. Add red peppers and zucchini. Cook a few more minutes, then drizzle with remaining marinade to taste. Cook until vegetables are tender. Spoon vegetables over rice or noodles, and top with several squares of tofu. Sprinkle with sesame seeds if desired.

adventures in a cave

2007-06-23T22:49:00.000-04:00

For a cute photo of today's caving adventures in a drainage pipe, click here.

wedding washcloths

2007-06-19T22:10:00.000-04:00

Several people I know had weddings recently. I made this set for Eliza's freshman year roommate and her new husband. I also made a set in fall colors for some other friends. This pattern comes from the book A Knitter's Stash. The recommended yarn is a linen, but this cotton was easier and faster to knit, and cheaper. The yarn is Cotton Classic Thaki, and these cloths are the garter ridge (light purple), lacy vine (magenta) and horseshoe lace (light pink). For the other set, I did horseshoe lace, tile and seed stitch stripe. For each I took out around 10 stitches in width, since I was using thicker yarn and size 6 needles.

A great Value Village find

2007-06-19T10:17:00.000-04:00

Value Village is a thrift store chain in the DC area (I'm not sure how many there are, but there's one in Hyattsville and one in Hillendale). They sell these baggies of junk, and some of them have great things in them. I got this exciting button collection, along with some pipecleaners, two circular needles, and a few ribbons for about $5.

Norberta

2007-06-16T09:16:00.000-04:00

I knit Norberta from the knitty pattern with exactly the yarn recommended. She is Eliza's, and they sleep together every night. I knit her a while ago, but Eliza took her to Miami to show off to her family and left her there for a several weeks until someone got around to mailing her. I hope that she had a good time hanging out with the iguanas and alligators.

A hat for Ming

2007-06-16T09:04:00.000-04:00

This is a Louisa Harding pattern, with exactly the yarn they recommended. I knit it because one of the postdocs in my program had a hat just like it, and was lamenting the fact that she didn't buy two of them in case she lost one. When I saw the pattern, I thought it would be fun to knit her the hat she didn't buy! It looks better on the head than on the table. And the flowers are knit, not crocheted.

A new title!

2007-06-15T18:32:00.000-04:00

Since I'll be moving in the fall and switching fields (goodbye linguistics, hello computer science), it seemed as good a time as any for a blog name change. It seems especially fitting that I learned a new way to purl yesterday, and I'm starting to get used to it. It's faster, but it makes the stitches backwards in the next row. I haven't decided whether that slows my knit rows down a bit, but I think in general it will make things faster once I've got it down. I've gotten things backwards nearly every time I've had to slip a stitch and had to take a moment to think about it and do repairs, but I suspect I'll figure that one out soon, too.

On the perl side of things (full disclosure: perl is not my language of choice, but knit and python didn't quite have the same ring to it), I registered for classes today, another step towards my new computer scientist self.

Bar Mitzvah

2007-05-28T17:15:00.000-04:00

My second cousin had a Bar Mitzvah recently, and I thought I'd knit him something nice, since I couldn't make it up to MA to be there (the fact that it was the same weekend as the Maryland sheep and wool festival is coincidence! Pure coincidence. But really, I did have some other things to do). I doubt most 13 year old boys are wishing and hoping for knit yarmulkes from their cousins, so I graciously included a gift certificate to an ice cream store as well. I even carefully wrote down exactly what I did, and lost the piece of paper. I'll knit another one soon to clear it up and post the recipe. Thanks very much to my gentile model, Eriq of Go-Adventure Sports (check out his website if you're ever in the DC area with a hankering to go climbing or caving).

*Note: There are some kosher rules governing the types of fabric one may wear, so be a bit careful. As far as I can tell, the only actual prohibition is on wool-linen blends. I had never heard of this, but I suspect some people might be unwilling to wear a yarmulke containing a wool-linen blend.

one-skein(?) scarf

2007-04-07T11:06:00.000-04:00

This scarf pattern came out of the book one-skein wonders. The book got the cast-on number wrong (try casting on 20 and you can't even get one cycle of the stitch pattern in! it should be 40). I was using a ball of mohair that I had sitting around, and my gauge was off, so I cast on 28. (The pattern requires y stitches where y=12x+16 for integers x . . . now solve for x when y=20. Yeah.)

The scarf came out a bit short. I blocked it and it's somewhat better, but I don't love it, and I think, in the end, the mohair might be a bit too itchy for right next to my face. So I think I'll donate this one to food and friends or something.

knitting clubs

2007-02-18T13:52:00.000-05:00

For those of you keeping score, I now go to 2 knitting clubs! One at the Savory Cafe in Takoma Park, and one at Adega Wine Cellar in Silver Spring, on various Tuesday nights. If you are a knitting friend planning to visit and you'll be here on a Tuesday, you'll probably get dragged along!

Boing!

2007-02-18T13:38:00.000-05:00

This knitty hat is made of soy silk. Eliza really wanted the boings (although there is some contention in our household about whether they should be called boings or dweedles). It's knit out of a soy silk-wool blend. The yarn was much thinner that recommended, which required a lot of math and produced a thinner and slightly less warm hat.

Kale Scarf

2007-02-18T13:21:00.000-05:00

This spiral scarf looks a lot like kale. Except it's purple. The model is my mother, but she looked so unhappy in the picture that I had to take her head off. Here's the pattern, which was printed in the Washington Post. I even got my yarn at the place advertized in the article. (It was alpaca. Expensive.)

Christmas napkin rings

2006-12-26T23:22:00.000-05:00

From Knitty, to my grandparents. It's kind of a pain in the butt to knit with wire, but the results were so great! Click here for the pattern. Once you knit a flat piece of wire fabric, you have to shape and sew it. I thought it would be easier to knit in the round. Wrong. It is nearly impossible.

The bead store in my town didn't have the necessary equipment, (apparently 34 gauge wire is very, very thin as beading goes), but Fire Mountain Gems online is a bead wholesaler with really great prices. They sell great bags of assorted beads that were perfect for the big beads for this project.

Croc pants

2006-12-26T23:13:00.000-05:00

A short break from knitting resulted in these pants for Eliza. At least she will be well camouflaged in the Everglades. Our landlord's cat, King, wanted to help.

yet another round of wristies

2006-12-01T22:23:00.000-05:00

purple ones for me, and another identical gray pair for eliza. looks like these things guys probably only last one season.

stash scarf

2006-12-01T19:38:00.000-05:00

found two balls of unlabeled yarn in my stash and knit them up!

now that I've moved I've spent a lot more time starting projects than trying frantically to finish them up. so I've got a few bags, a tie, and a hat in the works.

Penguins for Jessica

2006-07-26T18:02:00.000-04:00

I knit the knitty penguin for Jessica's birthday. Here it is. I was sort of unhappy with the increases in the tummy, and I remember modifying them, but I can't remember how (perhaps a simple increase instead of making a new stitch by picking up a stitch between two others?)

Eliza's Wristies in China

2006-07-09T17:18:00.000-04:00

Here's a photo of Eliza wearing her wrist warmers in China. They're a little hard to see (since they are grey and her jacket is a very worn black) but she's definitely wearing them!

more mathematical hats

2006-07-08T21:14:00.000-04:00

The newest issue of knitty includes a pattern for a kleinbottle. It's probably better than mine, but since it was just published this week, I was totally first! I knit mine the same way she did hers, although I would probably knit it differently next time since the seam was kind of difficult - I had to pull the tight end where there is no tube out the hole, and that made the seam a bit tough to sew.

bottle of wine

2006-06-10T21:38:00.000-04:00

For my roommate Alice's birthday, I knit her a wine bottle cozy from knitty. Would you ever guess that her favorite color is pink? I knit it in the round, which required some modifications to the pattern. The eyelet row should be knit as follows: k2, k2tog, YO, [p2tog through back loop, YO, k2, k2tog, YO] to last two stitches, p2tog through back, YO. To knit the bottom, I did the stitching she suggested in the round, and it came out a bit too small, probably since I eliminated the crocheting that she used to attach the flat piece. Next time I would just add a few more knit rows between the decreases. I used Red Heart Kids in the Dream Girl color.

four dimensions

2006-06-10T21:08:00.000-04:00

What better to knit a math professor than a four-dimensional object that can be worn? Unfortunately, this one turned out a bit small to be a grown-up sized hat. I knit this kleinbottle from the beginning of the tube part, and then made a bulb with a hole. I attached the narrow end of the bulb to the end of the tube through the hole. If I were to do it again, I'd use thinner yarn (I used Jo-Ann Sensations brand Life yarn) and make sure that the bulb part was long enough to cover the ears when doubled over.

quack quack

2006-05-17T20:07:00.000-04:00

I knit ducks for my roomies for Easter. The pattern is from Lion Brand (you have to registern to see it, but it's free!) I used fun fur, orange felt, and googly eyes. This one is Anita's. It is named Luigi.

Note: The thumbnail of the picture doesn't display on my computer. If you have the same problem, just click on the little box above the text and you can see the full-size picture.

no fingers.

2006-05-15T09:41:00.000-04:00

These gloves are for another professor. It's really hard to find handknit things for men that aren't preppy - and this guy is definitely not preppy. These are knit out of Galway 100% wool, an Irish sounding yarn made in Peru, color 31. I modified the cigar gloves from Knitty. The pattern calls for the pinky and ring fingers to be fully covered and only the first three to be fingerless, but the instructions are "knit until as long as wearer's finger" or something like that. Since my wearer isn't on hand (no pun intended - really, I just noticed!), I decided to go fingerless all the way.

washcloths

2006-05-14T14:11:00.000-04:00

These are from Weekend Knitting. The light blue is knit exactly following the pattern, for the purple and yellow I switched to yellow when I joined to work in the round. The purple and yellow yarn is Lion Brand Microspun. The light blue is yarn from a sweater I bought at goodwill and unwound. It's some cotton/acrylic blend, but I don't remember quite what. Click here for a site with a great tutorial about recycling yarn by unwinding commercially made sweaters. I made two more of these out of the discontinued Lion Cotton-ease with white petals and a light yellow center to sell at a benefit for Heifer International. I found that the microspun version is very floppy and a bit rough on the face (it leaves my face a bit itchy) but I love the recycled yarn one. I didn't try either of the others.

Wrists!

2006-05-13T17:51:00.000-04:00

I made myself a pair of wrist warmers from Last Minute Knitted Gifts and loved them so much that I started knitting them for everyone I know (to date, my mother, Eliza, and Diane, a professor who's helped me out a lot). Mine are in navy Berroco Softwist wool/rayon, my mom's are the same yarn in red, Eliza's are grey Plymouth Suri Merino and Diane's are pink Plymouth Suri Merino. For each pair I cast on 36 (pattern calls for only 32). The first three pairs were made on size 3 - they were wide enough, but a bit short. I added a few rows of ribbing in pattern for each. Diane's are really great, made on size 6. I used the spiral rib pattern for all but Eliza's, who wanted plain straight double ribbing. I used DPNs instead of two circular needles which the pattern recommends, because I love my clover bamboo DPNs! It is very important to cast on and bind off loosely for this project. Pictures of mine and Diane's are here, Eliza's to follow (she claims she has some great pictures of her wearing them in Beijing in January). Eliza has requested a second pair that is a bit longer in both directions and has a smaller thumb hole.

change purse

2006-05-12T00:03:00.000-04:00

After making Eliza's socks, I had a bit of black Plymouth alpaca left. I made this little change purse. I was going to try felting it, so I put it through the laundry once, but I kind of liked the way it was (and was out of quarters) so it's not really felted at all.

On size 3 DPNs, CO8. Knit in stockinette stitch until work measures 3.5". Pick up and knit stitches around the base (I have no idea how many I picked up on the sides, but it was definitely 8 at the end for symmetry). Knit in the round for 3.5", BO all sts.

Stitch a 4" zipper into the top of the bag (I liked the roll, so I stitched the zipper below the roll, but I imagine it would be possible to stitch it right at the top).

The purse is fine in plain black, but I embroidered a little flower on the bottom in embroidery floss from a craft store. I just made up the design as I went along.

Monkey Bag

2006-05-11T20:13:00.000-04:00

This bag was a christmas present for my sister. The pattern, Cocktail Monkey, is from Knitty. I knit it exactly as the pattern is written. Knitting with hemp is a pain in the butt. It is very stiff and rough on the hands. If I were to knit this again, I might try soaking the hemp first. Cocktail Monkeys are surprisingly hard to find. I called or visited three party stores and three liquor stores. You can buy them online, but you have to buy a whole lot of them. I finally found them for sale (ten cents each, I believe) at Joie de Vivre near Porter Square in Cambridge, MA. I found the fringe at a generic craft store, but it took a lot of hunting, since the staff had no idea what or where it was. I'm really pleased by the way this came out, though.

Socks for Eliza!

2006-05-11T19:56:00.000-04:00

Socks for Eliza. Plymouth Alpaca in several different colors, size 3 needles. Ann Norling Basic Adult Socks pattern #12. I modified the pattern (cast on 52, which is between two recommended sizes, and modified as necessary). The socks are a tiny bit wide for her, but they are good for sleeping in or for wearing under boots, and they can be reblocked to fit her a bit better. If you look carefully you can see some cryptology homework under her feet! I did a lot of the knitting for these socks in the airplane on the way to and back from the Philippines.