Why I Love Tennessee, Round 2

I left work early yesterday (sorry Alicia!) to head out with some friends for a tiny weekend getaway to Monteagle (A sleepy little mountaintop retreat with amazing views, as you can see). Sometimes all you need is to drive for an hour and a half and feel (mentally) halfway around the world. It was a beautiful mini-vacation!


Today we went on a hike in Fiery Gizzard (great name!) I went there with my family many many years ago, and remember the sheer cliffs, up and down trail, intense rocky overhangs and water everywhere. So today we brought swimsuits and were expecting to hear the powerful waterfalls, but there was hardly any water. Tennessee (and much of the south) has been dealing with a tough drought for what seems like forever, and it was so sad to see a rushing creek turn into a standstill. One member of our group trekked around a slick waterfall and jumped in where the water was deeper, but after putting my feet in, I decided to stay dry. It was cold!


I snapped some great pictures, wish I could show them all. Below is an enormous old hemlock tree that must have been 12 feet in diameter.


I did bring knitting, of course, and wanted to knit on the porch last night after dinner, but there was too much wine around and it's hard to knit while looking at the stars - there were a bunch of shooting stars. Sometimes you have to get out of the city to see just how much light pollution effects the starlight.


Here is a current sock while driving down the highway. I got a lot done, but didn't count my stitches until about a half inch past where this picture was taken, and I have 28 sts on one side (how it should be) and 30 on the other (whoops). I have no idea when or how this happened, and am too tired to figure it out tonight. It's late, I just now ate dinner, and my legs are killing me. It's time to settle down with a certain project (felted clogs) for a certain good friend (who took me to Monteagle).

And I almost forgot - the Titans played the Falcons today, and it took all of the patience I could muster to wait until the hike was over to call friends in Nashville and find out that WE WON 20-13! Haven't found out the details yet, but apparently our offense was off but our defense saved the day. We're 3-1!

Did I Do That????

Fair Isle, my evil nemesis, I'm kickin' your butt. Maybe I'm speaking too soon, but this looks even better in person - and it's a pretty bad picture.

7 years ago, when Benji first asked me to make him a fair isle hat, I didn't know it was difficult. Learning something new would be fun. My tension was so far off (this was when I didn't yet know that all of my purls were twisted - I didn't learn that until the winter of 2002). Since then, every year or so, I try again to get this fair isle thing right.

So I bought some Cascade 220 and knitted up an amazing swatch - 60 sts, in pattern, and 5" tall. My gauge was perfect. I cast on, did a stockinette cuff with a hem, and worked a few inches in the pattern. My gauge had changed - tightened - and went from 6 sts/1" to almost 7 sts/1". Thankfully I made the XL rather than Large, and it fits my head well. I took it to work today and made a bunch of people try it on (it's not done, so I put the live sts on waste yarn). It fit everyone - adults and children, thick hair and thin hair, men and women (ok only 2 men tried it on). I even got a gold star for the good work so far!!!

Benji - this hat better fit you. If it doesn't, too bad. You WILL wear it all around town anyway. It'll stretch eventually. And remember, my brotha, my birthday is exactly one month after yours. This year you're not forgetting it (again), and you're getting me a VERY nice gift.

Why I Love Tennessee, and Other Random Fun

This is why I love Tennessee. It's just plain beautiful. It's a gorgeous sunny Sunday, not a cloud in the sky, and there's always a nice view. (Pretend that there is no glare)

Now that the camera has batteries again, here is my sparkling shower:

I tried to get better pictures by standing on the toilet but I bumped my head on the ceiling and gave up.

And I've gotten a lot of work done on the Tangled Yoke Cardigan. I've finished the front/back up to the armhole and one sleeve. This picture doesn't quite show the beautiful green celery color.


I'm taking a slight break from this to work on presents. There are 3 birthday gifts to be completed in the next month - one on October 16, one October 19, and one October 24th. Before I show pictures, I need to figure out if these people read my blog or not. My wonderful and amazing sister-in-law Jaime might read it, not sure. One is for baby Buddha's first birthday (he's my younger nephew. Did you know that he and his big brother hung the moon? Fun fact. They are also perfect in every way. Isn't that amazing?). I haven't started his gift yet but I'm thinking cashmere sweater out of either Cascade's Cash Vero or Rowan's Cashsoft DK. Cash Vero is softer, but Cashsoft is washable. We'll see. I get to see both nephews tomorrow so I'm bringing my measuring tape because while he might be almost 1, I think he wears a size 2 or 3.

The third gift is for by "brotha from anotha motha", Benji. Soon after I started to really get into knitting, Benji and I were roommates. He put up with yarn stuffed under the couch, and I put up with loud late-night poker games and lots of Steely Dan. He asked me to make him a fair isle Nordic snowflake hat, with earflaps. I tried and tried and my tension was all over the place. I finally gave up and bought him a polarfleece hat. To this day, he still reminds me that the hat I bought him sucks, and I'm sick of hearing about it. I've been swatching and found a great pattern, and am ready to cast on. I finally figured out how to make the tension even - holding both yarns in my left hand using a yarn guide. Pictures to come.

Time to knit and watch football. The Titans have a well deserved bye week, and we play the Atlanta Falcons next week here in NashVegas.

Holy Crap This is Actually Fun

I have a rough relationship with my bathroom. I love to take nice long baths, but when I found my awesome apartment, it only has a stand-up shower and no tub. It took about a month and a half to figure out how to shave my legs without hurting myself or pulling a muscle - the shower is that small. I bought a cute new bathmat when I moved in, only to realize that it's 16" from the shower to the side of the toilet, so nothing will fit (at the moment I'm using an old towel folded in half, but I'm working on making a perfect size bathmat - details later). I rarely close the bathroom door when I'm getting ready in the morning, but it blocks the drawers under the sink so I can only open them about 3" unless I close the door, and to do that I have to stand in the small space between the shower and toilet. It's a teeny tiny wee little bathroom and I make do.

The place was not necessarily sparkling clean when I moved in, and I am not a clean freak. The kitchen and bathroom are kept up nicely, but there is usually a pile of yarn in one corner and a pile of clothes in the closet. But I HATE cleaning. It's tiring just to muster up enough motivation to spend 15 minutes doing dishes. I do it anyway, because it's more fun to knit in a clean house than a dirty one.

My main problem is this: cleaning my bathroom makes this entire apartment reek of nasty fumes for at least 24 hours. I could clean the whole thing in 15 minutes, but then have to open all windows and leave for a few hours (yes, my apartment is that small). And there is still that slight stain on the shower floor that has been there since before I moved in.

The inspiration came from a fellow Southern knitting goddess, Miss Crazy Aunt Purl. She rocks for so many reasons, and has been on a housekeeping spree. So today I picked up some Seventh Generation shower cleaner and a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (heavy-duty) and went to town. Holy Crap the results were beautiful! I sprayed and scrubbed and literally watched however many years of mildew just wipe away. No fumes, no smell, no bleach on my shorts, and now I have a sparkling shower. It even took all the funk off my shower head. This is it. Now I'm officially obsessed with everything made by Seventh Generation. I already use their paper towels (even though they remind me of the ones in my elementary school bathroom) and their recycled toilet paper, which is a lot softer than you would think. Tomorrow I'm getting the bathroom cleaner for the sink, and will see what else they have.

The camera's battery just died on me so there are no sparkling pictures, and I might need a glass of wine to help me not freak out about how fun it was to clean. I think I'll go take a shower and bask in the fume-free shine.

The Start of Something Magical

It's sock time! There is something special about socks. The first time you knit one you struggle to understand the pattern, do what you're told and you end up with a magical, beautiful fitted sock and you're not quite sure how you did it. Every single time I knit one there is a sense of amazement - there is powerful, ingenious knitting math at work - but it's not too hard. They are portable, relatively quick, and you never get sick of knitting socks. You can make them as simple or complex as you want.

While I've made several pairs of socks, all of them have been top-down. I've tried the toe-up method a few times, but never got past the heel. I like socks with a snug fit, and hate the way a plain short-row heel fits. I've run across a lot of toe-up patterns with a gusset, but haven't actually tried one.

I've been drooling over Colinette's Jitterbug sock yarn lately, finally gave in today and picked up a hank of the colorway Toscana. I also grabbed some Addi Lace size 1 circulars, 32", because magic loop is so much easier than double points. It's not that I mind using dpn's, but I knit continental and sometimes give the needles a kung fu death grip, so they tend to snap in half. The Addi Lace needles are my new favorite toy - the tip is perfectly pointy with a gradual slope, the joins are the smoothest things I've ever felt, and they are slightly less slick than the Addi Turbos - again, as a continental knitter I prefer a little more control.

I've been searching online for the perfect pattern, but am stubborn and don't know what my gauge will be so I've bookmarked a few to guide me through the knitting. I'm starting with the magic cast-on for toe-up socks from knitty and will check gauge as I knit. There will probably be some sort of stitch pattern involved, so I'll flip through my Barbara Walker Treasuries and find something cool. First thing first - cast on. After that, who knows, but the yarn is so pretty and the best way to learn something new is to dive in, right? Or am I crazy? Maybe both? We'll see...

NFL Week 3

It's time for some Monday Night Football! For the Titans it's a chance to show the entire country that we're back, and we're powerful. For the Saints it's a chance to win their first game of the season. During the pre-season there were a lot of people picking the Saints to go to the Super Bowl, but they have lost their first 2 games. With a national stage, both teams will bring out the big guns.

My pick: The Saints really want this one, but the Titans will win 17-10.

UPDATE:

Wow! TN won 31-14. Keith Bullock had 3 interceptions. That was really fun to watch! And I got a lot of work done on the Tangled Yoke Cardigan.

Christmas in September

Sometimes it's hard to exchange gifts with your friends during the holidays. Everyone is busy running around and going to parties and traveling and hanging out with family, so it can be difficult to exchange gifts with friends. Such was the case with my my dear friend Carrie. We've known each other forever, live 2 blocks away from each other, and hang out a whole lot. To make a long story short, we exchanged our 2006 Christmas presents today (please don't judge - we both may enjoy procrastination and might be a tad absent-minded, but there are valid reasons that it took months. I think.) Her gift has been hanging out in my closet for the last 9 months, while my gift has been sitting in her office. So here goes...

My gift to her: felted clogs out of Cascade 220 and (not pictured) the new Feist CD - the Reminder. That gift was added last week. If you haven't heard it, check it out. It's very very good. Carrie LOVES the clogs, and they fit perfectly. I did offer to put some puff paint on the soles for traction, but she would rather risk injury and slide around on her wood floors. I'll keep the paint handy just in case she changes her mind.


Her gift to me: A nice assortment. Some Miso Pretty products (not pictured) and they smell heavenly. Here's a picture of the only bumper sticker on my new-ish car. In case you're not a football maniac like me, the "V" stands for Vince Young, quarterback for the Tennessee Titans.
It rocks!


Also, I receved "the Best-Ever Vegetarian Cookbook". I've already flagged most of the pages and am looking forward to trying everything! I think the first dish will be the red pepper risotto.


While I'm not a vegetarian anymore (I eat turkey and fish), I still would rather cook vegetarian meals, and this cookbook is awesome.

Thanks Carrie! And Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Road Trip Wrap Up

The road trip was actually fairly nice, and the wedding was incredible. My cousin looked so beautiful, her husband is so sweet and charming, and it was a great chance to catch up with my family.

Here's the best shot we got of the cousins

And some road trip pictures...

Dad lookin' cool in the front seat



Sis-in-law and I when bro hijacked the camera
(I was in the middle of making a goofy face and it didn't work out so well)



My brother acting like himself



Bro again, playing with the Rowan Felted Tweed (the color is celery)



My new sis-in-law wearing a beautiful Rowan tiara

As you can see, I didn't get much knitting done. The crazy family can be quite distracting, and I kept messing up the easy pattern. Being the youngest, I sat in the middle again, and there might have been some fights over cookies so the knitting was there for moral support. I did get some shots of bro-in-law driving, and of mom and sis in the way back, but they would hurt me if I posted them.

Congratulations to the bride and groom! I love you guys!

NFL Week 2

This is my favorite game of the entire football season - we're playing the Colts at home. You never know what will happen. I don't care if the Colts won the Superbowl. I don't care that we're a major underdog. When we play our #1 rival, all bets are off.

Flashback to last season, Colts at Titans. I was there in Adelphia Coliseum, screaming my lungs out. We came back and tied the game in the 4th quarter, and with 7 seconds left, Rob Bironas kicked a 60 yard field goal to win. I must have jumped 10 feet in the air when he made that.

Yet again, all of the experts on all of the major sports sites have picked the Colts, (except Chris Mortensen on espn - you're a smart man, Chris). This is an easy pick for me. I've seen it happen before many times, and after the way we rushed last week, the Titans will win 20-17, just like last year.

Go Titans!

Scribbly

It's now officially birthday season. All of my friends and family (except my brother, 'cause he just has to be different) have a birthday between the end of August and the beginning of January. Now is the time of year that I stop knitting for myself and start saving money and stashing for my loved ones. So of course, I just cast on for another sweater for myself while I already have one in progress. (I'm falling in love with Rowan one stitch at a time).


Anyway, I 'm in the midst of a first attempt at scribble lace. It blew my mind when I first picked up Unexpected Knitting by Debbie New, and while having fun on knitty I ran across an easy scribble lace pattern. The mohair is Colinette, and it's paired with Cascade's Baby Alpaca Chunky - so soft! It's coming along great, except for the fact that I hate working with size 15 needles and I feel like my arms are flailing around when I knit. There is the aspect of rather instant gratification because it knits up so quickly, but working with mohair and a huge needle with a rather blunt tip really sucks. But still, it's pretty.



Tomorrow I am driving to Birmingham for my cousin's wedding with my family. Mom, Dad, sis, bro-in-law, bro, sis-in-law, and I are all piling into sis's SUV for the ride. Yeah, we're crazy. Just because a car seats 7, it doesn't mean that's a good idea. I'm already having flashbacks of being in the back seat of mom's oldsmobile wagon while my brother and sister try to hit each other and end up hitting me because I'm in the middle.

Naturally, the scribble lace won't work on this car trip because I don't want to elbow my siblings the whole drive, but I still need something to knit on. (can you tell that this is a lame justification of buying a bunch of yarn?) It's payday, so I bought several skeins of Rowan's Felted Tweed today for the Tangled Yoke Cardigan in the fall '07 issue of Interweave Knits. After mad swatching to figure out what needles to buy before the yarn store closed, I picked up some Addi Lace needles and came home to play with it before going out tonight. New projects make everything better - even long car rides in heels and a strapless dress - and if the siblings make me crazy, I'll just poke them with my knitting needles. If only I had learned to knit as a child...

NFL Week 1

It's football season!!!!!!!!!

Tennessee Titans at Jacksonville Jaguars, noon today. I love the first game of the season. There's so much anticipation and excitement! You never know what to expect. We've got an amazing leader in Vince Young, but it's always exciting to see how the new guys fit in.

My pick: this is going to be a close one, and a fight to the finish. If we can stop the Jaguars' running game, the Titans will win, 27-24.

GO TITANS!!!!!

Update: WE WON 13-10! It looked a little rough in the first half, but we pulled through. Chris Brown ran for 172 yards and our defense kept the Jags at bay. Nice work boys! Next week: Indy.

A Surprise for the Queen and some Good Tea

The Baby Surprise Jacket is complete! The ends are woven in, it's lightly blocked (I ran out of time) and I went to my FAVORITE fabric store today and picked out some buttons. The way this pattern is written is awe-inspiring. Elizabeth Zimmerman is my hero. Here's a detail of some of the cool shaping:


And this is the back:


What makes this project so much fun is the recipient, the Queen. She is the now 1-year-old daughter of my best friend, a.k.a. my "niece", and I couldn't love her more. She is the best disco dancer I know (next to her mom) and has a great appreciation for rock hits of the 80's. She's also going to be the best cowgirl since Dale Evans. Tomorrow night is the party of the century, where half of Tennessee will celebrate her first birthday. Because babies don't necessarily appreciate the goodness and love that is hand-knits, I also bought her a toy cowgirl and horse.

The best part about knitting gifts is the meditation on the recipient. As I was knitting this jacket, I was thinking about the Queen and how much I love her, how much she has grown, how she looks so much like her dad but has her mom's spirit, and how I can't wait to be her biggest fan as she grows up. That's why I don't knit for myself so much. I also LOVE being an aunt, if you couldn't tell already.

My contribution to the party of the century is 5 gallons of Good Tea (it's a big party). Because of a small fridge and no time this week, I talked my mom into making 2 gallons for me, so I have one in the fridge, one steeping, and one to go. If you were raised in the south, you know that we have a slightly obsessive love of iced tea, and we only drink it sweet. You can get it anywhere, but it's appalling how many restaurants can butcher it - either too sickly sweet, too minty, too weak, or just plain funky tasting. Southerners also love fruit tea, and everyone has a different recipe for it - some add apple juice, others add lemonade, but the best has a little citrus blend. People always ask me why it's called Good Tea, but it's simple. You take a sip and immediately say "That's Good Tea!" I'm sippin' on it right now. If you come to my house between May and September, there's always a gallon in the fridge. I've tried it with several types of alcohol, but it's best with a shot of spiced rum. Yum. And I'm not sharing the recipe.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

I finished something!! I ended up crocheting 4 hot pads - 2 out of Big Kureyon, one out of Classic Elite's Desert, and one out of Karaoke. I briefly explained the concept of felting to a couple of friends - when you show up to someone's house to watch football and bring your yarn, crochet hook, Eucalan, and a bunch of old towels, it's usually necessary to let him know what you're about to do with his washer. But it was so much fun to crochet, and Georgia was kickin butt, so I started to make coasters for my friends, which are now sitting idle in the knitting basket. Add another UFO to the list. The only hot pad I'm really pleased with is the Karaoke one. The soy felts so beautifully, giving it a nice bright sheen. The others need to go through the washer one more time.

Big sis loved the hot pad, along with new cookie sheets (that's what she wanted). I forgot to get a picture of the finished projects. I was too distracted by her sons, who were especially fun last night. My older nephew turned 2 last week and has just started talking. He said the sweetest word I've ever heard in my entire life - "Emmmmmmmmah" - my name! It's just the first syllable, and sometimes it morphs into "moo", but he said my name!!!!!! I'm so proud!

I've been to 2 birthday parties in the last 48 hours and still got some other knitting done this weekend. Sunday morning I woke up early, made extra coffee, and sat down with the big scary lace project. The center pattern is starting to show, and it's actually getting a little easier. Only 50 more inches!

I'm told that it looks normal, and blocking makes the wonkiness go away. It better. Until then, I need to pick a UFO - probably the socks and hat that I'm working on for a class - and get on the ball because I bought yarn and swatched for a new pair of socks today, like a crazy girl with start-itis. It's a work in progress. From now on, you can just call me Emmmmmmmmmmah-moo.

The UFO's are taking over!!!

I think my knitting mojo has been damaged by the recent heatwave. When it was 105 degrees outside for what seemed like 10 years straight, the mojo was at an all-time low. I developed a case of start-itis. I've seen so many projects crash and burn! All I have to show for it is a bunch of balls of yarn with bits of knitting (and crochet) that are in a corner of my apartment because that's where I hurl them when I realize they just aren't working out. This happens to everyone once in a while (or at least that's what I'm telling myself) and the only way to get through it is to go on a yarn diet and force myself into finish-itis. At least the high temps are in the 90's again, there's a little breeze outside and I heard it rained in the next county over.

Here are the UFO's (un-finished objects) and their status, in no particular order:


The hot pads, aka potholders, but "hot pads" is more fun to say. Basically they're crocheted spirals out of Noro's Big Kureyon (from the stash closet). I'll hopefully have time to felt them in the next 48 hours so they can dry before I give them away as part of a birthday present for my big sis on Monday. I want to finish the second and make a third just because they work up so quickly. I have a deadline, which is usually a good thing, so this won't be too hard to cross off the UFO list.


EZ's Baby Surprise Jacket. Elizabeth Zimmerman is my hero. This is one of those patterns that is just so freakin' cool that you have to knit it to see how it all comes together. It was completely worth it! The yarn is Cascade 220 Superwash, a classic, and it took one ball of each color. The only thing left to finish this UFO is to weave in a few more ends, block it, and pick out some cool buttons. This is a gift for my "niece", who is the daughter of my oldest and dearest friend. Her first birthday is in a week, and the party will be one for the record books.


This is my big "am I insane?" project. Lace is so intriguing, and this is my first true lace project. It's the Alpine Knit Scarf from Victorian Lace Today, knit with Andrea, a laceweight silk from Schaeffer Yarns, and I think the colorway is Greenjeans. It's amazing. And really tough. I've already used my lifeline once, and couldn't knit on it for a week due to the trauma of dropping a stitch. This UFO has a deadline too, but it's a little more manageable. Cheryl Schaeffer is coming to my favorite LYS on October 21st, and I want to wear it. Did I say that deadline was manageable? I meant that I'm insane and have no idea what I'm doing and, what have I gotten myself into? We'll see how this one works out.

The saddest part of this story is that half of my stash is currently part of some sort of UFO, and there are several more out there that I don't have pictures of. There's that lace cardigan from Rebecca that I started in May (out of Blue Sky Organic's Alpaca silk - so nice), and the Big Snugs (think felted boot slippers) that need a suede sole, those Cherry Tree Hill socks, the petal bib that just needs to be blocked, the shadow knitting pillow that just takes so long to knit, the Honeymoon Cami that's done, except I keep ripping the straps because the i-cord looked terrible, then the crochet chain looked awful, braided cord didn't work, and it's staring at me from its current home in the top of one of my knitting baskets.

Is there a 12-step-program for UFO's? If so, then I've conquered the first step - admitting that I have a problem. Maybe the knitting mojo will start creeping back to normal levels. Either way, the next step is to finish these projects, because they really are beautiful, and if they don't all work out, the process of knitting is so much fun!

welcome...

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Originally uploaded by espknits

I'm esp, and here I am with one of my nephews. I can't last more than one day without knitting or crocheting. That's enough about me. Welcome to my blog!