I recently watched a British TV series called Rosemary & Thyme about two female gardeners - one a former professor and the other a former police officer - who always seem to unearth murders wherever they dig.
But I enjoyed seeing their handknits - at least in the first season - before they moved on to cashmere store bought zippered hoodies and cardigans.
Rosemary wore this lovely handknit fair isle vest repeatedly in the first few episods. Isn't it gorgeous?
See how the colors are similar? I was all ready to purchase this pattern when I saw this note:
"The Redbud Vest pattern is available as a paper pattern only; please check with your local yarn shop or favorite online vendors."
So now I might have to go on a quest and see if I can find it. Impossible? Perhaps. Anyone want to help me on my quest?
P.S. I looked through more of the comments for the pattern on Ravelry and discovered that Janine does in fact sell this pattern from her website- so I've ordered it the old fashioned way - on paper.
It's so soft and cheery! I know it will make some child very happy to receive this hug.
Thanks Danielle!
There's still a whole month to knit up an entire blanket (25 swatches or your own design like Danielle did) and be eligible for the prizes. You can read the details about the prizes HERE. It looks like I'll have to go in search of some more prizes as everyone has been so very generous!
I'm having a "Squirrel!" moment. It happens to me... a lot. I'm so overly focused on the one thing that I'm doing and then all of a sudden, "Squirrel!" - and I completely change direction and focus onto the next bright shiny object.
So this half of my latest Squirrel Project arrived in the mail. Unfortunately, it's useless without the second half which isn't scheduled to arrive until late this week or early next week. Sigh. I so want to get started on my newest project.
Oh. You don't know what a Squirrel Moment is? Let me enlighten you.
I just love this movie Up. It's got a Scout, a wholesome story, a bit of a tearjerker and happy ending all rolled into one.
I'm finishing another Hug from Marienne blanket. This time I'm using up the final black and white swatches for the very first blanket I started in 2004. I began by assembling the swatches for a child's blanket (5x5 swatches) but felt the dark colors simply weren't very child friendly. I decided to knit this one for a teen but the more swatches I knit and added to the mix, the more I was determined that it needed to be a full size blanket (7x7 swatches). Thus I've been knitting lots of gray, black and white swatches to go from a blanket of 25 to 49 swatches. I laid them all out on the pool table and brought Secundogeniture down for his expert opinion - which he quickly gave.
"Mom - It's wrong."
"Why?"
"Because you've got them out of order."
"What do you mean?"
"See how these white swatches in the lower left hand corner are all criss cross? But you skipped a row on the upper right and put a row of black swatches in their place instead of the white ones?"
Sure enough. I've put things out of order. And we can't have that. So I'll be knitting some more white swatches. I have 39 swatches completed - but still need to knit ten more. Hi Ho! Hi Ho! It's off to knit I go.
What would I do without Secundogeniture to set me straight? He seems to have an eye for these things.
I know it seems like I just knit a pair of cashmere socks for BF... but that was Valentine's Day. Today is our annivesrary. BF commented that I had never made him socks for Valentine's Day in the past. I looked at my Ravelry queue - and sure enough - this year was a first. He most definitely gets them for his birthday and Christmas. Sometimes he gets them for our anniversary. This year he's doing quite well and getting them for all four events. But I decided to be thrifty this year and use up the leftover odds and ends of cashmere. The socks require approximately 124 grams of yarn. Each skein has 50g - so I inevitably buy a third skein and end up with leftovers.
Here's all the leftover sock yarn and my kitchen yarn scale ready to divvy up the yarn into two equal parts.
I carefully wound each ball into two equal balls - weighing them precisely to aid in my multi-color socks. I removed the white and black leftover cashmere as I felt it was a bit too shocking of a contrast for the rest of these colors. Plus - I have 80g for each sock and I generally only use 58g. So I already had plenty and felt I could make a decent pair out of this mix.
Worsted weight socks on US Size 6 needles knit up very quickly. In no time at all I had a finished pair of socks.
Well, I had a finished pair of socks, except for the weaving in of all these loose ends.
It took about 2/3 as much time to weave in the loose ends as it did to knit the entire socks, but it was well worth the work. You can see on the wrong side of this sock where I wove in all the ends.
In less than two days I managed to knit what started out as leftover socks and quickly became my favorite pair of BF's cashmere socks. I am drawn to the bright, cheery colors. I like the way the stripes change from the leg to the cuff. The wild and crazy colors have me singing "this thing -- called love..." all week.
OK - we may have been pushing it. We decided to try to squeeze in the Norwalk Maritime Aquarium into our big adventure day. It's a lovely aquarium that focuses mostly on the local species of aquatic life - native to the Long Island Sound.
The touch a shark or stingray tank is always a popular stop.
Primogeniture met us at the Aquarium and both boys posed for a silly picture of a two-headed turtle. It was adorably cute when they posed in elementary school. Now that they're teenagers there's nothing left but to come up with something silly. Gotta love boys!
Both boys spent some significant time mesmerized by the salt water living reef with anenomes, clown fish, yellow and blue tangs and more. It was spectacular.
We were all enthralled with the very rare blue lobster. Such a brilliant gorgeous color.
The jellyfish photos were my favorite of the day. It's not a bad shot for my camera phone. These are always so fascinating to watch. They seem so surreal.
We had a great day and managed to pack all three outings into one day plus a sit down lunch at a wonderful Italian eatery near the Beardsley Zoo. I'm not sure I'd try a trifecta again any time soon - but I'm glad we did it today. We managed to get Judy to her train - even with one detour - and call it a very successful day! I hope you enjoyed tagging along.
It's winter break in Westport, Connecticut and we're hanging out having a staycation. I'm all for staycations... but I insist that we become tourists while we're chilling at home over break. Tuesday we had a big trifecta adventure with Judy. The second part of our trifecta was a brief visit to the world of Pez.
We went to the Pez Visitor Center in Orange, Connecticut. Actually, it's the U.S. headquarters and factory where they make this wonderfully fun candy. We saw the history and collections of Pez (do you know what Pez stands for???) Learn more HERE. I was surprised how few of my nutmeg friends knew about this great gem. Then I discovered that the visitor center only opened a few years ago - in December 2011 - so it's still relatively new. I've been wanting to visit it ever since I learned about it. I'm so glad we went!
Secundogeniture poses by the Pokemon Pez dispensers.
Judy posed by the Pez girl get-up from the 1950s.
I posed by the different candy refills and flavors. Guess how many pieces of candy come in each dispenser. (Did you guess twelve?)
If that's not enough candy for your sweet tooth, how about this giant oversized Pez dispenser at the entrance of the Visitors Center?
If you're in Connecticut, I highly recommend making the stop and checking out this whimsical, nostalgic filled tour. It's at exit 41 of I-95 - so you probably go right past it when you're driving through Connecticut. It takes about 35 minutes to take in everything the Visitors Center has to offer. Please stop. You'll be glad you did!
Bright and early Tuesday morning Secundogeniture and I got up and left the house for an adventure with Judy. It's winter break in Westport and we were on a quest to play the part of tourist in our own backyard. We picked Judy up from the train and headed to the Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Bridgeport got hit really hard by last week's blizzard and only just re-opened a few days ago.
We were thrilled to be the first visitors to arrive at the zoo. While it was cold... for a winter day it was in the high 30s - so it was a pretty good day for visiting and spending the day outside.
We were so thrilled to see the prairie dogs out and about in the snow. Secundogeniture barely fit in the prairie dog underground viewing site. Compare it to this August 2005 shot when he could barely see without the help of his older brother.
We saw many wonderful animals. I loved seeing the two bald eagles just at feeding time. It was a great thing to see.
I just love how the peacocks and guinea fowl wander free around the zoo. The male peacocks were in full plumage. Their colors are always so beautiful to see - especially when contrasted against the snowy background.
The Beardsley Zoo is home to this interesting peacock with a streak of white in its tail. It reminds me of Cruela deVil's hair.
It was a great zoo day. I didn't get as many wonderful pictures as Judy - but then I took pictures on my phone and she used her amazing camera. Check out her photos HERE.
I know. I'm a few days early, but Wilma was being so cute, I just had to share a picture of her.
I just love how she took all her toys into bed with her. She's just too cute for words sometimes.
And speaking of cute, tonight Secundogeniture and I went to a friend's house for dinner. I wore my Faery Ring jacket and at some point he asked me "Mom, did you make this sweater?" When I told him "Yes," he told me "It looks professionally made." So there you have it. I guess I'll have to change the name of the blog from Major Knitter to Professional Knitter. Highest praise from a child. It made my day. :D
TV Inspired Knits
I recently watched a British TV series called Rosemary & Thyme about two female gardeners - one a former professor and the other a former police officer - who always seem to unearth murders wherever they dig.
But I enjoyed seeing their handknits - at least in the first season - before they moved on to cashmere store bought zippered hoodies and cardigans.
Rosemary wore this lovely handknit fair isle vest repeatedly in the first few episods. Isn't it gorgeous?
So I went on a Ravelry search for Fair Isle Vests and quickly came upon Janine Bajus' Redbud Vest:
(photo from her pattern project page on Ravelry)
See how the colors are similar? I was all ready to purchase this pattern when I saw this note:
"The Redbud Vest pattern is available as a paper pattern only; please check with your local yarn shop or favorite online vendors."
So now I might have to go on a quest and see if I can find it. Impossible? Perhaps. Anyone want to help me on my quest?
P.S. I looked through more of the comments for the pattern on Ravelry and discovered that Janine does in fact sell this pattern from her website- so I've ordered it the old fashioned way - on paper.
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