Just stopping in to wish my poor neglected blog a Happy New Year. I am looking forward to new crafts, new travels, and a lot of the good ol’ things, too.
Le Minou
There’s not much to report in the crafting area. That seems strange, but most things are not reaching the finished stages. There’s also been little time to knit lately. I did make a few hats, mostly for the chemo group, but one was for a birthday in October. It’s from the pattern Le Minou and is made in the colors of the recipients cat, Sadie. She’s a part-Siamese and I thought she’d like her Mom to look like her!
I used Paton’s Divine in Light Earth and Dark Earth. The hat runs big, but Sadie’s Mom wore it to the beach and really seemed to appreciate it.
Misti Chunky Ribs & Ruffles Scarf
A couple days ago, I finished a scarf made for “Pay-It-Forward.” I really enjoyed this pattern, Misti Chunky Ribs and Ruffles Scarf. It has a slipped stitch ridge and a little ruffle at each end. If I make another one with the ruffle, I will use a provisional cast-on so that both ruffle match. As it is, one is made with decreases and one with increases, and they aren’t the same degree of ruffly-ness.
The Misti Alpaca Chunky Landscapes Collection yarn in Pride Rock is so very soft and lovely. It was a joy to work with. I will make more scarves with this pattern, and hopefully other projects with this yarn.
I have lots of plans for crafting this year. A couple are in the works, but still in stealth mode. There are a couple unfinished projects, too, but nothing too worrisome. All-in-all, it has been a good year.
Wishing anyone who stops by a very happy and healthy new year! May it bring you many blessings.
Today is the MoonFrog blog’s sixth year birthday. It’s not as active as it used to be, but what is as the years go by? I thought I’d drop by and share some recent favorites — or just whatever tickles my fancy.Check out Google’s cool tribute to Jim Hensen. Each muppet is interactive. Be sure you press the 2nd and 5th buttons lots of times. Very entertaining! (Keep in mind that I am very easily amused.)
** For those of you who missed it — here’s a video that shows the best parts. **
On the home front, I’m really enjoying my newest plants. I bought some Red Angel’s Trumpet (Brugmansia sanguinea) seeds on eBay and the babies are doing great. My son and I are growing these together since he wants some, too. He planted the seeds and asked me to wait until he comes over to transplant the sprouts to bigger containers. They will grow into a tree-like bush with long trumpet flowers in a lovely red-orange.
Two weeks ago, we had our local Natural Fiber Fair, which has moved closer to my house and is bigger, too. I worked the entrance on Sunday, but on Monday I took a painted warp dyeing workshop with Linda Hartshorn. I learned some new things and came home with this lovely scarf warp. I’m hoping it will motivate me to finally warp my big loom, which intimidates me a bit.
My knitting at the moment consists of chemo caps for a special round of collections at Caps for a Cure. We are returning to the first treatment center from when the group was started. In January 2006, I set up a yahoo group to start a knit-along with Mandy, a fellow blogger who was battling cancer, and we invited our friends to join us. (Here’s my first blog post about CFC.) Since then, the 400-plus members of Caps for a Cure have donated over 3,000 hats to centers across the country.
North Coast Cancer Care is the first — and last –center that helped Mandy in her fight. Tragically, her cancer returned and she passed on August 3rd of this year. We are making hats in her honor, a young woman who made an impact on those around her. If you want to donate caps for this special round, email me or go to Caps for a Cure for the address.
One more thing that I am excited about is Banned Books Week. There’s a special YouTube channel for the Virtual ReadOut that has people reading from banned books.
One of my favorites is a selection from A Prayer for Owen Meany, a book which has been marinating in my iPod for a while and will be my listen for the week. As a former English teacher, the ReadOut of this book amuses me with its warning of not using certain words in class.
There you have it! A tribute to my blog. Hope you enjoy it as much as I have!
“Ten on Tuesday” is a blog-along by Carole Knits that has been around for quite a while, and I’ve decided to join in the fun.
This week the topic is headlines from the year you were born. Boy! is this one going to take us back to the dark ages – but it was a golden year, including some arches that have proven to be tarnished gold.
My favorite event of 1955 (besides my birth, of course) was when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus in Montgomery, Alabama, becoming a major symbol of the Civil Rights movement.
The Salk polio vaccine was introduced, lessening the incidents of polio. We went from the injections to the sugar cubes in the 60s.
On the entertainment front, Disneyland ® (click for video) opened in Southern California. My first trip there was when I was five years old and in our photos I look totally frightened. At thirteen it was a much pleasanter experience –with me and my sister in our matching, homemade dresses. This really shaped our view of the world, yes?
Along the same lines, The Mickey Mouse Club and Captain Kangaroo joined the TV lineups. I loved the Captain, although I find that a bit creepy nowadays. Frank Zappa even wrote a song (instrumental only) called Mr. Green Genes and shares his feelings about this show when introducing it. And we all know about Knitty’s lovely pattern for Mr. Greenjeans, right? It’s on my long list of things to knit.
The first edition of the Guinness Book of World Records was published.
It’s an amazing compilation of weird feats, to say the least.
Scrabble™ was introduced, which is fortunate for me as I’m using the game on my iPod to ward off dementia. I play it while waiting and before I go to sleep. Oh, and the computer player cheats, just saying. *
A few unfortunate headlines also happened in 1955.
McDonald’s ninth restaurant was opened by the man who would take it viral. How about Mickey D’s oatmeal?
Microwave ovens were introduced, although not used by households until a smaller version was available in the mid-60s. I don’t know if this is unfortunate or not, the jury is still out.
Polyester cloth was introduced, which I believe is unfortunate, along with a lot of other plastics that have become all too common.
Albert Einstein died. The pathologist at the hospital removed and preserved his brain for study, with some interesting studies being done on it.
I also want to share a project that was finished a couple Tuesdays ago.
It’s the Storm Cloud Shawlette in Alchemy Haiku. I started this pattern a couple months ago (during World Wide Knit in Public Day) with a lovely Indigo Moon sock yarn that eventually became this scarf. The yarn was just too busy and I really had my heart set on a fuzzy lace mohair scarf like the blue one in the pattern pictures.
I was waiting until I found the right yarn, and then it hit me. The Haiku (which was a recently acquired yarn pet) would work well. And the scarf would put this lovely yarn in just the right place for petting and cuddling. So I cast on and didn’t look back. Actually, I didn’t look at much of anything while I knit this. The fuzzy lace-weight took all my concentration in order not to drop stitches (lots of yarn overs!) because this mohair doesn’t frog. I’m so happy with this little scarf that I’m going to make another one. Actually, maybe I’ll sign off right now and cast on!
* (You can play Scrabble on Pogo.com without an iPod.)
I can feel it. Right around the corner. Knitting season, that is. The days are shorter. School is in session. Sip-n-Knit was packed again. It’s the time of year we start turning to indoor pursuits. I’m sure there will be some lovely warm, sunny fall days. (There will be, right? ‘Specially since we have had so much fog around here. Mother Nature owes us some sunshine!) There is no denying that summer is fading fast. So, I return to my neglected blog to share what I’ve been doing in this last month of summer.
Funny as it seems, I’ve been making scarves a lot this summer. I rarely make scarves, although this is not so true nowadays. My LYS has a design contest going, so I’ve been working on a scarf for that. So far I’ve done one whole scarf and two half scarves. Same pattern, over and over. It takes longer to knit something that must be put down to save the brain from becoming bored. I’ll share more of this project after the contest is complete.
Two colors alternated for weft.
Another scarf served as a warping demo at the Farmer’s Market. It was fun to string out the direct warp in the sunshine with all the shoppers buying veggies and my guild friends spinning and weaving with me. The sun even came out after a while. I used some Indigo Moon merino fingering for the warp and alternated what was left of that skein with some Great Northern Yarn (40% yak 10% mink 35% baby merino 15% soybean) in burgundy and black.
Soft, drapey, wonky scarf. Of course, I placed the wonkiest part center-front for your viewing pleasure!
My goal was to make a drapey, soft scarf and that is indeed what I got. It will feel really lovely around my neck. Unfortunately, I forgot some of my weaving lessons and left out the paper between the layers of the finished cloth. The threads rubbed together and spread apart in wild ways, making my lines wonky. This was repaired to some extent during blocking, but not fully. I bet I’ll never forget that again! The Indigo Moon also pooled more than I expected, especially since I was alternating it with the Great Northern Yarn. A little pooling never hurt anyone, right? I do like the scarf, in spite of its faults, and it will stay with me rather than being given to its intended recipient.
There have been other events over the summer, but the latest was the Humboldt County Fair. Our guild members had the usual fun of the spinning competition, the sheep to shawl (or fleece to fabric), and demos in our guild room. I managed to spin quite a bit in the few days I was there. I added a bobbin to my two teal bobbins, which is destined to be a three-ply, so I’m ready to start plying. I’ll probably spin up the rest of the singles just to be sure I have enough to go with the three-ply. And I started on some very colorful merino, trying to spin it a bit heavier than my recent yarns. The colors are very entertaining.
I’ve also signed up for Dish Rag Tag again. I really love this race, but haven’t been able to fit it into my schedule for a few years. I’ll be knitting up a dish cloth like it’s do-or-die one day in the next few weeks. That will put some intensity in my crafting for sure.
Are you feeling the urge to knit more, stay inside lately? Or are you squeezing the last bit out of the summer?
My latest “can’t put it down” project is done! After wanting to dabble in my old favorite — crochet — for quite a while but not finding the right pattern, I finally found something that captured my attention.
This came after a bit of a dry spell with knitting — almost four weeks of minimal progress. I knit half a shawl in that time, but ripped it out, so really that’s zero progress. I was tossing around trying to find an easy project to take to our annual stint at the Kate Wolf Festival and found this lovely pattern.
There were other projects before and after this that needed my attention, but the siren call was strong, so this one is the first completed. The last project to inspire me like this one was completed a few days after my last post, but didn’t make it to the blog yet.
My Insouciant Socks were accomplished in less than a week — that’s a record! I can’t wait to make another pair. They don’t have the usual stumbling blocks (gussets and picking up stitches) that keep socks on my needles for months.
Speaking of needles . . . I attended The Northcoast Knittery‘s World Wide Knit in Public celebration and won a set of Lantern Moon rosewood straight needles, complete with needle case. How cool is that!?
For my birthday, I got the LM circular set at a tremendous discount. Our LYS really knows how to help a body celebrate! I love the feel of rosewood and am using these needles whenever I can. Right now, I’m writing up a pattern for a striped scarf that will be entered in a contest at “The Knittery” as we affectionately call it. I’m enjoying that scarf, too and will share it in another post. With any luck that will be sooner than two months!
Several months ago I made a promise to myself that I would make an effort to be more sociable in my local surroundings, rather than through the interwebz. I enjoy both, but can be a bit of a hermit sometimes if I don’t watch myself. I’ve been trying to attend knit night more often and have been enjoying it. Of course, that means less time on the blog and Ravelry. I’m trying to reach just the right balance of real world and cyberspace connections. It’s a fine goal, and I’m sure I’ll reach equilibrium one of these days.
This has been quite a month for doing fun things, which is fitting since it will end with my birthday. Who said you can’t celebrate all month long?! This weekend’s fun was two classes with Cat Bordhi put on by the Northcoast Knittery. Anyone who has taken a class with Cat before knows that she is curious and enthusiastic about her knitting and about life.
A really interesting thing she taught us about designing is that if you mirror an image, it will make it pleasing to the eye. She did one design that turned into a bird when mirrored, which delighted her.
This was during the Insouciant Sock class on Saturday, which was the main class I signed up to take. I had already taken the New Pathways Sock class three years ago, so was looking forward to this one, thinking it would build on the first one. This way of making socks is nothing like the other one! I love this method. It suits me.
Completed foot and second toe.
We started our socks in class and I finished the foot of mine that night. I just couldn’t put it down for long. Now I’m working on the second foot so I can do the cuffs together. This amazing, care-free construction involves knitting a closed foot, then opening a spot like you do with an afterthought heel, only this spot is for the leg. The leg!!
I’ve actually opened the hole on the first sock — it wasn’t too painful opening that hole — and knit a few rows on the cuff. Then I popped them on the stitch holders and got busy on the next toe. The fit is great with the help of a cardboard foot tracing that serves as a map of the knitting. No pattern is necessary for the basic construction; it is all recorded on the cardboard footprint. These will have my usual 2×2 ribbed cuff, nothing fancy. I’m actually thinking my next pair of these will incorporate the Swedish Fish sock design, which has been waiting patiently in my pattern stash. It think my sock-drought has ended!
Cat wearing Hermione's Rings Cowl.
My schedule opened up and I was able to add on Cat’s Moebius class for Sunday. It was fun and easy learning the moebius cast-on in class. Once I got that under my belt, I started making Harmione’s Rings Cowl. Cat was wearing one on Thursday, when she attended our Sip-n-Knit. (Did I forget to mention that she joined our knit night group? She really does dive right in!) I asked her about the cowl she was wearing and was very happy that it was an option for the moebius class. Mine is a practice version only, so I will start it in another yarn when I have time.
We talked more about mirror images in designs and more about the moebius than I thought was possible. The creative muses could be felt in the room as knitters’ brains worked overtime thinking of designs and possibilities. Each class was seven hours long, with a mandatory hour time-out for lunch, so there were also some very tired knitters when the weekend was over.
Harry Wells with Cat Bordhi.
Thanks go out to the shop owner, Laura, who is working hard to bring top-name knitters to our small town area. (The picture of her and Cat sadly did not turn out.) More thanks to Jo, who works in the shop and did not get to attend so that the shop could stay open. And special thanks to Harry, the shop manager, who works very hard to keep all his knitters happily knitting along.
Now I’m going back to knitting my socks. No matter that I have a sweater and gloves on the needles and designs to create for the shop contest. Today it is all about the socks!
Four years ago, I managed to root an avocado pit. Here it is where it lives now, in a big picture window. Along the way it got topped and made side branches. It makes a pretty nice curtain.
Although I’ve tried several times, the little avocado at the bottom right of the photo is the first pit I’ve managed to sprout since the big one. It also has an odd shape since the main sprout died, waiting to be planted, and it shot up five others to take its place. I hope that will make it a nice bush. I don’t know how long either of them will last, but they are my favorite house plants. There’s something about the challenge that makes them fun to grow.
With the sunny weather lately, knitting has taken a back seat, but I did take a class in mosaic knitting at Northcoast Knittery a couple months ago. Harry Wells took us through the how-to of using slipped stitches to form designs in our projects. Mine is a simple hat, called the Camden Hat, that I finished within a few days of the class.
I like the mosaic technique, which is simple, but requires a bit of attention. Learning new things really keeps knitting interesting to me. There’s plenty of variety and with each new technique I can try more complex patterns.
My other finished project is a return to a previous pattern. In early February I started a helmet liner for a young motorcycle-riding friend. I worked on it off and on at Sip-n-Knit until it was finished at the end of March.
It’s made with Berrocco Jasper, which I used for a previous hat that never made it to the light of day. It’s single ply and very soft and lofty. My friend loved it, so I’m happy.
And with these projects complete, I needed another small one for social knitting.
Cigar Gove Redux
The husband was happy to supply the need. He requested some fingerless gloves since his diabetes makes his hands cold often. So I resurrected a project that I started way back in 2005 when I first started knitting. At that time, I made a trial glove. It’s about time I started on a real pair! I’m using Jasper for these, too. Different color. I’ve made it to the end of the gusset, a bit farther than the picture shows. Since these are reversible, there’s no left and right changes to worry about. The hardest part will be those pesky half-fingers. I hope to work on these this weekend at the Conference of Northern California Handweavers, although I’m not really sure there will be time. However it goes, I’m looking forward to three glorious, fiber-filled days.
Quiet has returned to the MoonFrog household, but only after over a month of busy, busy, busy. It will take a bit to catch up with what’s been happening.
Laverne and Janet weaving after workshop hours.
The most recent excitement has been a backstrap weaving workshop held at our house, with Laverne Waddington of Santa Cruz, Bolivia, teaching a group of weavers how to make backstrap bands. (Learn more about Laverne on her Backstrap Weaving blog.) Our guild sponsored the workshop, but I opted to host the workshop only, rather than participate, so that more people could attend. Janet, who assisted with the workshop, and my friend Connie will help me learn the techniques later. This was a great opportunity to see how it is done without adding another craft to my full schedule just yet.
My big Hollandia loom provided a perfect place to tie on all the backstraps, creating a lovely weaving circle in our family room. (Of course, family room here means my crafts studio.) I felt a little guilty about the unwarped status of my loom, but at least it is finally getting some use! I really am hoping to warp it very soon.
For three days, the weavers learned new and wonderful things. I baked muffins for them and worked on my latest knitting project. It is a Ruffled Baktus(ravelry link) made for a friend in her favorite color — bright green. I added a strand of Trendsetter Super Kid Seta mohair/silk blend to a strand of Great Northern Yarns (40% yak 10% mink 35% baby merino 15% soybean). The Super Kid gives it a lovely halo and softness. The Great Northern, with all its lovely fibers, seems like just an ordinary merino light fingering yarn, but gives the bright green color.
I hope my friend will like the result. I certainly enjoyed knitting it. The pattern is easy to memorize and flows along nicely. I was able to use most of the merino/yak by weighing the skein until it almost reached the halfway point, then starting the decreases. I’d like to make one of these in a worsted-weight mohair sometime. I’m calling this my “Mohair Phase” since I just can’t get enough of it. (I must post about my mohair sweater that has been on the needles for almost two months now. Next time!)
Spring Ruffles
I really enjoyed hosting the workshop, having people crafting around me as I knit contentedly. And Saturday night we had a sumptuous potluck dinner with more guild members joining us and an awesome slide show by Laverne. It was full of pictures of interesting people of South America and their colorful and varied weavings. Laverne really brought out the personalities of the people since she spent time with each one as she learned their varied ways of backstrap weaving. It was so enjoyable that it was hard to stop. As it was, there were still more slides but no more time.
All in all, the workshop was the perfect house-warming. We still plan an actual one with many different friends and relatives, but the weaving circle gave just the feeling I longed for in my new home. It’s time to invite some young friends over who want to learn to knit — and some older ones who want to teach them.
I’ll leave you with a couple more pictures from the workshop and a big Thank You! to the Humboldt Handweavers & Spinners Guild and Laverne and Janet for bringing a wonderful spirit to our home.
Laverne has written a book called Andean Pebble Weave that is available for download.
I’ve been on this once-a-month blogging kick for a while now. Sometimes I think about giving up, since I don’t blog as often as I like. Then I have times like recently, when I wonder . . . When did my amaryllis bloom? or What classes did I take at my first Stitches West? or How long have I been working on this darn sock-yarn sweater? And the answers are usually here on the blog. So I’ve decided (again) that I will keep it going — if nothing else, it is a record that I like to refer to once in a while.
Speaking of Stitches West, the collage has a few shots I took the last day Connie and I were there. This was our 4th Stitches in five years. I took it easy, wih only two half-day classes. The first one was A Well-Executed Sleeve with Sarah Peasley. She taught us how to make short-row shoulders and the set-in sleeves where you pick up stitches at the shoulder and knit down. I’d really like to put this method into use.
The second class was Double Knitting Tubes by Karen Frisa. She is a fun and awesome teacher! I learned how to knit tubes that would work as glove fingers — only they are knit flat! No more wrestling double points or circulars in tiny places. I also learned how to make a knit-in-place pocket. It was tons of fun to try and peek into the knitting as it was happening to see the little tube forming. This also gives me a really good idea of how to do regular double knitting, which I tried to do before, but failed.
The snapshots of the market show (from left to right) a demo of tunisian crochet, some cute creations at the Knitwhits booth, some yarn at the same booth, and a couple ladies from the Bay Area machine knitters guild. It was great to see the demo on the knitting machine, since it is the same one I have that has never been used.
Did I buy anything at the market? Well, of course, but not much this year. I came home with some Poems yarn, enough for a vest, and a book of rigid heddle loom ideas. And a vest pattern. That’s it. What I really concentrated on was gathering ideas. I have quite a few of those!
Now, these great ideas mean I want to cast on or warp my loom for many, many new projects. But I promised myself to finish an old project first, so new ones have been limited to small things. The old project has been hanging about since June of 2008! I was determined to get the Nordic Sock Sweater done before any other sweaters were started. I worked on it before Stitches. I worked on it during Stitches. (It was a bear to drag around in its all-in-one-piece working state.) And I worked on it after Stitches. I was afraid the seaming would last forever — but it really wasn’t bad at all. Then I wet-blocked it. Usually, I steam block, but I have . . . let’s say “grown” since I started this sweater and I wanted to block it rather aggressively. Well! The thing came out of its bath humongous! It was way too big for even my more fluffy size. I despaired. I comforted myself that at least I’d move on to another sweater now. I threw the beast into the the dryer. The yarn is superwash, so I held out hope that it would survive. Still big. I tossed it into the washer, then dryer. No improvement. I tried it again: wash, dry but warmer this time. And out it popped like nothing had happened, back in its original condition. Whew!
Modifications: Shortened cuff to 6 rows garter, single crochet on front bodice only, pin w/no buttons
It fits if I don’t button the bodice. I didn’t really like the tiny buttonholes anyway, so this suits me fine. The buttonholes don’t even show.
I even had a frog pin that is perfect for this. It was a gift from Carrie a long time ago and has now found a permanent home, rather than shifting around from jacket to jacket. It matches perfectly!
I’m really glad this sweater is finished — and that I can wear it.
Now it is time to cast on for another sweater – or two! I have a few that I’m considering, but haven’t decided yet. What a happy dilemma.
We are moved into the new house and enjoying it. But what is it with those last few boxes? Some shelving needs to be installed; places need to be found for some things. That leaves those boxes that I just don’t want to unpack. Like the books. I’m tired of deciding and organizing. I suppose that’s natural, but it will be nice when I get passed it and just do it!
I can tell things are getting back to normal since I’ve started crafting more. It feels good. For about three months, all I knit was a hat — at least that’s all I remember. After making Mom’s shawl, I had three kinds of yarn that were contenders for the shawl but didn’t make it. I used one for an earflap hat. Noro Blossom is a rustic yarn, but soft with mohair and silk in it. I can’t remember the pattern I used. I think I used a couple and mixed them.
The circle on the right of the picture is my first try at this hat. It was brownish with purple and red that muddied it even more. You can see the red in the leftover ball. I started over and didn’t run into red again. Don’t get me wrong — red is my favorite color, but it just didn’t fit in with the rest. I love how the colors turned out after the restart. My friend who received this hat likes it, too. That’s what really matters!
Three weeks ago, I returned to Thursday Sip-n-Knit at Northcoast Knittery. It’s really hopping down there! I have to go early or there are no chairs left. Well, I actually had to toss the stash and cast on a project my first night back. I had nothing on the needles! ( Um… the Nordic Sock Sweater is hiding somewhere…. ) So, I cast on some mittens.
Peekaboo Mittens!
The pattern is a free pdf on Ravelry. I used Malabrigo in Stonechat. I didn’t think I’d like this colorway until I made these. I think they are splendid!
After I started these, a friend of mine started doing “Pay It Forward” where she offered to make something handmade for five people who in turn would make something for five people, etc…. I decided these mitts would be going to a dear friend as part of paying it forward.
Now comes my next decision — I was going to make a scarf to match, but wonder if a hat might be better? The weather report for tonight where my friend lives says “bitterly cold” and forecasts a low of -4 degrees. Brrrrrrr. I’m thinking these will be spring mittens! What do you think? Scarf or hat?
There have been other events over the summer, but the latest was the Humboldt County Fair. Our guild members had the usual fun of the spinning competition, the sheep to shawl (or fleece to fabric), and demos in our guild room. I managed to spin quite a bit in the few days I was there. I added a bobbin to my two teal bobbins, which is destined to be a three-ply, so I’m ready to start plying. I’ll probably spin up the rest of the singles just to be sure I have enough to go with the three-ply. And I started on some very colorful merino, trying to spin it a bit heavier than my recent yarns. The colors are very entertaining.
Speaking of needles . . . I attended 
With the sunny weather lately, knitting has taken a back seat, but I did take a class in mosaic knitting at 
My other finished project is a return to a previous pattern. In early February I started a 
I can tell things are getting back to normal since I’ve started crafting more. It feels good. For about three months, all I knit was a hat — at least that’s all I remember. After making Mom’s shawl, I had three kinds of yarn that were contenders for the shawl but didn’t make it. I used one for an earflap hat. 
Three weeks ago, I returned to Thursday Sip-n-Knit at 
The pattern is a free pdf on Ravelry. I used Malabrigo in Stonechat. I didn’t think I’d like this colorway until I made these. I think they are splendid!