Snowpocalypse the Second

I elected not to go to work on Friday- I probably could have, but we just didn’t know how bad the storm would be, how fast. So that makes this day 4 of my snowpocalypse weekend, and we’re not sure how the federal government can open tomorrow (as of this moment, metro is still running underground only, most buses aren’t running… yikes). How much snow did we get? LOTS! Over two feet, but I’m not sure what our official calculation would be- there’s been a lot of drifting. And now much of it has settled. We dug out (and by we, I mean mostly my sweet husband). My car won’t start, which is frustrating, but it’s not like there’s anywhere for me to drive right now. Most side streets are still barely plowed… it’s just basically a huge mess. And the worst part? We’re under a storm warning for ANOTHER 10-20 inches starting tomorrow night. Who knows how much work will be going on this week!

So a weekend in pictures. I cooked, shoveled, cooked more, watched Band of Brothers, knitted, cooked even more… well, see?
Saturday morning view from the front door (after I shoveled around 11pm on Friday night):

The trees were coated with sticky snow- hundreds of thousands of folks lost power. Luckily we were spared.

I cooked up most of a once-a-month cooking batch, so our freezer is chock-full of delicious homemade food to be thawed and reheated throughout the month.

We dug out the driveway and the cars on Sunday, mainly:

And on my Monday off, I did a bit more laundry, cleaned the house a bit, and baked challah:

Best of all, I ordered a few pairs of shoes on Zappos over the weekend, and they arrived today, despite the crazy roads! I have lightweight hiking boots now, so I’m prepared for the next time hubby wants to go hiking in the snow, and I finally replaced by 5-year-old destroyed slippers with the shoes my mother wears and loves. Mmm Merrell’s. Finally, I can cook and wander the house in slippers and my feet won’t hurt! Sounds silly as I type it, but now that we have more hardwood floors, my poor feetsies have been feeling the hurt.

Of course, I knitted, too. I knit a few inches on my first Rockin’ Sock Club sock… and started a vest. I was pretty far into the pattern before I realized I missed a cable cross on the third row. Sigh. I’m ripped back to the error, and ready to try again!

Prepping for the Storm

Things I would like to do during our upcoming snowstorm, which is looking more and more epic every few hours (yes, a meteorologist actually said DC is gonna get “straight crushed with snow”):

- Sew the baby quilt top that I cut out a month or so ago (should be pretty easy piecing- it’s in flannel fabric).
- Practice my spinning by spinning the rest of my beginning-class fiber, and ALSO starting the package of pretty merino (I think merino?) that I bought at the Virginia Fiber Festival in Berryville a few years back.
- Securely fasten the end of the zipper on G’s sweater, because he won’t wear it until it’s looking a bit more seriously done. Did I not mention that last night? It’s done! Just… you know. It’s hard to get a sewing needle through the plastic part at the end. Whatever. It’s on the list.
- Finish a sock. This one’s feasible- I already knit the leg, so I just need to turn the heel (for the second time… I ripped it out before) and knit the foot. In sport-weight. Easy peasy.
- Swatch for the February Lady Sweater, so I’m ready for the Ravelympics. Here’s my Ravator currently!

- Tidy up the bedroom and clear the closet of clothes that do not fit, are not flattering, or otherwise need to be banished (denim shirts, I’m looking at you).
- Tidy up the shoe pile. Again. To clear out shoes that do not fit, are not flattering, or need to be taken in to be re-soled (I have 3 shoes missing heel taps… oy!)
- Otherwise clean the house. Vacuum, laundry, clean mirrors, clean bathrooms, the usual jazz.
- Shovel, multiple times, to avoid the insanity of the last storm.

Things I will actually get done during the storm: Mostly TBD. But I’ll probably do some shoveling. I’ll probably knit something. I will probably throw up my hands in disgust at the state of the house at least twice, and go back to knitting. And I’ll probably bake some stuff. I do not want to go to the grocery store. But I think I’m running low on all-purpose flour. I do, however, have plenty of wheat flour and bread flour. So I’m thinking… wheat waffles (so yummy) and some challah! mmmm challah.

Two Words

Good Wife.

Accomplished Knitter.

First Zipper.

Finished Object.

It Fits!

A Purpose to Knitting

I made yarn. For real. It’s pretty sad in terms of usability- but I did learn how to do an Andean yarn bracelet (which sounds pretty darn cool, and is actually quite cool). I learned how to card wool. I spun wool that I carded, and even tried a few different kinds of spindles. Class, in other words, was really pretty awesome!


Husband’s sweater progresses apace. I finished the collar and picked up and knit the facing for the zipper on one side- still one more facing to go, and still about a zillion little ends to weave in. Every end I get nicely s-curved into the fabric just highlights how many are still left.

Husband and I had an interesting conversation this evening, and it got me thinking. I showed him my new yarn purchases (cough, sale at the local yarn shop). I purchased yarn for a shawl, and yarn for a vest. An aran vest. The discussion went something like- knitters get very caught up in the excitement of knitting, and knitting techniques, and miss out on the fact that what they’re knitting? Is not flattering. The aran vest, in particular, was posited as being an example of Not Flattering Knitting. Too bulky. The cables? Not cool.

Mostly my response was not very polite- I mean, I LOVE me some cables. I adore the cabley goodness. Give me some serious intertwined branching cables and I’m a happy little camper. But looking through my queue on Ravelry was a bit of an experience. “Is this hot, or is this not?” And mostly? My favorite patterns, the ones coming up in my queue, got the “not” vote. They are too old. Too fussy. Not fitted enough. I sighed a bit, and got frustrated. And in some ways, it’s a valid viewpoint. A lot of the knitting I love to do simply isn’t fashion-forward, or at least not fashion-forward in a way that fits in with the new millennium. I believe the specific words I heard were “that’s so artsy-craftsy.”

Well, let’s be real here. I am learning to SPIN. I want to buy a new spinning wheel. I made yarn. I cross stitch samplers, or at least I have. I quilt, and not even the cool modern stuff- I like patterns from the 1930s and my Storm at Sea block is the closest thing to recent I can imagine sewing together. Heck, I love wearing hats from the 40s, and my personal style is more adequately described as nonexistent than current. I’m kinda artsy-craftsy, and I’m cool with that.

How do I reconcile this? Hubby’s right. I probably shouldn’t wear, or at least should restrict to weekends, the knitted garments I love to knit. They’re frumpy, or at least they could be. They are pretty. Some of them are art, but they are not inherently attractive. Am I really such a rebel for being such a… knitter? For wanting to wear my handknit socks in terrifically bright colors, mostly but not entirely hidden under my business suits? For liking the “frumpy” sweaters that showcase intricate aran cables instead of being simple (boring) fitted cardigans? It’s not a function of age, because I’ve dressed wacky at 12 and will surely continue to do so every decade until I’m not dressing myself anymore. It’s frustrating to feel like if I veer too far into the handknits that I like to knit, then I’m aligning myself with craft, and apparently looking frumpy. And if I veer too much the other way, then what’s the point of being a knitter? What’s the value in creating things with my own hands, if the things I like to create don’t fit in? Is it that I need to learn to enjoy knitting things that fit more closely with what the everyday world can accept? Aran vests are obviously not allowed, unless maybe you’re a size 2. Fitted sweaters are all well and good, but I tend to like to the look of the boxy comfortable cardigans.

I don’t have any answers, but I should probably be thinking about the questions. It is, however, a little satisfying to know that even my boxiest, cable-y-est sweater gets me compliments at work. It might not be a style everyone likes, or even the best fitting sweater I’ve ever made, but even non-knitters appreciate the effort, the time and concentration, that knitters put into their creations. Even if it’s not a super flattering sweater? It’s a little bit of art. And heck, you gotta put a little effort in on Casual Fridays.

So Close and Yet So Far

I really want to have an FO for January 2010. I am so close I can taste it! But I think it won’t actually happen.

On the plus side, I’m knitting the collar on George’s sweater. It’s seamed together, a few ends are woven in (hundreds to go). We had a real snow day today, and I used my time wisely- a disc of Lost watched, banana bread baked, lemon chicken cooked and eaten (mmm), even a bunch of laundry done and folded.

But all I want to do is finish this collar, pick up and knit the facings for the zipper, and get a zipper G likes! I am so close to finishing this sweater, and I want it done and gone.

In large part because the Ravelympics are coming. And, even more importantly, my very first kit as part of the Rockin’ Sock Club has arrived. No spoilers here- I’m just saying I loooove the color, love the patterns, and can’t wait to make myself the socks! I think I might even try my first toe-up sock. Maybe.

Meanwhile, back to Iron Chef America and my sweater collar. It’s looking a lot like a sweater- and George tried it on and it FITS. No modeled photos coming until it’s complete, but here’s my current in-progress situation- Ott-Lite beside me to help me with seaming the charcoal yarn, cozy snow-day clothes on, and of course my fuzzy slippers. I knit better in them.

A Better Day

Hurray for not feeling better… but at least knowing why. Huge plus.

Hurray for getting home early enough to grocery shop, and investigate random recipes and then making this Quinoa and broccoli casserole which went very nicely with this quite-spicy Tilapia recipe. And I had a brainstorm later in the evening and made brownies. They may not make my body feel better, but in some ways? Brownies make everything better.

I still am having issues with letting my yarn get too thin while spinning (ie, not paying enough attention to my drafting), and then it breaks. BUT I got a bunch of yarn done this evening that was all the same consistency. Pretty flipping cool.

Halfway through the top-of-the-arm decreases on G’s sweater. Watched the second half of the Alice miniseries from SyFy, which we enjoyed muchly. Today? Definitely a better day.

Drop the Spindle, with Music

I haven’t actually gotten to the “drop” part of using a drop spindle… but I can catch and draft now. It’s a process. I wound off the first batch of yarn (err, singles anyways) onto a toilet paper tube last night, in the middle of my 20 40ish minutes of spinning homework. How ridiculously cool! I can actually see some progress, at least comparing the stuff I did the last day, versus the stuff I did in class. I’m completely addicted to the theory of spinning right now, but I think I’ll like it a lot more once I can actually do it consistently. It’s like I am on a long road to decent yarn, pebbled with lots of thick-and-thin and random happenstances. Why did it just break like that? How come yesterday I could add more fiber easily, and now it isn’t working? Those kinds of happenstances.

I promise to photograph my finished singles, and my finished FIRST YARRRRRN. But I’m not ready for the camera yet.

Along with my spinning homework, I’ve been knitting. Surprise! I finally made it to the raglan decreases on George’s sweater sleeves. Good lord, I’ve never been so excited to bind off ten stitches in my life. YAY the end is nigh! And every other row I decrease, making my fingers fly through the rows.

Last night’s State of the Union address served as some very solid craft time. While George played World of Warcraft (he was avoiding the American Idol watching, before the SOTU even began, and didn’t come back until bedtime), I managed to spin for the aforesaid 40 minutes or so, wind the yarn for my February Lady Sweater (Tess superwash merino worsted in solid deep purple), and do inches of knitting on the sweater sleeves. Varying up the craftiness meant no pain in my shoulders or hands, which is a big bonus. I’m thinking that even after my spinning bug calms down, I need to try and keep up the variety of motion in my evenings- I’m pondering mixing in cross stitch and crochet again, so I don’t knit over-long and rough up my overworked shoulder and fingers even more. Because the pain has been better since my little knit-break, but not so much better that I’m free and clear. We’ll see how this resolve holds up during the Ravelympics, however. I want that February Lady Sweater in my wardrobe.

I’ve been listening to Cast On in the car on my commute the last few days, since I’ve been solo-driving without my carpool buddy. I’ve been hearing a lot of Ingrid Michaelson- and loving her. Just thought I should share- “The Way I Am” made me tear up, and I think not just because I’ve been sick for the last couple weeks and therefore am more susceptible to emotive music!

Visiting with Tourists

My husband was approached a few years ago by a Japanese man who wanted to translate George’s book into Japanese. Did you know my husband wrote a book?? He’s a smart cookie like that. Anyways, Mr. Imato did take on the task of doing the translation, and has nearly completed it. He planned a visit to the US with his mother, and last night we had the pleasure of having dinner with our two random Japanese visitors. It was a really fun dinner- we tried a new restaurant, which ended up being one of the few in DC that extended Restaurant Week. The food was good, the company was grand, and despite the language barriers, we found we all had a lot in common. Imato speaks English, quite well in fact, but his mother speaks only Japanese. No matter- she and I still had a common language. Knitting! She was wearing a beautiful mohair sweater, with wide ribbon run up through eyelets on each side, and wide cables alongside the ribbons. It was beautiful, and I was glad to hear she had made it herself. In a bit of silliness, I wore my Hanami shawl last night, since I thought the cherry blossoms would be an appropriate nod to our visitors. She was admiring it, and when I said it was actually called a “hanami” shawl both she and her son were really delighted- at least I know one word in Japanese! Well, a few more than that… but only a few.

We learned quite a bit about George’s Japanese correspondent, and about his mom (in translation). He works full-time, but has taken on a number of projects recently- one was to learn English, and he’s certainly excelling at that. Another is to work on translation, and George’s book is the biggest work he has been translating. Imato’s mother, at 70 (though she didn’t look it!), is a translator as well- she translates Japanese texts into braille for the blind, as a volunteer. They are quite the family!

While George heads off this afternoon for an extended discussion of the book translation (mainly helping Imato understand the colloquialisms sprinkled throughout, I think)… I am staying home and getting ready for my very first spinning class. I’m going to my local yarn shop, Fibre Space for the first of three classes. We’re supposed to learn to spin on a drop spindle, and in our last class will get exposed to a spinning wheel as well. I do have a spinning wheel up in the attic… but I have to admit, I would love to get a small travel spinning wheel to learn on before I really try the antique upstairs. In part, because mine has a single treadle, and I think it would be nice to start with a much-easier-to-use double treadle! A Schacht Ladybug is sort of what I have in mind (image here, but I’m definitely up for investigating my options. Any blog readers who spin who care to chime in?

Meanwhile, the knitting continues. I’m seriously slow when it comes to stockinette in sport weight, so I’m still a good 2-3 inches away from the decreases on George’s sweater sleeves. At least they’re growing, bit by bit. I’m still hoping to finish before the Olympics! In between rows, I’ve been reading. I finished the second Stieg Larsson book, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and am nearly done with our next book club book, There Once Lived a Woman who Tried to Kill her Neighbor’s Baby: Scary Fairy Tales by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya. It’s definitely creepy. Here’s my work space of late- the sofa in our living room, and our messy coffee table. As you can see, I’ve been drinking a lot of amazing coffee since Dan and Jo’s wedding gift arrived… if only it sped up my knitting!

Declaration of Intent

Every once in a while I think, wouldn’t it be wonderful to have my own little Etsy shop. I could make wedding paraphernalia- Veils are inexpensive to make, but sell for such a great deal of money. I didn’t make myself a garter because I just wanted one that was done… but that’s another fairly-simple and cheap project that could really be beautiful, and if photographed well and styled right, could certainly be a way to subsidize my sunk costs. Because we all know that what I’d really want to make and sell, are wedding shawls. Shawls are inexpensive to make (really! even in pure alpaca!) but take forever… would the investment of effort be worth the potential cash payment? I always decide not to bother, not to try and make anything to sell. And I know I can only do a shawl in a month with some pretty serious tension on my hands and shoulders. Nonetheless, I think after this year of catching up on UFOs (unfinished objects) and knitting sweaters for husband and myself… I think I could be very happy just knitting shawls for a long time. Lace is just a dream to play around with. It’s just one of those things I think about, on occasion- I start thinking about my debt, and the amount of time I spend knitting and doing crafts, and wonder if maybe I shouldn’t be spending some of that time crafting doing things that are marketable. If I ever do it, start up an Etsy seller site, and try my hand- I do know one thing. I am only ever going to sell things that are already made. No assignments on spec. I’m over the contract knitting, and if I have to remind myself of that every day, so be it! It’s such a fine line between a hobby and a job. I want all the fun of the hobby, but maybe with just a little bit of the remuneration. It all sounds like a pipe dream as I type it, but these thoughts keep percolating in the back of my head- I want to be in the wedding industry, in some fashion. I’m not sure I want to be a traditional day-of-coordinator. But what do I have to offer? What value can I bring to a woman (person!) planning a wedding?

Maybe that seems even more out of left field- I’m not sure I’ve ever publicly stated before that I *do* want to be working in the wedding business… part-time. But I do. Since pretty early in our own planning process, I’ve been trying to identify ways to take what I’ve learned, and grown from along the way, and figure out how I could offer that knowledge to others. I just need to figure out a way to take my love for craft, with my love for all things bridal, and combine them in a way that isn’t just like every other blogger, every other planner-wannabe. So consider this my declaration of intent. Somehow, I’ll figure it out. Meanwhile, I’m trying to determine what I’d call my little neo-business. CherryTree Weddings was immediately dismissed as sounding more George Washington than George&Mikaiya. Maybe if I could come up with a business name- I’d know what my business was aiming for.

Back in the Saddle

After a few weeks of torturous avoidance, I’m back to knitting. Sadly, I’m still working on the endless stockinette of George’s sweater sleeves, so there isn’t much to show for my efforts this past week! While catching up on FlashForward, which is a pretty nifty TV show, I managed to get up to the elbows and finish the first two balls of yarn. I’m knitting both sleeves at the same time, at least, which means that as slow as progress is going, this is the last real knitting! Once I finish the sleeves I can seam the sweater together, knit the collar, and put in the zipper. Scary, and exciting, all at the same time.

I did decide to get back on the sewing track again last weekend, however. I purchased a baby blanket kit at a quilt show I attended with gym-buddy and fellow knitter Amanda last year. It uses Minky for the back, and flannel for the front, in shades of green and blue. Super adorable camping prints, and little bugs and animals on it! I haven’t actually started the sewing yet (pshaw), but I cut out the entire blanket on Sunday and Monday. I figure that will be the most time consuming part of the project. The kit comes with embroidery floss, so no real quilting is required- once I piece the front together, it’s just a matter of finding batting, sewing and binding the back and front together, and then I can do embroidery thread tied knots to “quilt” it. Brilliant!

My plans for the long weekend, then, are to finish the sleeves (might be doable), and to piece my blanket front. I loved cutting the flannel, and hope sewing is just as easy and fun.

I also have been collecting some photos of Etsy items that are simply beautiful… that I want to recreate in my own fashion. For one, I’ve been taken with these gorgeous embroidered placemats and napkins from Etsy seller Kainkain and think something like those napkins would be an excellent way to revisit my embroidery skills.

I’m also digging these neo-Victorian mitts by JRoseAtelier and think they would fit nicely in my wardrobe. I haven’t found a pattern very similar to that on Ravelry, but maybe I could just make something more like a long Porphyria (Ravelry link).