The topic this time around is a virtual potluck and favorite holiday tradition.

To the Virtual Potluck, I bring you Soft Ginger Cookies. I actually made these for the company pot luck yesterday and I’ll probably make it for the pot luck my Norse studies group is having Saturday. Mmm, ginger cookies and spiced mead

My favorite holiday tradition is something we haven’t done in a loooong time. When I was younger, before my Grandfather died in 87, we used to go Christmas Tree Hunting. The entire family (Dad’s side – so we’re talking aunts & uncles & grandparents & cousins & dogs & thermoses of hot chocolate…) used to go out to some snowy tree filled wilderness and cut our Christmas trees. I miss that, a lot.

(moment of silence)

Anyway.

Yesterday I finally finished the sweater I was knitting for hubby. It’s pretty plain compared to what he wants (he’s a heavily cable encrusted aran kinda guy), but it looks awesome on him.

Details: It’s knit in charcoal grey Cascade 220. I used the Incredible, Custom-fit Raglanpattern, pretty much as written. I did put cables on the cuffs & hem, and knit a crew neck.

Photographic evidence:

In Ren News, Hubby and I have decided to run for Crown for our kingdom. I’m a little nervous, and a lot excited. I think we’ll have enough support to get it, but you know what they say about counting chickens before they hatch…

We’re also working on networking more in the area. We’ve found a few pirate groups and we’re hoping to be able to do some “Cross play” with them, help all our groups grow.

What can I tell you about my knitting?

Warm, cushy wool. I thank the sheepies for their gift
Sweaters, socks, things to be comforting and warm.
I’m in a simple, meditative sort of pattern rut right now, and I like that. My last three major projects (well, two finished and one still in progress) are top-down raglan sweaters. This means, try it on as I go, no seams, no finishing to speak of, and, of course, comforting and warm.
This is not to say I don’t love to knit cables and lace. Oh, and color work. Not intarsia though, too many ends…

I did manage to get two pairs of socks knit – finally knocking down two items from the list I posted at the beginning of the year. Well, sorta. The socks I knit for myself got claimed by my sister, but I imagine I’ll still be knitting socks, there will be another chance to knit myself socks.

I’m currently working on a sweater for myself, Blue Alvarez Designs’ “Licorice Whip” in almost the required yarn (that’s a first for me!) – Blue Sky Alpaca’s Organic Cotton. I’m using a color grown in “Pebble” – a tan & cream tweed. In a coincidental aside, it’s almost identical in color to the gifted fabric I’m using for a Viking Hanging Skirt for Faire.

Of course, the sweater is on hold. I’m hand sewing trim onto the hanging skirt, and I have Elizabethan garb in line next. I have plenty of time, as soon as I figure out how to give up that whole “sleep” thing. I’ve been threatening to bring the hand sewing bits to work…

Work, of course, is interesting. Market pressures are creating internal changes and communication issues are compounding the chaos. All kinds of fun! Well, maybe not all kinds…

I do need to work to reduce my stress more efficiently. Beer, while fun, causes weight gain and is really more of a delaying tactic than a mitigating tactic, and the yoga program at work has gone to “Hot Yoga” and I’ve no interest in stinking my way through the afternoon…

In other news…Dammit. George Carlin died.

My version is knitted in pure wool at a gauge of 9 stitches to the inch, and is slightly larger than the originals at 11 inches high and 6 inches wide. I also knit from the top and in the round, on size 0 (2 mm diameter) knitting needles.

To increase the functionality of my bag, I also knit in a lining in the same yarn and style, which will add more strength to the bag and prevent items from catching on the strands of yarn produced by the color work. To allow for the inherent stretch of knit fabric, the lining is smaller than the bag itself so that the bag will not stretch out of shape. The lining is knit in a striped pattern that reflects the background color of the various pattern bands in the bag. Also, I chose not to close the bag by running a cord through the knit fabric itself. I used a satin ribbon drawstring between the outer and inner layers of the fabric, using a knit-in buttonhole for the purpose, again to reduce the stress on the outer layer.

Most of the patterns on the bag are taken from the existing bags. I created the shield patterns in the green and white shield band, and I modified the chevron shield pattern to create another shield pattern for the blue and white shield band.

References:

http://groups.yahoo.com/HistoricKnit

Quotations from Rutt, Richard: A History of hand knitting Interweave (1987)

This bag is going in as an arts entry at the ECS Kingdom of Vega Crown War on Saturday. Wish me luck!

– I slept well, woke up refreshed which has been a rarity lately.
– The sunrise was beautiful. Oh, I know, “When isn’t it?â€? but it’s the little wonders of the world that remind you that what ever form she/he/it/they is/are in, there is a god out there. Something about seeing the Sierras all pink and golden just warms my heart.
– Work is going well. I’ve gotten some rumors busted & learned about some org changes that are very reassuring. (Now, if only I could get this stinkin’ software test to come out right… urg. It would be easier if I was sure it wasn’t a PEBCAK issue…).

So, anyway. I’ve been quiet lately, I’m sorry. Almost all of last week I was in San Jose doing training for work, with no computer access. That was almost inhuman. But, I got the better part of the first sock for the Entrelac Socks from IK done. And, it doesn’t fit. Even better, I can’t really modify the pattern to make it fit. I need to frog it and start over with something else but… I’m currently working on the relic bag for Crown War. I’ve got about 5 rows done, out of… um… a gazillion. The color work is harder to tension than I expected, as a result of which I got the first band done, which was a two color band almost in a lice pattern, and now the second band, which is a three color band with more complex images, has been ripped at least 3 times – twice because I wasn’t tensioning well, once because I can’t read a flippin’ chart. Let’s just say, when you’re knitting line 7, it pays to actually do all of line 7, don’t do part of 7 and part of 8.

To take my mind off my KNITTING – that stress relieving hobby I do – I’ve been playing too much World of Warcraft. But hey, Onyxstalker is L56 now! Almost 1/4 into the level!

I’m such a geek.

Oh, and lets not get started on the wedding thing, OK? I am trying to not be a stress case, or Bridezilla, or any other horror stories, but ARGH! Sweetie & I still haven’t had a chance to write the wording for the invitations, nor have we had a chance to order the rings, I thought I had everything worked out on my knot.com checklist but no, I got asked today what I was doing for flowers & cake and darn near had a panic attack. Flowers? Cake? Nuts, we need to get that arranged….

Eh, maybe the flower issue isn’t that bad. We want to get some potted Jasmines to put on the altar, some little potted flowers to go on the tables, and from there we just need four bouquets (or 3 + whatever we do for Miss Thing), 6 boutonnieres, and 3 corsages. I think. If I’m not forgetting anyone.

(Stops and remembers how pretty the sunrise was this morning…)

So, aside from knitting being challenging and standard issue wedding stress, the world is a beautiful place . I hope you find something beautiful today!

Spoke with Miss Thing about the Fug last night. She wants it felted and bag-ized, so it will be. Felting begins tomorrow at some point…

Sweetie loves the idea of staying home with the kids so I can go to the knit store this weekend… it may have helped that I said I was going to bring some stash yarn and see if anyone wants it. I didn’t mention that I may bring more home…

See, I think I’m going to knit up a Sion purse for Crown War. And that will require 3-4 skeins of solid colored sock yarn. Oh, I know, sock yarn on size 0′s is positively HUGE for a Sion purse, but I don’t think I can manage 20 sts/inch, I’ll be happy with 9-10 sts/inch Yes, I’m a masochist. Why do you ask?

Front:

Back:

I was originally going to felt it and make a bag for Miss Thing. Not sure what I’ll do now that it’s done. Have you noticed how that back makes your eyes twitch? Ouch. Then again, Miss Thing is That Age, she’ll probably love it

Details:
Yarn: Wool of the Andes, uh, Cranberry & Blueberry? Two skeins of the red, one of the blue.
Pattern: Yeah, whatever. It’s all the basic modular knitting.

For the front I cast on 49 stitches, knit about half that , sl1, k2tog, psso, knit the remaining about half (I think the first row is K23, dec, K23. Like I wrote it down, sheesh!). K even rows, K half, dec, K the other half on the odd rows. For the 2nd and 3rd squares you pick up 25 stitches and cast on 24, whether you do the pickup first or last depends on how obvious you want the decrease line. For mine, I cast on first so that the decrease line would make a nice ridge down the front.
The back is a little more complicated: Cast on 24. Pick up 49 from each side (making sure you get one right in the first corner), and cast on another 24. See, you’re picking up for all four squares at once. You may want to still think of it as 49 stitches for each square, and mark the center stitch so you can line up your decreases right. Again, you’ll K about half, sl1, k2 tog, psso, K remaining about half all the way around on all odd rows, K even on the even rows. For my stripe progression I did two ridges (four rows) of the red, and one ridge (two rows) of the blue. When you’re done (and you’ll have to finegle the decreases in the last few rows), just seam up where the two edges meet, and you’re done.

I’ll let you know the final finishing when I, well, finish it. Either “Felt till it’s done, add straps” or “Stuff, and sew shut”

In other News…

Finally attended the local knitting group. It was great! Dragged my mom along by surprise, with a bribe of extra yarn and needles in my bag. Fooled her, I dumped my bag out and just dropped in what I needed to swatch up for the entrelac socks in the last IK.

No, really, I did THINK I had extra yarn, I rarely dump everything out of that bag *blush*.

The esteemable Otter was there, and demanded I update so: To please my fan base, I have updated (does one fan count as a “fan base”?)

Anyway, Otter, as discussed:

Bag O’ Sock Yarn:

The Expanded view:

Hmm… what is in there… That’s Noro Kureyon in the top corners (two different colorways, believe it or not. One more blue/purple, one more blue/green). WildFoote in the center top, that mangled skein is complete just… well, mangled. Colors are Pine & Desert Grass, and the dark green in the Desert Grass does match the Pine.

Center left are two skeins of Froehlich Wolle, I’m not sure if it’s actually two different colors or if it’s two dyelots of the same color. Pretty darn similar, regardless. Oh, and the reinforcing yarn that came with it. Dead center is Fortissima Colori Socka Color. The four skeins on the center right are some sportweight coton that got mixed in there somehow.

The bottom row is 2 & some odd 1 oz skeins of Munrospun Evening Dusk 3 ply. This stuff is somewhere between sock and laceweight. I took a bunch of pictures trying to show how fine it is, but it just doesn’t come out. This yarn is probably older than I am, it was part of my grandma’s stash (she died in ’82, so it’s at least that old). And, lest we forget, more random skeins of reinforcing yarn.

To truly drive home what an evening of knitterly joy it was, when I took my mother home she handed me a lantern moon tote and asked what I thought of it. I analyzed and admired it, and she said “Well, it’s yours, take it home.” Yay me! No, the pic of that didn’t come out either

In closing, Evil Cat was being cute, I had to share:

She really just laid there on her back like that for quite a while. You should have seen her eyes after the flash went of (evil grin)

But hey, there is a good milestone hit: today was treatment #10 of 30. If everything goes as planned, next Wednesday will be the halfway mark.

Of course, I’m finding my reaction to this very funny. I mean, I know radiation is a more or less non-invasive procedure – very similar to an x-ray. So why am I always surprised that I can’t feel the treatments? Ah well.

I must say though, due to this treatment I’ve discovered sublingual B-12. One of those vitamins that kicks in right away – yay! Recommended for people with fatigue/stress issues. (And I should probably say, I doubt the FDA has evaluated that statement for accuracy, blah blah blah, why do they hate herbal & vitamin solutions so much?)

Recent amazing read: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15730874/ – I’m still too boggled to even comment on this one.

Recent useful read: http://www.virtualimpax.com/a_dog_for_the_family/3003.htm – I’m inclined to disagree with the categorization (“Terrible Tenâ€?), but at the same time: if you’re going to get a dog, understand the breed you’re getting, the breeder you’re getting it from, and how well the breed’s characteristics will fit with your household. (And the same site provides a collary page: http://www.virtualimpax.com/a_dog_for_the_family/2900.htm – “The Top Tenâ€? )

Knitting content: Sorry, no details. I’m working on Yule presents. Out of fairly luxury yarn – just finished one in angora/cotton from Debbie Bliss, working on another out of 100% alpaca. Yarn names? Ohplease. I’m at work, and I seem to have some deep seated phobia of remembering yarn names.

Oh, and further knitting stuff: Nevada Knitters, I know most of you are in Reno (yeah, I checked the web ring home page), what say we get together for coffee or something after the holidays? Doesn’t have to be a regular thing, I just thought it would be fun to get to know each other at least a little bit face-to-face rather than just reading each other’s blogs.

(edited because I forgot to make the links clickable. Bad Jayde!)

To happier things!

Two FO’s to report, knitters. Last night finally saw Sweetie’s Sweater done:

Isn’t that a happy foot?

I have photo-documented the steeking process on this, but it’s pretty photo heavy so I won’t post unless someone asks…

Oh, I will share this one though. All necessary tools for the Steek:

The guiness may be the most important tool. Why is steeking so stressful? Argh!

Also, done but photoless, the grey turtleneck. Only, not so turtleneck. See, I didn’t think about what would happen when I did the yoke decrease on a 1×1 rib. It was ugly. It made a reasonable switch to 2×2 rib though. So, then, I’m looking at the next yoke decrease. Would have been uglier. So, grey turtleneck is now a grey scoop-neck. I’m rather pleased with it. Nice and warm, and it does feel like flannel to wear (as I’d hoped!)

PSV is still plugging along. We’re trying to drum up some interest in C’s school as an afterschool club, and at the local community college as a student organization. Fingers crossed!

Finally, for the KnittyHeadBlogStalkers:

A small portion of my library:

This is what you see when you enter my home. The Pi Nu Delta banner is from the current crown of the ECS Kingdom of Vega, stands for Play Nice D***it. He granted one to all of the territories of Vega when he became crown.

This one is the same bookcase, but from the other angle.

I should point out, that is only one of our bookcases. And it’s double-sided, about 5′ high. So…. yeah, lotsa books. There are bookcases in nearly every room of the house, most of them are the little waist-high 3 shelf units from BoxMarts.