in the delaware valley

Jonquils huddle for warmth.

It is April 16th, isn't it? We have flooding here in the Delaware valley, and sleet and snow, and lots of cold wind blowing.

I hope the weather is warm and pleasant where you are dear reader.

Happy Monday.

crocus and friend

of details and disaster

First, the details, a better shot of the cables on the alpaca pullover. This picture is the front of the sweater, can you see how the cables run across the shoulder saddles and down the sleeves?

This is the back, see how the cables continue into the neck, sleeves and bottom ribbing.







And this, my dear friends, is an unmitigated knitting disaster. Oh, it all started out innocently enough ( click here to see ), but I should have known it would never work between us. Knitting the 100% silk made my arms hurt, so I was never faithful to this project, neglecting it for long periods of time while I ran brightly colored wool through my hands, knitting pairs of socks and even other sweaters. Perhaps this project was planning its revenge during those long days and nights that it languished, lonely and neglected. Most likely it is a disaster because of my lack of planning. The shoulders don't fit, the sweater's too long, there's not a redeeming feature about this design (it was all my own, by the way), so this yarn will eventually be recycled for another project, if I can ever get over the feeling that it just has bad karma.....

i didn't blog

for a long time, but I did knit. Next week I'll try to catch up with pictures of more finished projects.




When my camera died, I had just signed on for the Trekking KAL. Here's a picture of my Trekking socks. These beauties were knit from the top down using the star toe and welsh heel from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks. I used a simple rib with paired eyelets for the leg. The pattern reminds me of rabbit tracks, appropriate for this project I think.







And I finished this pair last night, also made with Trekking yarn. These are from the toe up using a Turkish cast on, plain stockinette with a k2p2 cuff. I love the shading on this yarn, watching the color pattern emerge as I knitted was truly a pleasure. It wasn't possible to make these identical twins, the color repeats were totally random, one has a lot more blue than the other.






Lastly, another pair of socks knit with Trekking yarn, but on a smaller scale. These little booties are going to my neighbor's new baby, along with a little hat knitted from some yarn I had in my stash. I think it was called Peter Pan.


Happy weekend to all.

new year...

...new camera, new years resolution, enough said.

We had a snow shower this morning, the first one of this winter. This is what it looked like from my front door at about 9:00.

When the snow slowed down I gathered my courage and drove across the river to our weekly knitting circle. Being a transplanted southern girl I used to be a big chicken about driving in any kind of wintry precipitation. This being my third winter in Pennsylvania, and armed with my all wheel drive Pacifica (love that car), I felt like an intrepid explorer as I ventured forth onto the snowy roads. Mostly I was motivated to brave the elements because I really wanted to show off my new sweater.

Pattern: my own, based on the Dropped Saddle Shoulder design in Barbara Walker's Knitting from the Top.

Yarn: Berocco Ultra Alpaca. This picture does not do justice to the color, which is a softly heathered plum.

New technique learned: cables with no cable needle. I had tried before, without success, until I found the instruction here: http://wendyknits.net/knit/cablelesson.htm
Thanks Wendy, your instructions are great!

This is my all time favorite sweater right now, I really love it. All the snow was gone by the time I drove home.

Congratulations girlfriend!

Hey girlfriend, this post is for you! Congratulations to my friend Jess who graduated from nursing school today. Now you can spend more time knitting!


I knitted this sweater some time ago, it is my own design. Though I swatched and thought I had a good handle on my guage, the sweater is considerably longer than I had intended it to be, coming all the way to the bottom of my hips. It was a little chilly on Monday morning, so I wore this to yoga class. When I visited the local yarn shop after yoga, I was pleasantly surprised when the sales clerk complimented my sweater. On my walk back to the car, two ladies stopped to admire my sweater, and one of them asked me where I got the pattern. WOW, that made me feel really good.

Today, I took a walk across the Riegelsville
bridge, a steel suspension bridge built in 1904 by the John A. Roebling Company, who also built the Brooklyn Bridge. It was a beautiful day and I enjoyed the walk, which took me from Pennsylvania to New Jersey in less than five minutes.

one sock, two socks

Old socks, new sock (with apologies to Dr. Seuss). I love that book, don't you? These are my old socks, aka the recently finished ones. I love the way the toe shaping fits my foot. I don't like the heel shaping, it's a little loose for me. I will have to tweak it a bit if I use this heel again. This yarn was very nice to work with, unfortunately I have misplaced the ball band and the only thing I can remember is that the yarn was called Applebutter and that it has some mohair content.

The stats
Pattern: Lichen Ribbed Sock by Nancy Bush
Yarn: see confession above
Cast on: 12-22-05
cast off: 01-07-06


As soon as these were finished, I cast on for another pair, this time using the Madder Ribbed Sock pattern. You may remember this, well, I enjoyed my first pair of top down socks so much that I frogged this baby to use the yarn for the current project. Cast on late on Saturday,this picture is of the progress made to date.

I'm going to pull the silk sweater I started last fall out of storage and see if I can make some progress on it. Knitters can live on socks alone, but I like sweaters too.

Loka Samasta Sukhino Bavantu
May all beings everywhere be happy and free