Vests

After using up most of my leftover yarn in the blanket, I needed to start some more projects to use up stash, and also generate some more leftover yarn to finish my blanket!  This winter I fell in love with vests.  I hadn't worn vests for decades, but had just the right amount of cotton yarn to make the Peace vest by Kim Hargreaves:

I found that I wore it all the time--it's a great added layer.

Paul then started thinking about having a vest, and liked the Adrienne Vittadini Martina yarn in my stash, and the Red Cross Pattern for a Man's V-Neck Vest--I can't praise this pattern enough!  It worked up easily and well, and fits beautifully:

Next, for colder winter days, I worked up some elann.com Peruvian Highland Chunky yarn that had been a gift into the Patons' Button Front Crew Neck Vest.  I altered the pattern a little by making the buttonholes smaller (only one yarnover instead of two) to accommodate smaller buttons:

This pattern was also wonderful to work up--very well written, and I'd recommend it for beginners since it's written so clearly and even includes illustrations.

Now, of course, I've generated a lot more spare yarn for my Mondrian-inspired scraps blanket, but I do need a little purse, I'm using some of my stash for Bev Galeskas' Felted Pocketbook:

Cook for Julia: Omelettes

I'm delighted to celebrate Julia Child's 100th birthday by making something that I had never made before learning how to do it from the egg episode of the French Chef, and from her cookbook, From Julia Child's Kitchen: omelettes.

This is one of the omelettes I made this morning (photo by Paul), a two-egg omelette with grated mozzarella in the center, and early girl dry-farmed tomatoes on top:

A while ago I made a short video of me making omelettes to demonstrate my new skill, to get points for Guild Wars (in the Ravelry Ankh-Morpork Knitters' Guild).

Thank you, Julia, for teaching me to make something so delicious, so quick, and when made with Riverdog Farm organic pastured eggs, so very tasty!

February Hat

I call this my February Hat, because it's still so cold out that I want a warm, wool hat, but it's also the month that the plum blossoms emerged in the garden, looking glorious, and there are still winter winds coming through, causing the "snow fall" of their petals.

The pattern is "Tigress Hat" by Kim Salazar, but I wanted more of a cloche, so I added a row of stockinette before the crown, and two more rows of stockinette before the brim, and it fits down over my ears, keeping them warm. The yarn, Rowan Harris Chunky, is much softer after a cold water soak and blocking. The hat used almost all of the skein, 75-80%.



The flowers are crocheted in DMC Cebelia cotton thread size 20, with a size 11 hook, with pink embroidery floss around the center to evoke the look of the plum blossoms. The pattern is the flower part of “Narrow Violet Edging,” from Rita Weiss’ Crochet Edgings.

More kitchen work, less handwork

It's been noticed that I haven't posted about handwork in ages, and my project pages on Ravelry haven't been updated in forever--it's because my hand spends a lot of time healing in this brace. It's just a sprain, and it's healing, and I think it looks a lot worse than it is when you see it all braced up! It's just in an inconvenient location: MY HAND!

Timson has been wonderfully supportive, as usual. He won't knit in front of me, even though I told him I don't mind in the slightest. I can still bake and cook (with my devoted helper) so do keep up with some of my hobbies. And I'm draconian about my healing regimen.

Hat and scarf

This is the first hat I improvised, and I'm delighted with how it turned out. I wanted to echo the moss stitch used in the center of the scarf, which I knit with a cable pattern from Barbara Walker's Fourth Treasury of Knitting Patterns, "Cable no. 8."

The yarn is wonderful, Fiber Creations Dyed Wool, from sheep raised within an hour of where I live. I bought at Meridian Jacobs Meet the Sheep 2008, which was absolutely delightful. And the hat and scarf are so warm.

Bike helmet ear warmers

I know that compared to a lot of places, the San Francisco Bay Area does not really have winter. But some mornings, before dawn, riding to work on the waterfront, the wind coming off the saltwater takes the temperature down below freezing. On those mornings, uncovered ears lead to dizzy spells, it gets so cold.

Before I made these earwarmers, everything else I tried interfered with how my helmet fit on my head--balaclavas, scarves, headbands--these fit right on the helmet's straps, below where the helmet hugs my head, so they pop on easily for the coldest mornings, and pop off when they're not needed, without any helmet adjustments required!

And they're so warm!

Details on my Ravelry project page; the pattern's available for free in MenKnit issue one. And be sure to see the comments on the Ravelry pattern page for this pattern for an explanation of a possible typos in the pattern as published.

Adventures in commuting

I met a bus newbie named Dave, who took a photo of me with my bike at the bus terminal.

Why is the little airplane a pigeon chaser? The hum of the propeller spinning in the wind isn't just whimsical, it's enough of a sound that pigeons (and even gulls) hear it and walk out of the way before the bike and I are near them!

"Sisters-in-law"

I love my in-laws so much!

(photo by Paul)

Portrait

I'm lucky to know a very talented photographer, who takes great pictures of me like this one with my latest fabric purchase.