Baby Surprise Jacket

It's been an eventful week at Fig & Plum. I have a finished object to show you . . .

Pattern: Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann [Ravelry]
Yarn: Knitpicks Telemark, Fibre Company Terra
Needles: 5?
Recipient: Graham Willis
Started: ??
Completed: October 10, 2008

Notes: We were on vacation this week, driving around the Northeast hanging with family and visiting far-flung friends we had not seen in too too long. This BSJ was for Baby Graham, the supercheerful 9-month old son of Clayton and Kendra, some of our oldest friends.

Like the February Baby Sweater, there not much new to say about this time-honored EZ pattern, except that knitting it makes you think EZ could have been an engineer, or possibly a rocket scientist. How on earth did she devise this pattern?

The yarn was leftover from various projects, and the pretty wooden buttons were purchased at Heavenly Socks Yarns in Belfast, Maine.

Since the sweater was still a little damp when we left, and we chose not to subject little Graham to an autumn chill, there's no modeled shot this time. But Graham did graciously model one of his other handknits, the Toasty Topper, so you get the idea:

Over the next few days, I'll be posting more photos from our travels, including some pretty cool farm pictures, over at Flickr.

Teachers + Students Need Your Help! (Shallenge, Redux!)

You might have noticed tucked into my sidebar a link to Teach For America, as one of the places I can be found. It's true I'm not found in the classroom anymore, but I'll always be a Teach For America alum, and more importantly, I will always be an education advocate. I think about my students often (and in fact, still have "first day of school" anxiety dreams any time something big is coming my way). The photo above is of my first class of third graders, and was taken in 1999.

Teaching my third graders was probably the biggest responsibility I have ever taken on, and probably will remain at the top of my list for a long time. In many schools, like the high-poverty school where I was a teacher, it is a responsibility teachers shoulder alone. DonorsChoose.org is one way teachers can reach beyond the four walls of their classrooms (or trailers, as appropriate) to let people in the wider community know what it is they and their students need.

During the month of October, DonorsChoose has organized a blogger challenge (Shallange!!). The competition is complete with a leaderboard just for knitbloggers - check out who's already on there! Well, Fig and Plum is not to be left on the sidelines this time!

I have selected four good projects that need your help to happen. All of them are for students in the classrooms of New York City TFA teachers, who are energetic and inspired, but whose students lack basic tools for learning, like books and science equipment. You can choose to support any of them, and donate in an amount of your choosing.

Click here to check out my chosen projects and please please please, support them!

I'll be posting our progress periodically here. And folks, let's not let Rose-Kim embarrass us, m'kay? ;-)

ps: a sneak peak at my first sweater pattern, The Morehouse Cowl!

On the Cusp

Almost! It's blocked and ready for buttons. We have a busy weekend coming up, with some dear friends coming in from out of town, a farewell dinner for a friend who's moving to a tropical island, and last but not least, the wedding of the incomparable Carrie and Jonathan! Let's see if I can squeeze in a few minutes to swing by Brooklyn General to snag some simple buttons . . . I know Lisa waved the white flag, but she's still hot on my heels, and I'm gonna claim my victory anyway. Muahahahah!

here / gone. here's to you, NY.

+ progress!

Determination + Randoms

Progress on the TYC continues. I am about 2/3 finished with sleeve number 2, which is actually sleeve number 3, but Lisa has joined the sleeves and started working on the yoke. Above you see one of the ancillary events, held at Brooklyn General.

And now, a few random links for you to check:

• UPDATE: One more link for you: You may not be aware of my mild obsession with Finland. Good Knit's Road (anNu on Ravelry) encourages it. Her beautiful self-designed knits are positively inspiring. See, e.g., amazing fair isle hoodie, utilitarian but cool rubber boot socks, button-cute mod girl's vest and many more. Sometimes I think about spending a year or so knitting without patterns, just to see what happens; I can only wish the results would be even close to these!.
• Although it is probably no mystery where my political allegiances lie, being that I am an East Coast (Indiana) Elite (state-school-scholarship-kid-put-myself-through-law-school-favorite-breakfast-food-is-poptarts-
  but-never-had-a-moose-burger-former-public-school-teacher), I do try to keep this blog apolitical. This link is no exception, since it is something I imagine you can laugh at regardless of affiliation. All I can say is, thank goodness Rick Astley's finally had his due.
• In the same vein, as in, something worth taking in regardless of political stripe, I recently heard again "Harold," an episode of This American Life from the late 90s about one of Chicago's greatest mayors, Harold Washington. There is a lot to learn here about race and political candidacy, and even more to learn about Chicago, all of which makes the episode timely. Highly recommended if you have a spare hour.
• Wherever you are, but especially if you are in the Pacific Northwest and on the prowl for someone to photograph your wedding-rockshow-pregnancy-rockstarlifestyle, check out the work of my new Seattle-based splits-doing, Oreo-eating friend Jenny Jimenez. (I'm hyphen crazy today!)
• If you haven't been following Knitting School Dropout lately, Melissa has been cranking out her own designs, and rocking some others that have been tricky for some knitters.
• Have you seen the beautiful Demis? Of course you have, but just in case.


• I have really been enjoying The Moth's podcast lately. If you like a good story, you will too.

What Happens When Boys Get Involved.

Jess: Crap!
Chris: Hm?
Jess: Dammit, I screwed something up in this sleeve! I did too many repeats at every 16 stitches. I'm going to have to rip back.
Chris: NO!!
Jess: ?
Chris: NO!!
Jess: Well, I want it to be right. Why are you getting so upset?
Chris: Do you want to get it right or do you want to BEAT LISA????
Jess: Get it right?
Chris: . . .
Jess: BEAT LISA!
Chris: I thought so!

Postscript: And that, friends, is what happens when boys get involved. In the end, there was backsliding: it was done right instead!

Shallange!

It's another four years to the next summer Olympics, another 300-some-odd days until the 2009 Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, and you're experiencing competition withdrawal?

Well, you've come to the right place!

v.

Like Venus and Serena, like Eli and Payton, like, well, that pretty much exhausts my knowledge of sporting siblings, these two Tangled Yoke Cardigans grew up together and shared the same dream. In this case, completion! About a year ago, my friend and fellow Spider Lisa (An Abundance Thereof) cast on for a Tangled Yoke Cardigan. Hot on her heels I cast on for mine. They flourished briefly, then, tragedy struck: knitting ennui. Both cardigans disappeared into obscurity, taking dead end jobs working the cash register down at the DQ and seeing the light of day only when Lisa or I happened to dig through our piles of works-in-progress looking for what the heck happened to all our US 5 circulars.

Lisa's TYC has suffered setbacks as recently as last month. She contended in the Ravelympics, and friends, let's just come out and say it, missed the mark. My TYC, on the other hand, demoralized and out of shape, didn't even have the guts to compete. But inspired by Lisa's progress, although non-medaling, somehow she made it back to the top of the WIP pile and she's grown pretty quickly over the last couple of days.

Galled by her Ravelympics experience, Lisa's TYC now has a new ambitious goal for completion: September 12. And mine, spurred by her cantankerous coach - no, not Bela Karoli, but me - has proposed a challenge: my TYC will reach completion not only by September 12, but before Lisa's.

It's on!

I'll admit it's especially ambitious on my end. Lisa has completed lower body and one sleeve. Personally, I think she's juicing. At first glance, my TYC is ahead:

But I've got some big challenges to power through. Namely:

Yeah, the usual. My gauge is SO INCONSISTENT that the sleeve I made like 10 months ago is a totally different size than the one I just started and am about 2/3 of the way through. The gauge is totally different. What's more, the new sleeve appears to be on gauge whereas the old is quite significantly below it. It's like I didn't even measure it! Thankfully, the body seems to be just about right, and shouldn't be a huge problem. But sleeve #1 is going to have to be re-knitted. So in the end, that puts my TYC well behind Lisa's, with the additional handicaps of my 12-hour days at work and general knitting laziness. It should also save some time that I have decided to eschew the whole "tangled yoke" portion of the TYC, possibly in favor of an enormous felted or knitted flower brooch. And I make up in spirit and determination what I lack in gauge skills and time! Or at least let's tell ourselves that.

Here's wishing Lisa's TYC good luck and wind at her back. Oh yeah, and eat my dust, Lisa's TYC!

ps - Intriguing. Has anyone ever seen Sunday Knits in person?

pps - Today's title brought to you by The Cosby Show [thanks, Nettie!]