The Blanket Revelation

How come you guys never told me how relaxing blanket knitting is?

No shaping, no sizing, no swatching (breaking my own rule here). I bought a ton of Berroco Peruvia Quick last year to make Cirilia Rose's beautiful Aidez cardigan, but then realized this colorway turns me into a corpse.

(Add a rule to my list above: don't buy yarn online unless you've seen it in person and held it up to your somewhat sallow winterface. Cirilia swears this is fetching with a pop of color, but I'd need somewhat more than a pop, and can't be bothered with loud lipstick every time I wear a cozy cardigan).

All eight skeins have been sitting in a box in my office for a year. Eventually I needed the box to return the hairdryer that almost fried my hair off and blessed me with a 48-hour scent of burning rubber (long story!), and people started asking questions about the large pile of yarn in the corner, so I decided to put it to some use.

Finding a second project for already-purchased yarn is always a struggle for me, a perfectionist about matching projects to fibers. My stash is almost entirely comprised of failed purchases like this that don't get much love following the initial disappointment. I hit Ravelry trying to find a project I could give as a gift to someone who would look alive within a 10-foot radius of this yarn. Finally: Brooklyn Tweed's Umaro. It's been on my queue since Jared released it. Blankets always seemed like such a huge commitment, though. Katie from my knitting group is *always* making them, and every time I see her I'm all HOW DO YOU DO IT?

Quite the opposite, so far. It's been ages since I took on a project where literally all there is to do is knit until you run out of yarn. This is only one skein in to this blanket, with a long way to go, but all I feel about it is soothed at the prospect of inches and inches of this beautiful, squishy pattern. Blankets have officially converted me. Okay, talk to me several skeins from now.

What else? How about some purple oatmeal?!

Yeah, I thought so.

I'm a Monstah!

Pattern: Frances the Charismatic Monster by Rebecca Danger [Ravelry]
Yarn: Cascade 220 Heathers, 1 skein, 9452 summer sky heather
Needles: US 8
Recipient: Maya's baby Abel!

Notes: This is baby Abel. He's quite a little monster!

Well, not exactly a little one. He's 7.5 months old, and I won't share his weight because it's rude to talk about a person's weight publicly, but let's just say his mama Maya has her some guns.

So when it came time for Abel's babywarming, Virginia thought as our group gift we should make some monster themed loot for this little dude. Virginia made some of these adorable Das Monster pants! Maybe if I can snag a photo from some one, I'll post one here, because they are AWESOME.

And I made the monster a monster. This is Frances. Isn't he just debonaire?

He's working on his first novel on the old Underwood typewriter. He just loves the heft of the keys under his, um, paws.

His teeth are made of felt. I took a bit of poetic license (i.e., didn't look at the pattern) with his ears, and his mouth is upside down. Whoops.

But, all in all, he still manages to be quite genteel, as does Abel. I hope he gets a lot of joy dragging Frances around by the feet for many years to come.

Frivol!

Pattern: Frivol by Debi Tuttle (free pattern) [Ravelry]
Yarn: Rowanspun Aran, 1 skein
Needles: US 8

Notes: How many hats have you seen with a sideways cable? Not too many, right? Sometimes it takes a newbie to see things in a different light, ask why something isn't usually done, and figure out a way to do it. It sounds like Frivol was the result of just that process. Debi Tuttle came up with this hat about four months after she started knitting, and Frivol shows you what a little math and a lot of short rows can do.

The construction is kind of ingenious. The hat is constructed in one piece, knitting the piece around the head and shaping the crown using short rows all the way around. You can see the crown above.

There's a seamed version and a seamless one. I did the seamed version because i was too lazy to use the provisional cast-on used for the seamless. Apparently many knitters have also made this without the bobbles, which I find a little sad. Bobbles are one of my great joys!

The yarn used here is Rowanspun Aran received from Andrea of Knitting by Bicycle in a swap a few months back. If you find some, snap it up, because it has, tragically, been discontinued.

A Wintry Update

Happy New Year! If you're excited about 2012, you aren't alone. 2011 was mildly rotten for a lot of folks (Corduroy Appreciators aside), and it got off to a rocky start for me too. I blame the awkward way "twenty eleven" rolls off the tongue. "Twenty twelve" is so much nicer, isn't it? This year is a leap year, the end of the current Mayan Creation, the Queen's Diamond Jubillee, the OLYMPICS for Pete's sake! It's going to be good.

We spent our New Year's upstate, hiking in Minnewaska State Park on New Year's Eve in the glorious unseasonable weather that no one in New York seems to be complaining much about (so out of character!).

We ate Korean-Style Steak & Eggs, a recipe from The Good Fork in Red Hook (where we got hitched!) from The New Brooklyn Cookbook(Christmas gift from Chris. Good job Biggie!) (but you can find the recipe here)

We made cardamom marshmallows, because Chris unceremoniously tossed the last of my stash from the last time we made them. So what if they were a year old?! What's with his obsession with food going bad? He's as incorrigible as Heather's Gary.

Today, it finally snowed.

Chris and I went for a walk just to get out of the house and out of (my) PJs.

We happened on a tasting that was going on at a delightful new shop nearby called The Winey Neighbor.

A nice guy from Janelle's was there handing out samples of a Trini dish I'd never had before, called buljol & bake. Buljol is a salt cod salad with lime, cilantro and guacamole in a fresh, warm "bake," which is essentially fried bread.

The big news around here, though, is that (if all goes well) we are moving apartments to a place we're going to own! After a decade of pressing our noses against realtors' glass, two lengthy post-graduate educations and one expensive one, and five years of gainful employment, we're buying our first home. We'll be doing some renovations, and I expect to post about them here, but I have to tell you it's beautiful just the way it is. Especially the two bathrooms. And the roof deck.

We'll be moving to Crown Heights, changing neighborhoods ever so slightly (and only by NYC standards . . . it's a 10 minute walk from where we now live).

Here is one of our new neighbors:

As you can see, St. Paul & Mohammed live there! And our new street:

Not too bad, huh? Anyway, stay tuned for that.

I also have a FO to show you next week!

Moonshine Kitty + Happy Hanukkah!

Happy Hanukkah, for those who celebrate! I've been doing some holiday crafting, and by little, I mean a real little. My niecelet AJ has been feeling poorly, and it's Hanukkah, so I sat down and made her a kitty.

This is based on the pattern for "Steve" from Denyse Schmidt Quilts. The kitty perhaps looks even more unwell than AJ's been feeling, what with her wonky eyes, crooked head, and general drunken demeanor. Thank goodness she's supposed to be "folk arty," which to me means "made after several swigs of moonshine" or, as Adrian suggested, "by firelight alone." I am not good at sewing. It was the cause of poor grades in Home Ec, along with that one time we put a cup of salt in the hot cocoa instead of a teaspoon.

I did have to embroider the mouth twice because the first time it was Just. Too. Scary. for a 5-year old. Sadly the corduroy isn't that forgiving, so now Moonshine Kitty has a shadow mouth.

Whoops! Well, looking delightfully handmade is all the rage these days.

In related news, Curtain up! Light the lights! It's the first night of Hanukkah!

If you're celebrating, Happy Festival of Lights. Have an extra latke for me!

And I leave you from an image from this year's Spiders holiday party, hosted Chez Fig and Plum. There was gløgg. And a pumpkin stuffed with everything good. And this delicious concoction too. It was a good time, as you can see.

No, that is not a can of original Four Loko you see.

Happy holidays, everyone!