secondhand gods

off the needles

Baby yoda jacket, done.

I have to stop knitting little hats...

randoms

Watching: the weather; thunderstorms in the forecast for the next several days. Our weekly summer grill-out to celebrate the weekend -- usually on Friday nights, GB & I sprawl out on our back patio between the square foot gardens and the Fuckington's riotous perennial bed, cooking burgers on a tiny charcoal grill, watching birds on the birdbath and in the birdhouses, listening to neighborhood sounds -- was unexpectedly cut short last night by a fast-moving swathe of storms. The entire state was under a tornado watch and during my commute home from work, the announcer kept breaking in on NPR to advise of a new tornado in some unheard-of, distant county. We got our burgers, but there were no s'mores last night as I'd been hoping. Instead, we got some rain and some high winds and I had to settle for a raw uncooked Hershey bar. Also watching:  Our peony bushes, which are finally blossoming.

Not Watching: Television. Our experiment to cut back our amount of television consumption is about two weeks old and we're both amazed at the difference it's made to our evenings and weekends. We eat dinner together at the table, sometimes talking, sometimes reading companionably. Except to watch the Red Wings win the Stanley Cup, the TV has not been turned on at all in the evenings, which has brought us a grounded sense of calm and leisure. We feel we can set our own rhythm and pace without being hectored by commercial breaks or laugh tracks in the background. I still like the Weather Channel, so that's on occasionally, and overall it will be interesting to see if I am able to keep the TV off when GB is traveling for a few days in a row (I usually turn it on for companionship when he's away, and that's when I can get sucked into the most disappointing programming.) I think we've made a substantive and positive change to our habits well before Miss Snoop arrives.

Reading: With all that extra time, I've been reading a lot. A big fan of Frank Herbert's indescribably fascinating "Dune" series, I reluctantly picked up the more recent offerings written by his son and another writer. I didn't expect to like them, but they've been more fulfilling than I thought they would be. For one, they don't try to pick the story up where it left off -- the books are prequels to the original series. In some cases, you're reading about familiar characters at an earlier stage of their lives, in others, you're reading about events that were a historical basis for the original books. The writing is not nearly as complex, intriguing, and satisfying as Frank Herbert's. But then again, the plots are faster-moving, less thorny and multi-layered, and thus a lot more accessible. The characters are quick to engage with. Overall, the series passes the test for me and I can deem the books acceptable.

I have it in my sidebar, but I couldn't finish Steve Berry's "Venetian Betrayal." I just couldn't get into it. He didn't spend any time on character development, so I was plunged in with these characters that I neither knew nor particularly wanted to know, with no desire to go back to the beginning of his series and read more books to get to know them. His writing is quick and choppy, with two or three page long chapters, which is good when you're sleepy and thinking, "I'll just read one more" but it left me disoriented. Now, his historical sequences about Alexander the Great were fascinating, but I read several books about Alexander the Great when we were in Australia so already thought he was an extremely absorbing topic, and if I want to read more about him then I'll just check out a biography from the library or reread Mary Renault's books.

I am just finishing up "Confederates in the Attic" by Tony Horwitz which has been fabulous. I can highly recommend it. I checked it out while waiting for his latest book, "A Voyage Long and Strange", and it has been wonderful. It's a blend of history, journalism, and humor as he goes roaming around the South in search of the Civil War. He eventually gets sucked in to "hardcore" Civil War reenactments with people who are so obsessed that they even extreme-diet to achieve the sunken look of old Civil War soldier photographs. The descriptions of his adventures with these groups -- and one guy in particular, whose grumpy visage adorns the cover -- are historically enlightening and hilarious to boot.

Knitting: I'm getting extremely sick of knitting little hats and booties. I'm starting on a pair of socks next, to get back into some good old "adult knitting." My evening free time has helped me surge ahead on finishing the baby yoda jacket, though, and I think it's going to be really cute, although it is a lot of seaming and I am just not a seamstress; I'm hoping everything doesn't end up crooked and mismatched. The neck stitches are still on scrap yarn stitch holders, waiting to be finished off once the seaming is done. I'm pleasantly surprised to find that it doesn't look as boyish as I'd feared, even in the rough natural cotton yarn; as GB said objectively, "It just looks earthy." And as he rightly pointed out, she has a lot of pink and fluff and frills in her wardrobe, so she could definitely use some earthy pieces to balance it out.

off the needles

In between chapters of a perplexing but somehow still-satisfying science fiction novel by Iain Banks, and when I am not holding down the fort at the increasingly hysterical Widget Central, I have actually been doing some knitting. I'm not sure how much more productive I'll be with the needles this week, though, as I have a stack of books on the bedside table that includes Joyce Carol Oates' Wild Nights! With the cast of characters she's drawing from -- Poe, Hemingway, Dickinson -- it beckons me like a hefty, turn of the century 'Us Weekly' gossip magazine. But I digress.

Exhibit 1: Beanie and bootie set. The beanie is Leslie's design and the booties are from the Knitting to Go deck by Kris Percival. I used US 6 dpns for both and the yarn is the ever-delicious Debbie Bliss Cashmerino in sage and dusty lavender.

Exhibit 2: Baby kimono from Mason-Dixon Knitting, done in Cleckheaton Fiddle Dee Dee. This yarn is 100% cotton, originally purchased at Wool Baa in Albert Park, Melbourne. This is probably the nicest cotton yarn I've ever found -- it's incredibly soft and nubbly with none of that "dishcloth cotton" feel that some cotton yarn has. I bought two skeins of it when we lived in Melbourne and it sat in my stash for a long time. I finally used it last year, and immediately wished I'd stocked up before we moved back to the US. I had a tough time finding more online when I wanted to knit Snoop something, and paid a mint for it to be shipped from Australia, where it's made. I'm not sure if it's been discontinued, but if we ever go back to Australia for a visit, I'm taking one empty suitcase just for Cleckheaton Fiddle Dee Dee and Tim Tams!

I also have a Baby Yoda jacket in a state of near-completion, with one mere sleeve left to knit and the other pieces on stitch holders. I originally saw this pattern on Sooz's website in a larger size, and on her rave recommendation I just had to knit one too. However, I started it well before I knew Snoopy was a girl, and selected a more coarse, natural colored cotton that I thought would be perfect for the little boy I assumed Snoopy was. It has a very granola, Whole Foods kind of feel to it.

I'm not someone who will select all pink for a little girl, by any means, but I might have to crochet a little flower or something for the lapel just in case she is as bald as I was, and people mistake her for a little boy! (My own mother admits to Scotch-taping bows to my head.)

weekend

These babies have to get wrapped up and sent to my mother...

The photo is pretty washed-out as we're only getting very pallid, weak natural daylight in which to take a decent picture. Fetching wristwarmers from Knitty, done in Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, Dusty Lavender, 3.75 dpns - took less than one skein. I can see where these would be a fabulous gift idea for many people I know - it just didn't take that much time or yarn. But I hated doing the cables. I can handle three or four dpns with no problem but you add a cable needle in there, slipping around and sliding out, and it made me just want to take the whole needle-bristling mess and chuck it out the window. Still, I like the way they turned out and hopefully they will keep my mom's wrists warm during chilly days in the children's library, up there in permafrost country.

I'm so excited that Leslie and I find ourselves with child at the same time...she is so clever and artistic that I am finding all sorts of inspiration from her. I wanted to buy every single thing in her latest post, all the cute things she's found online!

We're starting to get some very cute gifts, too. While I am not really "in" to the whole themed nursery thing, I have a feeling that the nursery is going to carry over some inspiration from our trip to the Rhinebeck Wool & Sheep festival. It's tough to find a lot of decorative alpaca items, but adorable baby sheep abound.

GB is also getting excited about impending fatherhood. This week he found himself in a restaurant, sitting next to a young couple with a brand new wee baby in a carrier. The baby began to fuss and squawk, and he told me, "Usually that would just be irritating, but since I've seen our baby, I just wanted to go over and pick it up and cuddle it!" I can only imagine how little and tiny our baby is going to look being held by my big, over-6 ft. husband.

In the meantime, although I dreamed of sunshine and greenhouses full of lush vines last night, one look outside reveals that it is still snowing. The crotchety hag who lives next door (who lops our tree branches without asking and rakes her leaves into our yard) has been scraping her snow shovel back and forth across the pavement without cease since 7.42 AM. I'm sure my sister-in-law S., pregnant herself, would attribute this next comment to the "bad hormones", but I have been imagining storming out through the snow with my jammies flying, snatching up her snow shovel, and kicking it into the street. Actually my visions have been a bit more bloodthirsty than that, but it seems wrong to express them in writing. I don't want to scare anyone.

Help!

I had a dream the other night in which I knitted myself a gorgeous pair of mittens out of the beautiful grey and charcoal alpaca skeins I brought back from the Rhinebeck Wool & Sheep Festival. I'm a bit superstitious about dreams and although I had pledged not to knit anything for anyone other than the baby until August, I cannot deny the strong pull towards charcoal alpaca mittens.

The problem is, I can't find a good mitten pattern! Any suggestions from the knitters out there?

You can email me at sixtenpine@yahoo.com.au if you can help me out. Thanks in advance!

k's socks

Sorry K...they're on their way! (I hope they fit.)

In other news, we are expecting a foot of snow in the next twelve hours...

Wendy's Generic Toe-Up Sock Pattern

on 2.0mm dpn's

Regia Canadian sock yarn, colorway 4734 "Winnipeg"

home again, or postcards from rhinebeck

I am home! After a very long, very busy week, I am finally getting around to sorting through the photos of our wonderful trip to New York State last weekend. The weather was gorgeous and Rhinebeck was more than I ever expected. I petted lots of sheep, fingered all sorts of lovely wool, fell in love with an alpaca, and generally wandered around in a glorious golden autumn feeling that all was right with the world.

I was also privileged to meet Debby of highered hands, which was so much fun...she is as lovely, down-to-earth, warm and generous as her writing is. She gifted me with a gorgeous quilted knitting bag in some mouth-watering fabrics, and loaned me a drop spindle kit to try my hand at (which is MUCH HARDER THAN IT LOOKS.) I'll post pictures when I get through everything on my memory stick.

In the meantime, the rest of my Rhinebeck photos are on my Flickr account (just click my Flickr photo strip on the left-hand column of my blog, and it will take you there.)

Now, off to do some laundry and get the house in order for yet another week -- and HALLOWEEN, of course!

a surprise trip

Guess what?

I am going to the New York State Sheep & Wool Festival!

I promise to come back with stories, pictures of our car trip & of the Hudson Valley in the fall, pictures of the festival, a purple minivan full of wool, and likely an empty bank account.

(And if I can get one in the back when GB isn't looking, maybe a baby sheep!)

the hardest thing

Sometimes the hardest thing about knitting is trying to decide what to keep, and what to give away.

Especially now that I know someone who will actually be able to use these little frothy knitted things!

And no, it's not me...not yet, anyway.

Fall has come and gone once or twice this week. At one point we were in the thirties at night, sleeping under blankets, and planting tulip bulbs at the cottage while listening to college football on the faraway-sounding radio.

Then we were back in the eighties during the day. Warm enough for me to stand out in the street at ten thirty at night in my pajamas whilst watching our crazed friend Hammy try to get his motorcycle started, praying that the neighbors didn't call the police on us. Hammy has a difficult time keeping his voice down, especially during surprise middle of the night visits when he accidentally leaves his headlight on and wears the battery out. Unfortunately, GB was at a charity function and could only assist by telephone, instructing me as to where the flashlight and battery charger could be located. I unspooled about a mile of electric cord, plugged the charger into our bathroom, and Hammy & I stood around in the dark waiting for the battery to charge. I could tell he was embarrassed. He kept trying to entertain me with horrifying gossip about people I don't know, while I kept shushing him and looking anxiously at the houses around us for signs of irate neighbors peering out the curtains. No matter. It only makes us even for the time he was called to the emergency room to sit with me after my car accident. Hammy & I are becoming accustomed to riding out extenuating crisis circumstances together.

Other signs of fall: my father woke us up at eight AM, playing his squirrel call into the telephone to get GB excited for their squirrel hunting trip next weekend. My mother later said that their cat had packed her bags and was waiting by the side of the road with her thumb out, unable to take any more of being chased around the house by disembodied squirrel chatter.

The signs for the annual civic scarecrow building contest are already up, and scarecrows are beginning to appear around town. The fun of raking and leaf piles can't be far behind.

sometimes i do things outside of work, too, you know

I try, anyway.

I make wreaths sometimes. And I knit, too, thanks to The Felt Mouse. She's heard this story before, but when I first started reading her blog, when I lived in Melbourne, I became so enamored with her lovely knitting projects that it inspired me to learn how. I've been off and running ever since. This summer, I finally finished a baby blanket. I bought the wool for it a long time ago. In a sale bin at a Kmart in Scoresby, Victoria.

I just finished a baby hat out of gorgeous Jo Sharp cotton, which is very silky and heavy. Our local Whole Foods carries a line of baby clothes knitted out of very heavy cotton yarn, in a palette of crunchy granola colors, for gobsmacking amounts of money. I guess you could say that inspired me.

Nobody get excited. I'm not up the duff, even if I am knitting baby blankets and hats. There's just such a great array of baby knit projects out there. They're smaller than adult projects, and it makes them attractive to tackle.

I also do homewares. Like washcloths a la Mason Dixon. Out of the same Jo Sharp cotton. Which is not conducive to washcloths, really, because it's pretty pricey, and doesn't wear as well as cheaper cotton. But I had a big bag of mismatched balls of it that I got on clearance somewhere, so I've just been using it up.

And my vacation project was relearning the art of crochet, and I did a little set of crocheted coasters. It sounds like such a grade-school project, right? Crocheting coasters? But when you crochet them out of -- THAT'S RIGHT, JO SHARP COTTON -- they can actually look quite nice.

You are, of course, free to disagree.