Sleigh bells ring

Are you listenin' ...? In the lane, snow is glistenin'!

I'm deliquent in my blogging duties, I know.

Had a lovely visit on Saturday with Reba and NPR Emily - wonderful to see you ladies! It is terrible that I don't have the pleasure of your company (and baked goods) every work day, as I used to! I tried to convince them to move to Salem, but thus far they have resisted. We'll see. Reba was pretty resistant to being called Reba, at first.

I've been diligently working on my Juliet Scarf which is (hopefully) going to be an xmas present for a co-worker.


Juliet Scarf



Juliet Rosette (to pin on scarf)

I was making great progress on it, however: it is a rather complicated lace pattern. So I had gotten this far on a previous attempt before I made a big mistake, tried to frog, and had a meltdown:




This morning I slept in, and when I looked out the window, it was snowing! Snowing hard! Hooray! Our first snow of the season.

I ate my breakfast, grabbed my camera, and took some photos of Salem in the snow.

Apple trees




Derby House



Big tree



Garden fence



The Friendship



Derby Street Witch



Derby Street Wreath



Festive Doorway



Blaney Street whirlygigs



Daniels House

Tid bits

I've been knitting up a storm. In fact, I've got so many projects queued up, I don't even know where to start. Unfortunately, I can't blog in detail about it, as some of these items may end up being gifts (if they aren't too messed up looking). Oh, but I wish I could tell you!

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Halloween

Seeing as I live in Halloween-town, I thought you might enjoy some photos from our big night....




Our pumpkin



when will those trick-o-treaters get here!



Night falls....



Halloween Carnival



Carnival rides




Hey, that guy is dressed up as DH!



Jackolanterns...



... everywhere







Halloween tree. Won't come down until after Christmas!!

She's got good taste in yarn

Thanks to my readers for the helpful comments in my last posting. I'm looking forward to checking out Rhonda's next class in February!

I decided with the holidays coming up, that one "palette cleanser" project was not enough. I used a gift certificate DH gave me last year to buy this book (I now have the complete set!), and started a lace scarf project. It's knitting up fast, since it is sport weight alpaca (frog tree, becoming a new fave for me), and I'm using size 8 needles. Instant gratification, people.

Speaking of yarn. I think we all know that Patches has a taste for the stuff. DH awoke early one morning recently, and went downstairs to make the horrifying discovery that Patches had broken into my good yarn basket. He found two intact balls of frog tree alpaca under the kitchen table, and the entrails of my really nice (green colorway) Malabrigo wool spewed throughout the first floor.

Its very upsetting to think she was probably planning it for weeks. BAD KITTY!

Palette cleanser

Well, I finished the sweater. I tried it on, and I kind of like it, but it is just a little bit too short, and just a little bit too boxy in the shoulders for my taste. I'll give it some time, but I'm afraid what we have on our hands is yet another sweater I don't want to wear!

UGH!

I finally used a gift certificate DH gave me for Valentine's, and while I'm waiting for this to arrive, I thought I'd treat myself to a palette cleanser, if you will.

I picked this embroidery up...



Eventually, it should look something like this....


Are you stressed? About the economy? Patches wants you to stop being stressed.



She thinks you should go take a nap. Right nowwwwwwwwwwww....

Almost

I can't believe it. I'm almost done with Sweater Number Two. It just needs the ribbon at the top of the neck, and a little final blocking, and it'll be ready to go.

The ripping out of things and frogging was definitely worth it. The seams are much better executed, and I think I got a higher quality result by doing things the "right" way.

The sleeves were pretty tricky. I ended up using a mattress seam to sew them in, as the technique the pattern recommended was a bit tricky.

Despite all my grumbling, I think I might tackle my third consecutive kid silk haze sweater, as my next project. I'm contemplating knitting this in KSH.

Progress

Sorry for my long absence! My blog has definitely been increasingly neglected. However, my plants and sweater have not!

Check out my dwarf banana tree. Yes! It actually produces edible bananas, like the ones you get in the grocery store, only half the size.



My dwarf fern tree lends a tropical feel to the abode:



I've made significant progress with the sweater. After ripping out the shoulder and side seams, and frogging out the neck, things are beginning to look up. I taught myself how to do the the three needle bind off, and the matress stitch seam technique. The difference in the quality of the seams is significant. I have seen the light. I was worried the sweater would be too small, but it seems to fit better now. Although, you can see from this photo that it is desgned to hit very high on the waist.

If its worth doing, its worth doing right...

After much soul searching, and consulting with the knitting expertise of MamaBee, I've decided to rip out the neck AND the shoulder seams, and try this over again. Instead of doing a matress stitch seam for the shoulders, I will do a three needle bind off. And I'm going to alter the neckband instructions a little.

It's not going to be fun. Ripping out stitches in kid silk haze is like pulling yarn off of velcro.

But its the mature thing to do.

Here's some before photos:

Almost done!

I'll try to post some photos tonite, but I am ALMOST done with "sweater number two". I seamed the shoulders, and started working on the neck band. I'm afraid to say I may have to rip the neck out and start over, having already done this once. I'm finding it difficult to cleanly pick up the stitches from the bound off edges around the neckline. It's making the neck look terribly sloppy.


Two frustrating things about knitting sweaters:

1. when they don't fit (I'm still holding my breath on this one - it seems a little small!)

2. when the pieces look nice, but your seaming and finishing doesn't.

sigh.

Sleeve

Ha! See what I'm capable of, when I really apply myself?



I've finished the first sleeve, and may be able to polish off the second one by early next week. Wouldn't tha' be somethin'.

Note to self: all future sweaters shall be short sleeve, not long sleeve!

Sweater Update

So, I HAVE in fact been knitting this summer. Just look! I'm almost done with the front of the sweater. Then its on to the (short) sleeves.



Today the new fall issue of Interweave Knits arrived. Sweet!

coming back from hiatus

Ye gods! I just looked at the date of my last post! It's like Rip Van Winkle!

I expect you'll be wanting a full explanantion for this...

I wish I could say I've been in Europe, but sadly that is not the case! I have been enjoying the splendors of Salem in Summer.

Stay tuned!

Who IS this guy?

One day recently, I once again had that funny "I'm being watched" feeling


... So I look out the window, and I see THIS guy...




He seems to lord it over the window sill now, although I do occasionally see the other one. The only city that has more cats than this one, is perhaps Rome

Hot in the city...

Hot in the city TONITE!

And yet, I'm contemplating doing a little more work on my knitting. I'm making good progress on the front section of the Maggie Sweater. I've completed the split/divided front opening, and now I work each section of the neck separately.




It was definitely a little cooler here in Salem than in Boston, but the heat finally caught up with us.

Ugh.

Hungry? You might enjoy this photo of the italian feast DH's great aunt prepared for us on our recent jaunt to DC. It was STUPENDOUS!

Spam, Spam, Spam

How appropriate that at the same time BBC America decides to run its Monty Python marathon (which we taped!), that my computer should also become infected with a "worm". My hotmail email account, which I've had for EIGHT years (wow! that's as long as I've known DH!) became infected, and everyone in my address book received spam messages from me.

If you are one of the recipients of such spam, I do apologize!

I officially shut down the account a few minutes ago. It's the end of an era. Sniff! But getting a worm has made me feel rather violated. DH keeps telling me to relax, but I do worry about if a worm can send spam to everyone in your address book, what else can it do!

While I'm cleaning house, I may decide to migrate my blog to another service, such as typepad, as some other knit bloggers have done. I'll keep you posted to any changes!

Hmm. What to label this post under. I don't have a category for spam or email worms. Guess I'll file this under being irish. What with our luck and all that.. (get it..??!!)

Patches the Grey

Crops 'n such

Oh, you didn't know I'm a part-time condo farmer? Aswim in Knits can buy her local produce from me.

I planted these Arugala seeds on Sunday afternoon. Here it is wednesday night. Now that's what I call germinating (!):



Here's a sampling of some of my other crops...

Yes, we have no bananas today yet!

Basil! Essential for fresh tomato sauces.

Blood Orange!

Fresh Kitten, ready for market.

Not pictured: Tomatoes and parsley.

Coming soon: lavender seeds (I know, they'll take a few years to grow), Echinacea, Sage

On order: 1 baby goat and silk worms (kid silk haze)