Moth Heaven

And on to the next one

I have had Luke's Diced Vest by Mary Jane Mucklestone on deck for a few weeks, and now that the Mars scarf has been presented, I can move along to lovely colourwork for the Mister. Here's the blog post Mary Jane did about her color process for the Twist blog, for which I am truly in awe.  Mary Jane is a genius with the colour choices, of which the Sage colourway for this vest is a shining example.

Here are the gorgeous Sunday Knits yarns.  The starring players stone, bone, sage, chesnut and earth,

and the supporting colours, pickle, rain and pumpkin.

The yarn is luscious and a real pleasure to work with. I made a stingy little swatch in the round (one pattern repeat, I'm soooo bad I know), and happily got gauge on the first try.  Not much needle time since the casting on ceremony, but this isn't exactly speed knitting for me anyway.

Finished in Time for the Birthday, but . . .

I cast off and blocked the Mars Scarf in time for the Mister's birthday this Sunday.

It's a lovely thing, in Misti Alpaca worsted, a royal purple, soft and rich looking, just the thing for my guy and his understated dandy ways. I imagine him wearing this with his sport coat on blustery days before it gets absurdly cold.

But I didn't hear him sneaking up on me, so the surprise was this morning during my photoshoot.

I guess he likes it just as much today as would have Sunday. 

Mother Hubbard

A few nights ago, casting about for what to make for dinner, the Mister and I discovered that we had come to that point in the grocery week when there is scant pickings from what survived the fridge and what is petrified in the cupboard (lychees in fruit liquor, pickled beets, and mustard cured sardines? Who bought this stuff?) The Mister prides himself on being able to make dinner out of thin air, but I must tell you even on this particular night, I had my doubts and offered to call in the Pizza rescue service, who are really cool and deliver on a bicycle.

I went upstairs put the boy child to bed, then 15 minutes later, the middle child came up to kiss him goodnight and to deliver le menu that she and the mister had devised.

If you can't quite read it, I'll translate.

Les Starters
Raw carrots and sour cream de France
Onion Rings Francaise
Crudités
Composte en croute
Asparagus blueberry purée on toastes

Les entrées
Chicken tartare
Chicken pattie with Russian dressing
Haddock fillet with pommes de terre
Chef's choice with extra love
Toaste de France (vraiment!)
Pizza gelée

Sides de Jour
Le broquille
Les carrottes
L'asperge
Chow de chat
Pommes pulverizé
Choufleur

Thus was represented the entire offerings of the evening.  I laughed for about twenty minutes (composte en croute! chow de chat!) and then ordered bravely, Chef's choice, which turned out to be a little bit of all the frozen stuff from the chest freezer in the basement and glazed carrots. The mister softened the incoherent quality of our meal with a nice bottle of white Burgundy.

The next day, I went grocery shopping.

Too Many Keys on My Keychain

Anyway, I digress.  Knitting you say?  You want knitting?  I got knitting.  Not much, but it's something to look at.

I introduced the body to the sleeves of the Cottage Garden sweater a few days ago.
I am stalled waiting still for the back-ordered green for the yoke, so that my version will be almost a colour negative of the original.

Elsewhere, I picked up where I left off with the Mars scarf for the Mister on the same needles I had been knitting with all along (it should be noted).  After a few rows, I realized my gauge had changed.

See that?

So I ripped out the dozen rows or so I had worked in the wonky gauge, dropped down a needle size, started over and found all is well. I'm hoping to bind off today so I will have a lovely birthday present for him next week.

Take an Hour: Knit a Hat

We knitters cherish the idea that knitting can save the world. When knitblogs were king and there were any number of KALs for the distressed, I warmed up my needles for Afghans for Afghans squares and a few sweaters, hats and mittens for the Dulaan Project.

Minor evidence to the contrary, I'm not inclined to charity knitting, but I seem to have a number of friends who are Doulas, midwives, ObGyn nurses, and the like.  This week, I have received a few requests to knit Preemie hats in honour of September as Infant Mortality Awareness month, and I find this an easy kharma boost for my needles.

The International Center for Traditional Childbearing is hoping to round up 27,000 preemie hats this month, as many hats as there were American children who did not survive their first year in 2008. In light of the health care debate, regardless of one's position, this seems unconscionable that in the 21st century, so many children fail to thrive in this wonderful country of ours. And such hats truly do make a difference in mortality statistics. There are any number of preemie patterns available on the web. I don't know how many of us still pay attention to such things, but I thought that anyone who was still reading here might consider an hour of their knitting time for a little hat.  You can contact the ICTC for local collection addresses, or you can mail them to their national headquarters here.

ICTC
PO Box 11923
Portland, OR 97211