Tis the Season
I fear you may be getting tired of The Chez Violence Parade of Herby Goodness. But alas, it's not all knitting all the time around these parts, and lately, this has been what I'm up to. So, under the My Blog, My Rules dictum, it's what I'm inflicting on you. Fear not, there is yarn in the offing, and it will show up soon. But in the meantime, on with the plants. If you were around last summer, you may remember the herb simple syrups that became something of an obsession. I decided I needed more. We did both lavender [...]
Pin Me Down
So let's talk about blocking. You know those stitches that just, by their nature, don't want to lie flat? The ones that have a bit of ripple and curve to them? Yeah. There are a few ways you can go with them. You can force them flat when you block, or you can exaggerate the the waves. I think both can be fun, but what about you guys. Would you freak out if the blocking instructions wanted you to do this? You'd need either several (oh, maybe 12?) straight needles or a set of blocking wires or some super skinny [...]
More of a Good Thing
The herb salts have proven to be a tremendous hit. The lavender salt may possibly have found its way onto the rim of a glass or two, and the others have been used in just about everything we've cooked since we made them. Given this success, I decided to go ahead and make some basil salt while the plants were still going strong. But, as my fingers are just now recovered from the chopping extravaganza (and as basil is a bit leafier and wetter than the other herbs), I went with a slightly different approach. Mini chop to the rescue. [...]
Recovery
Remember the other week when the sock and The Boy and I all trooped off to the railroad bridge? The unfortunate incident? The dreadful dark, sticky goo all over the sole of my pale, delicate sock? Yes, yes it was rather traumatic. The good news is that, with a bit of careful work, things are somewhat salvaged. Here's where we stand now. The transition was made with the help of several thorough soakings in goo gone, an awful lot of blotting with paper towels, and some judicious scraping with fingernails. It's certainly not perfect, but it is a whole lot [...]
Chop chop chop
I took a chunk of the celebratory day off (the reward for getting the next mini book off to the printer) and spent it making herb salts. You see, the herb garden is a bit overgrown. This is because we take a hands off (read 'deeply lazy') approach to our gardening. After we stick plants in the ground, we let them fend for themselves, save the occasional splash of water if it's really dry. This year, the herbs rather took to this treatment, and it's a bit of a jungle out there. We can't eat that much fresh, something had [...]
Make a Little Trouble
Remember how, when I'd show you projects over the last few months, I'd say 'yes, they'll be part of a new mini book in the fall?' Well, that mini book went off to the printer this morning! It includes the socks the rail bridge ate, the socks that played chicken with the train, the socks that got us sternly told off by the security guard (I see I neglected to post about that, perhaps I'll have to remedy that soon), the mitt that got away...temporarily, the cuff that's firmly pinned in place, and the hats that took a field trip. [...]
Casualty
Last night found The Boy and I clambering around on the underside of our local abandoned railroad bridge in pursuit of excellence in sock photography (as you do). This particular spot had lots of advantages. It's local, accessible through one of the area parks, and maintained enough to be safe yet decrepit enough to be picturesque. It's really all you could hope for, and the shots came out beautifully. Alas, there was one small problem. Some of those more picturesque bits? They were sticky. Sticky in a way that got all over the bottom of my sock. Black, sticky, gooey [...]
Polyommatus argiolus Knit Along
I’ll be having knit alongs for each of the pattern pairs in The Knitter’s Curiosity Cabinet, Volume II. This month we're starting the two patterns inspired by the Polyommatus argiolus print (you can click on the print to see it bigger, it really is quite lovely). That's these charming socks. And these clever mitts (they're so much fun to put together, you really should give them a go). If you’d like to join in, swing on by the ravelry thread and get knitting. This is pretty laid back for a knit along (too many rules make my head hurt). The [...]
Omnivorous
We have two chairs in the family room. They are the tv and knitting chairs. Apparently, we've not been feeding them appropriately. Last night, one of them decided to eat the blanket. I don't know if this is because he was hungry or as some sort of act of protest. We'll be addressing the issue in therapy later. But first, the blanket needed some first aid. See that? Hole. Big gnarly hole with several broken strands of yarn. It would totally have run if left unattended. (Note, these are not hand knitted blankets, there would have been much more swearing [...]
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