knitting by bicycle.

Looking up, a little late

Andrea — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:35:40 +0000

Whoops! Forgot about this on Friday, so here we are on Monday, bringing you a list of smile-makers.

• My days have become more filled with social engagements and outings with friends. For that, I am tired and pleased.

• Daylight lasts until well after I get home from work. Spring is coming!!!

• Discovering new yarns that makes my heart sing. (Looking at you, Manos Rittenhouse Merino 5-ply. <3 <3 <3)

• Along with some knitter friends on twitter, March will be a month of no buying. I love the internet knitting community and how we come together to support each other, for both little things and big things.

• Having the house to myself for a few days, while Kasy attending the North American Handmade Bike show. He went down to the show with his shop, Bilenky Cycle works, so you can find all their pictures here on Flickr. And in a stroke of worlds colliding, in the best way, my flickr friend SleepyNeko, and her significant other, went to NAHBS, met Kasy and introduced themselves (knowing him from my flickr stream), and chatted things up about bicycles and tandems. I love that!

• Having Kasy come home and seeing how much we missed each other during those few days. Isn’t love grand?

Happy March everyone! What are you smiling about these days?

FO 2010 | Baby Vest

Andrea — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:21:16 +0000

Our friends are having a baby in May, so what better time to try a baby knit. This is my first baby knit (!!!) and holy moly are they quick! I went into knitting knowing that the baby is a boy and will be named Elliot. Since I’m not a baby person and my friends have not started having babies yet (this is the first), I really am at a loss as to sizing for these tiny people. I didn’t want to knit something and have it be too small immediately, but I also didn’t want to knit something that would not be useful for months and months. The pattern is for a DK weight yarn, so I “sized up” by using worsted.

After some sleuthing on Ravelry, I came across this adorable little vest. Buttons on both sides to easily put it on or take it off the infant, since you will not need to ever pull it over the head. Genius construction if you ask (baby-less) me.

Yarn choice was a tough one. I wanted something that could be popped in the wash, to be easy on the new mama, but not be something stiff and awful. I remembered a lone skein on Plymouth Encore Worsted I had, from my early days of learning to knit, and thought it would be perfect. Four hours later…voila!

I cannot get over how damn adorable this vest is! Buttons were purposely mismatched and pulled from stash as well. I’m hoping that baby Elliot, when he arrives, enjoys wearing this.

Specs –

Pebble
size 8 needles
Plymouth Encore Worsted in dark green, less than 1 skein used
Started and finished on January 27, 2010
ravelry page

I’ve heard through the grapevine that another couple we’re friends with is expecting a wee little girl. Perhaps another little vest is on the horizon…

Looking up

Andrea — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:48:03 +0000

This week has been particularly smile-filled. Lots of love and gratitude over here, partly due to the following…

• the prospect of Spring in the near future, full of the scents of soil, grass, flowers, and warm sun.

• joining the ranks of the Rosie’s Yarn Cellar shop clan. You can find me there on weekends now!

• rediscovering my love of yoga, after 4 months of no practice.

• making slow, but steady, progress on home renovations with Kasy.

• feeling the power to change my life and my future and feeling the desire to wield that power.

• finishing a Shetland Triangle shawl in 11 days, including blocking. blog post is forthcoming. (raveled here)

breathing room

Andrea — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:43:03 +0000

It’s so easy to be overwhelmed by the spinning world around you. Everyone is moving so fast and to-do lists get longer and longer. Especially in winter, for me, the lack of sunlight makes me feel as though I have less time available to accomplish all the things I want to do. I am slowly learning to not be frustrated and upset with myself when I don’t finish a to-do list or be working on a variety of things from morning to night. I am slowly learning to be ok with just being, because let’s be honest…I’m not one to actually be continuously “productive” from morning to night. I avoid. I waste time. I procrastinate. I doubt. I worry. I think of all the things I’d rather be doing. I don’t get the “practical” things done that I want to get done in the “timely” manner that I imagine for myself. I set myself up for failure time and time again. And I’m trying to stop all that. And give myself the time, space, and energy to just enjoy the ride.

That said, I do hope to do some good home renovation stuff done this weekend.

Life can be found only in the present moment. The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life. Thich Nhat Hanh

Looking up

Andrea — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 12:45:41 +0000

Going to start posting some things I feel grateful for, on Fridays. I want to keep thinking positively and hopefully this will help to keep my smile more constant every day, regardless of what curve-ball is thrown at you. It’s all about putting life into perspective, isn’t it?

A man is what he thinks about all day long. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

• the beauty of snow and all it’s complications, frustrations, and heavy shoveling, because if there weren’t seasons I would feel lost

• long walks in the winter, either alone or with my dearest

• planning meetings for future travels; staring at the world map and figuring out where to get started; all things to the west and the east

• my home

• hot coffee, first thing in the morning

I hear Philadelphia got some snow…

Andrea — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:21:06 +0000

And boy did we!

The City clocked in at 28 inches, but I think we got closer to 24 in my corner of South Philly. It started Friday night, as we were headed back to South Philly from Fishtown. A wintry, snowy, bikeride was had.

On Saturday, we bundled down in the house and worked on some projects and watched movies. I was supposed to be headed to New York to celebrate maslenitsa with my family, but since Bolt Bus canceled all their buses on Friday, and the trains weren’t running, I was stuck in Philly (not that I minded, cause lazy snow days are awesome!). The snow ended mid-afternoon, and the block was abuzz with everyone digging out the sidewalk.

Sunday, we decided to get out of the house for a long walk up to Center City.

Stopping off at Grace Tavern for a couple of beers on the way home.

Did you hear? We’re supposed to be getting more snow tonight too.

—–

Oh, don’t worry. I haven’t just been staring at snow all of 2010. There has been knitting happening and I’m working hard on finishing up old WIPs. I have a new FO and an old WIP that was finished to show off to you. But I’ll leave those to posts later this week. In the meantime, please behold my latest love…

The Shetland Lace Triangle, that everyone has made, knit with Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock heavyweight in the Grawk colorway. I have 2 skeins and am at repeat 8 with 1/3 of the first skein used. A kind friend on Twitter told me to watch my yarn usage when I get to the edging, since it is apparently a big yarn muncher. I’ll be saving the last half of the second skein for that. Anyways, this is going so quickly and I’m having a hard time putting it down. Let me tell you…this monogamous knitting thing…it really lets you finish things pretty quick, don’t it?

Nikkor 35mm 1:1.8 G

Andrea — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:31:26 +0000

I use a Nikon D60 camera as my primary camera. I purchased it a little over a year ago, and proceeded to not really read the manual due to a lack of time and finishing my thesis. It came with the kit lens and then I quickly bought a 50mm lens, shortly followed by a 35mm lens.

This Nikkor 35mm lens has proven itself to be my absolute favorite, and now that I have more time since school is over, I’m starting to play with my camera more. I’ve been into photography most of my life, and have used SLR cameras before, but geez. None of them had as many functions as these DSLRs!

Here are some of my favorite photos, taken with my trusty 35mm lens, over the past year. It’s proven to be a fun challenge keeping this lens on my camera, forcing me to look at composition differently. Prime lenses are interesting in that way, and I am having fun using this one as my steady constant

Crochet attack

Andrea — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:30:37 +0000

After seeing so many of my knitterly friends start big granny square blankets, the call of the hook arrived for me. Knowing that a large granny square would never get done (I’ve made one before, gifted to my brother for Christmas a few years back. It took forever, since I found it very boring), I started thinking of a good stash busting crochet project I could do.

Enter the worsted weight hexagon scrap blanket:

I’m loving every moment of it! I’m using the directions found here, but you should really check out all the lovelies that others have made on Ravelry.

Groundhog preparations…

Andrea — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:38:37 +0000

I love Groundhog Day. The movie. The day. The hilarity of how everyone really cares if a groundhog “sees” its shadow. How barely anyone remembers if a shadow means more winter or less. The whole thing is great, in my mind.

Last year, I embarrassed my sweet cat, and myself, with this little ditty on Flickr, celebrating the great February day —

This year, I’m joining on on the Groundhog-along that PlanetJune started.

Info is here: Groundhog-along 2010

And there’s a Ravelry group for it as well. Come over and join us!

Finished knits of 2009

Andrea — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:19:42 +0000

Well, as many of you may be acutely aware of, this January is particularly chilly. I love winter and cold temperatures, but whew…only a week in to January and I’m counting down to warmer weather.

We had a brief flurry in the wee hours this morning…

…which, coupled with the weird slightly warmer temperature of yesterday and the coldness of last night, created the ideal conditions for a lot of black ice in South Philly.

Regardless, I saddled up on the old steed and got myself to the office…

…where I now sit, about to tell you the tale of the finished knits of ‘09.

—————

This year was the year of accessories and test knitting, it seems. Mind you, that might be more apparent to me since I know the vast amount of works-in-progress languishing in my studio.

I test knit a couple of big hitters, as you might re-call — the gorgeous Honeybee Cardigan by Laura Chau and the lovely Ulmus Rectangle by Kirsten of Through the Loops — but there were a few other test knits as well — Simple Things by the lovely Mary-Heather, Lavalette and the Miller Hat by Kirsten of Through the Loops and New Boots and Contracts by Ann of Weaverknits (as of 12/31/09, however, only 1 sock of the pair had been completed, so it isn’t included in my finished tally). None of those have made it to the blog quite yet…

So, what are the numbers for 2009?

six hats:
1. Thorpe (ravelry link) (blog post)
2. Felicity (ravelry link) (blog post)
3. Miller Hat test knit (ravelry link)
4. Handspun Felicity striped hat (ravelry link)
5. Turn a Square 1 for brother in law (ravelry link)
6. Turn a Square 2 for brother in law (ravelry link)

1 cowl:
Rowan striped cowl (ravelry link)

8 triangular scarves/shawls:
1. Landscape Shawlette in blue (ravelry link) (blog post)
2. Lavalette test knit (ravelry link)
3. Beaded Seraphim (ravelry link)
4. Textured ~~Shawl~~ Kerchief, in garter stitch (ravelry link)
5. Simple Things test knit (ravelry link)
6. Cashmere Landscape shawlette (ravelry link)
7. Tweedy Textured Shawl (ravelry link)
8. Striped shawl (not shown in mosaic, cause I forgot about it!) (ravelry link) (blog post)

2 rectangular scarves:
1. Ulmus Rectangle (ravelry link) (blog post)
2. Melody Shawl (no FO pics were taken before it was gifted (ravelry link)

1 pair of socks:
toeless Charade socks (ravelry link)

2 toys:
Kiwi birds (ravelry link) (blog post)

1 circular shawl
Vortex Shawl (ravelry link)

2 sweaters
1. Honeybee Cardigan (ravelry link) (blog post)
2. Monday Morning Cardigan [still haven't taken proper FO pictures] (ravelry link)

—

Wow, so looking at this makes me see how much I didn’t blog about. I’d like to blame it on finishing graduate school and the resulting summer of freedom, which pulled me out of the house and away from the computer (phew!).

What am I hoping to accomplish in 2010? I do have some crafting goals for the year:

-Reduce my knitting stash by 30%, which will involve crocheting a Hexagon blanket with a lot of scraps and lone skeins, and things without designated projects in mind.
-blog projects more regularly
-get back to sewing again, since I have many a quilt in progress and in mind

And the biggest of all…

Finish or Frog! I’ve gathered up my works-in-progress and want to finish the ones I know I will want and rip out the ones I’ve lost complete interest in.

What are your crafty, or non-crafty, goals for 2010?