I took the strikke project out of cold storage and brought it along with me to New York. Here we see the sleeve in process.

Amtrak is great for catching up on Cast On podcasts but not so great for knitting. Too much swaying back and forth.

This is the view from my window at the Marriott Marquis.

The constant flickering of the Times Square Nasdaq sign is like lightning at night.

Then there were oddities. I don't know if this photo is clear enough to see the details, but there are cars down there on the roof of that building. This fascinated me. First, how did they get up there? Second, they were packed in so tightly I did not see how they could get down. Ah, the mysteries of city living.

On the way back I sat with the Director of Development from the Kogod School of Business at American University. After chatting for a while, I joked that work cut into my knitting time. She said, me too! We both pulled out our projects (her- a baby blanket, me- the strikke sleeve) and KIP'd away. We talked about yarn stores, examined each other's fibers, and discussed patterns and techniques. I just love how knitting and crocheting can form such a common bond among strangers.

Reality hits home

Not my home, but my neighborhood.

The house with this sign appears to be empty. It's not in the best location, being located right on the corner of two busy streets. I wonder what happened to the family that was living there. Where did they go?

The talk usually starts with, "Did you see the foreclosure sign on blah, blah, blah?" "Oh yeah, I saw that one. I wonder if there are any more around?"

Then the conversation fades as we look down anxiously at our feet.

I'm heading to New York City for a conference. I'm debating whether or not I should try to see a show. It would be Wednesday night, at the end of a long day and after presenting in the morning. I'm waffling because I'll probably be exhausted.

The little brewers have promised to be good while I am gone.

Do over

I've been working on another version of the moderne baby blanket, this time in earth tones. It's been put away for a few weeks while I worked on other projects. I took it out again today and I was completely underwhelmed.

The colors don't work well together, the gauge is uneven, it just looks...amaturish. So I decided to unmake it. Time lapse photography below.

Going...

Going...

and...

Gone.

I decided to add a baby hat to the baby blanket. I love making hats. They work up so fast!

The design is worked in tapestry crochet method. The pattern was inspired by Carol Ventura's Diamond Silk Scarf


I ended up with 67 stitches around. I always fit my patterns to the stitches, not the other way around. The pattern is in groups of 7, which is not equally divisible by 67. When this happens, I leave a few blanks at the beginning and end of the round. That way if I miscount or join wrong, the difference is not so noticable. Here you can see the back join seam.
It's hard to tell in these photos, but the yarns match those in the blanket. So cute I may hurl!

Finis!

I found out last Thursday that the Mom of one of LB#1's variety show partners is expecting a baby. She is due in late April. Did I realize this on my own? Of course not. I didn't know until I got a baby shower invitation in the mail. How clueless am I? I love hearing babies are on the way. New project time!

I decided to make a crochet baby afghan using the Snazzy Bath Rug pattern from Mason-Dixon Knitting in shades of blue.

Notice how I am perfectly willing to drop everything to work on an emergency project. Poor Strikke-along hasn't seen the light of day in months.

Here we see an action shot of Brewgal's hands, working away. Note the favorable product placement in the background. Oops! Label is upside down. I need a product placement wrangler.



Partially finished.

Aaannd...done! I still need to weave the ends in.

Close-up beauty shot.
I followed the proportions set out in the original pattern, but not the exact sizing. I wanted the center square to be larger. It is crib size, which is fine for a quick and dirty work up. I may add a little hat in the same color scheme to accompany the blankie.

Odessa at sunset

Here is my Odessa hat using Nashua Wooly Stripes Fiesta. It is not too big as I had feared, although it is quite roomy. We've had a patch of unseasonably warm weather the last few days, so I have been unable to try it out. I hope it's warm. I want to wear it when I go back to Ireland in April.

Brewguy was supposed to be back from Oregon this evening. Unfortunately, due to a snowstorm in Pasco, he missed his connecting flight. As a result, he won't arrive until after midnight. He is currently stuck in Denver, watching the SuperBowl in the airport's Belgian Bar. He sent me a cell phone photo of the Dubbel he was drinking while I was trying to wrangle two kids, dinner and muffin baking. Bastard.

The Odessa Sunset hat is finished. I'll try to get a photo of it up tomorrow. I've also just found out that the mother of one of little brewer #1's variety show comrades is expecting in April/May, so I started another log cabin baby blanket. For this one, I'm using the Snazzy Bath Rug pattern from Maxon Dixon Knitting in shades of blue.

Go West! Again!

Tomorrow Brewguy is headed back to Milton-Freewater, Oregon to help his mother with her taxes. He's been doing them for a few years. We are Turbo Tax'd here at the Brewgal household. She is still paper and pencil. Brewguy was going to do her taxes when we all visit in March. Uh, no thanks. I don't want him to spend our entire visit working on an IRS spreadsheet while we sit around twiddling our collective thumbs. When I make the trip to Oregon, I want trips to thrift stores! And wineries! Thrifty wineries! I urged him to make a separate visit for the taxes. So it will be just me and the little brewers until Sunday.

We are starting an "all vegetable" week. The little brewers have been having problems with indigestion lately. Poor LB#2 actually woke up in the middle of the night, his tummy hurt so bad. The indigestion could be related to the cassava chips or the plantain chips or the CANDY they've been eating (they deny all knowledge of the candy).

Brewguy moved into new office space last week. They neglected to mention the building was already occupied.
Actual shot of mouse sneaking into the room. If they're obvious enough to photograph, you know there are a lot of them around.

We're entering the final week of my month of daily posting. I feel it has gone fairly well. On the whole, however, I've come to the conclusion that my daily life is not that exciting. At least, the part I can post about. My work life is full of fun stuff I can't discuss online (congressional document requests! angry consumers! research!). This exercise has forced me to be more creative, and that's a good thing.

Remember the porter spill? Apparently porter makes a really good fabric dye. I have permanent splooshes on my fleece and jeans. Maybe I should try it on wool. Using beer for dye...hmm...drink and dye!

Odessa progress

The Odessa at Sunset hat continues to progress. For those of you following along, this is the Odessa pattern by Grumperina worked in Nashua Wooly Stripes Fiesta, designed to match my Sunset Scarf.

I attempted my first spit-splice. It seems to have worked fairly well. I won't know for sure until I start wearing the hat.

I am still concerned it might be a *bit* big for my head.

Norway, 1973

El Hefe is working on converting all my Dad's slides to digital files. This is part of the first set. Norway. See the mountains.

The lovely lakes.

A fjord or two.

And, of course, a few scientists.

My first thought on seeing this photo- is that an authentic Norweigan sweater? Why isn't there a better photo of that? How am I going to copy the pattern if the picture is all blurry?

I need help.

Crocheted birthday hats for the neighbor girls, in contrasting colors. Lovingly modeled by the little brewers.

Actor Heath Ledger found dead.

Bummer. He was only 28.

Ravelry is great. It is also intimidating. I am completely overwhelmed by the level of creativity emanating from Ravelry's members. Knitters! Crocheters! Spinners! Designers! Designers who space dye yarn with colors lovingly squeezed from selfless plants, obtained in a non-threatening way from organically raised sheep! Using solar power! Every so often I have to step back and not log in for a week, just to give myself some space. It is an amazing resource, however.

I have been inspired to try knitting a hat. A new experience for me, hat crocheter that I am. I am trying Odessa by Grumperina. And because I cannot follow a pattern, I am making it in a different yarn (Nashua Wooly stripes, to match the scarf I've just finished) without beads (because beading yarn is too fiddly and foo-foo for me). It calls for size 4 and size 6 circular needles. Lo and behold, the stash of doom comes through. Not only do I have both needles, I discovered that at some point I seem to have picked up a set of Addi turbos in sizes 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6. I am rocking the thrift store needle acquisition.

I cast on today and I am up to row 4 or 5 in pattern. It looks rather large. I am afraid once it is done it won't fit my head closely.

Souls for the master

In a totally good, non-satanic sort of way!


A few months ago, one of the parents at little brewer #1's bus stop was admiring the hat I had made for her and asked if I could teach her how to knit.



"Of course!" I said. "But this particular hat was made in crochet."

"Oh, ok. " She seemed rather disappointed.


It turns out she already knows how to knit. She had simply let her skills lapse. We arranged to get together today so I could refresh her knitting skills.


When I arrived, she pulled out the afghan she had been working on for 11 years. Gorgeous dusky blue, garter stitch edges with a slight ripple pattern. Her problem was not knitting skill- it was lack of time. She wanted to make a hat for her youngest. All my hats are done in crochet. So I whipped out the crochet hook I had conveniently brought along and proceeded to show her how to chain, join, and work in a circle. We drank tea, ate bread and cheese, and switched to beer when her hubby got home. Let me tell you, alcohol does wonders for a too-tight gauge. When I left, she was well on her way down the sides of the hat. heh heh heh. Another person drawn into the bicrafty league!

This letter was among my grandmother's effects after she passed away. The gem is on the back.

A transcription of a knit hat pattern from the British War Department. How cool that she decided to save it all those years.

Here we see the little brewers checking out the kid habitrail at McDonald's.

Static electricity.
I am convinced the marketing genius of McDonalds lies in its appeal to kids. I've realized when my children say they want McDonalds for lunch, what they really want is the toy from the Happy Meal. They don't particularly like the food. I am rather partial to double cheeseburgers but 1,150 mg of sodium in one burger is waaaay too much. Yikes.

Winter Wonderland

Snow pictures!





I love snows that cling to the trees.

Gettysburg Rocks

No trip to Gettysburg is complete without a little rock climbing. Here we are near the Pennsylvania Monument, discovering battlefield cannons.

My son and I clearly have different definitions of the word "cold."

Off to search out Devil's Den. My father used to bring my brother and me here on weekends to climb rocks and wear ourselves out before driving back home.

Go! Climb!

You can do it!

Hrrrrgh!

Look Mommy! I can see rocks from here! And trees!

I'm king of the world!

Poor little sick girl

Lincoln Street's new evening feature: My Day, by Little Brewer #1.

Today I felt dizzy and my head hurt and I just stared at my paper for 5-6 minutes and it felt like I was not there the whole time. Today was not fun. I WANT TO GET BETEEEEEEEEEEEER PLEASE!

I have found my Pennsylvania yarn Nirvana.


No, not this:



It is this.



I've found The Mannings. I see The Mannings at Maryland Sheep and Wool every year. I've heard many people sing its praises. My reaction has been... eh. In the 9 years I lived in Gettysburg, I never made it out to The Mannings. I was convinced I had already been there and it was just a store.


I was mistaken. It turns out the shop in East Berlin, PA I had previously visited was Woolgatherings. I bought my copy of Knitting in the Old Way there.


The Mannings is situated on a lovely spot of land right next to Conewago Creek. It was the creek that caused us to miss it on first pass. Oo, look at the creek! And the cute bridge! Is that a house? Why are they building a house right on the banks of the creek? I see flooding in their future. You can juuuust see the white retaining wall of the new house under the bridge.


Vroom, right past Mannings. Such is the discussion in Brewgal's car.


Anyway, we completely bypassed the Mannings on first try. Made it all the way out to the main road where we saw a sign pointing back the way we came. We quickly deduced, in our Scooby-Doo sort of way, that we had missed the store. That, and the TomTom feebly saying (in its oh-so-cultured English accent, "You have reached your destination. Turn around.")


Thank goodness for the signs. Hello, Mannings? Love the signs! THANK YOU FOR THE SIGNS.


The Mannings is a barn-sized weaving/spinning/yarn store. There I met Ruth, a wonderful person who loved the store so much she got a job there on weekends. When she found out I had never been before, she gave me a tour. Gotta love a store that inspires people to work there in their spare time.


When I walked in I though, Ok, some books and some yarn. Cool. No no no. This was just the first room. The front room has the books, tools and sock yarn. The next room has the laceweight yarn and cashmere. Then there's a room of DK weight and chunky yarn. And a room of spinning wheels. At the back of that room, behind the table of knitters, there is a wall of fleece, helpfully labeled with the type and name of the sheep it came from. With a photo of the sheep. She encouraged the LB's to stick their hands in the fleece to feel it's "hand."


But wait, there's more! There was an entire room of weaving looms. They give weaving classes. This is in addition to the practice looms where you could try out a loom to see if you like it. Then I discovered the wall of discontinued discount yarn.


Holy crap. Discounted Noro.


I was dazed by the time I made it out of the store. I spent an hour there and I know I didn't see everything. I ran into a woman who used to drive out from Ohio just to shop at Mannings. And another who drove up from DC weekly for classes.


I see more trips to The Mannings in my future.


For lunch, we went to Appalachian Brewing Company. I had the Barley Wine and Brewguy had the Porter. Actually he had two. The first ended up all over me.

A toast!
Clink!
Slurp.
Sploosh. A full pint of porter all over Brewgal. Soaking my jeans. Dribbling into my purse. Across my shirt. We've all had a beer or two spilled on us in the past, I'm sure. However, the experience of having a full pint of high gravity porter draped across my Levis in January, when the prospect of changing is nil because I've subscribed to the mantra of pack light and that means no backup pants, and baby it's COLD outside, tends to sour the outlook slightly.

Then I remembered Gettysburg now has outlet shopping. Hello, Old Navy!

Kudos to our server, Ben, who quickly helped up wipe up the porter-y mess and brought Brewguy a new glass gratis.


Here we see pint #2. Note that Brewguy is carefully keeping his wayward arms AWAY from this one.

Guest blogger

We have a guest blogger tonight, folks. It's Little Brewer #1 and she writes about her day. Welcome to Lincoln Street, Little Brewer #1!

Today I did the blocks. It`s tens, ones, and hundreds and we modeled them with blocks. That’s what I mean by blocks. I think today was pretty fun, but not as fun as mommy+ mommy is the best mom ever. I have a little secret- mommy is the best artist I`ve ever seen. I wouldn`t sell them (Mommy or Daddy) for anything.

Today I went to music and we sang bow-wow-wow. It`s a weird song. It`s too hard to spell the whole song for you. It`s pretty short but too hard to spell. I can try but I won’t. It`s been such a hard day since I`m sick. But let’s hope for the best. Like I said today was hard. I`m getting better. But I`ve still had the best day ever!

Gettysburg report, part 1

Well, we're back from Gettysburg. I got a fabulous deal on a hotel room that allowed us to stay for two days, rather than one. See fabulous view above.

Friday: I worked at home, which enabled me to be finished by 3:00. This meant LB#1 could come home on the bus, rather than going to aftercare. She informed me that I was *not* to pick her up at the bus stop. She was going to walk home.
[mother anxiety kicks in- what if somethinghappenscarsbadpeopleeek!]
Deep breaths.

Me: "Are you sure you want to walk home?"
LB1: "Yes. Next door neighbors 1 and 2 do it all the time. I'll just walk down the street and knock on your door."
Me: "You mean our door?"
LB1: "Yes. Our door. To our house."
Me: "You know, you can come right in to your own house."
LB1: "Oh, yeah."

This exchange is probably my own fault, having trained them not to walk into other people's houses without knocking.

At bus arrival time, I dutifully did not walk up to the stop. I stood in the carport, watching. When I saw her get off, I zipped back inside and pretended to read the paper. She made it home and was beaming, so proud to have done this by herself.

Then, off to pick up LB#2, drive over to my parent's house to water their plants (those crazy cruising seniors), back home, pack, wait for Brewguy to get home, pile in car, drive!

I still cannot believe we used to drive this commute twice a day for 4 years.

We got takeout from Tommy's Pizza for dinner and ate it in the hotel room (a Little Brewer request). Tommy's now has a drive through window but they won't let you buy beer through the window. Brewguy had to pick up the order, park the car, and go inside to buy the beer. Pennsylvania- keeping us safe from drive through beer.

The entire first hour was spent trying to get LB2 to turn down the volume on his voice, because when he's excited he TALKS LIKE THIS. REALLY, REALLY LOUD. I hope this kid finds a use for his projection talents. We finally had to explain that if the other guests complained about how loud we were being, the hotel wouldn't let us stay here anymore. That seemed to make an impression.

LB2, whispering: "Do we have to whisper?"

What a cutie.

Tomorrow: Brewgal has a run-in with porter and finds nirvana.

We're headed to Gettysburg for the weekend. Internet access may be spotty, so you may not hear from me for a few days. Beer will be consumed, friends reaquainted. Hope you all have a good weekend too!

Scarf for me

After crocheting 9 curly holiday scarves I felt it was time to make something for myself. I took advantage of the birthday discount at Woolwinders to buy some Nashua wooly stripes yarn in Fiesta.

This is worked in a 2x2 rib for four rows, then two rows of garter stitch.

CO 34

Knit first stitch, K2, P2 to last stitch, Knit last stitch. Repeat this row 4 times.

Knit all stitches across. Repeat this row 2 times.

Continue until desired length.

One skein gives approximately 14.5 inches. I'm on skein #4, and I suspect I'll have to go to skein #5 to finish the scarf to the length I desire. It's a lovely yarn, easy to work with. There is a bit of variation in the thickness, with some sections being quite loose and fluffy while others are tightly wound. I love it. The colors are so vibrant! I went back to the store the week after I bought this to get some more, which I plan to make into a hat.