Monkey girls

Picture-heavy post with no yarn, and lots of kid pix. Consider yourself warned.

Last year we took Devil trick or treating on Halloween with our neighbors, who also have two small girls approximately the same age as Devil and Boo. Devil and her buddy A rode in the wagon, while A's sister slept comfortably in a stroller (being all of 2 months old at the time, she was not particularly interested in, nor impressed by, Halloween). The girls were a bit underwhelmed by the whole process (why are we going for a walk in the dark?), but the highlights of the night included:

1) Devil and A absentmindedly chewing on their candy without taking the wrappers off, and the realizing that there was chocolate in there! A actually ate an entire Hershey's Kiss with the foil still on. (The foil was rescued before it could be swallowed).

2) Some wonderful soul leaving a cooler outside their front door with a sign saying "Parents Trick or Treat". It was full of beer. Budweiser, but beer nonetheless. Porpoise was quite peeved at being pregnant and therefore the only parental figure not imbibing.

This year, we did it right. There was Devil-assisted costume production,

That sweater is the one I mentioned at the end of this post

Jack o' lantern carving (Boo was more interested in eating newspaper),

and finally, Devil and Boo were properly outfitted to head off to daycare in their matching monkey suits.

They had lots of fun trick-or-treating at Daddy's office.

Big spider!

Last night we headed out with A and T (princess and leopard respectively), and raked in the loot. No more were these girls content to sit in the wagon and be wheeled around. Oh no. "Mama, let's go to that house!", "Mama, let's get more candy!", "Mama, can you open this lollypop for me pleeeeeeease!" Unfortunately, the parental treats were not in evidence, but we got supplied at A and T's house and set off to wander the neighborhood for hours. Or so it seemed...

And at the end of the night, there were lollypops.

Uh oh

Notice: due to the impending arrival of All Hallow's Eve, and the fact that knitting and fiber play have pushed out vital costume construction activities, all fiber-related projects are hereby banned until such time as A) Porpoise has completed one (1) blue monkey costume and one (1) matching purple monkey costume (thankfully in a smaller size), or B) it's Halloween and my kids trick-or-treat nekkid.

Which, given the fact that we are in The South, is maybe not such a bad idea.

PS - Thanks Red Sox!

It's not spring, but I think I hear the peepers calling

Yesterday on the bus I finished the body of the Basalt tank, with a great sigh of relief. Knitting all those hexagons and the construction kept it interesting, but I was getting awfully tired of hauling the thing in and out of my bag every time I wanted to work on it (big, sprawling thing that it was) (this should have been a clue methinks). And my fellow commuters are probably glad that I will no longer be taking up more then my fair share of the available seats on the bus with yarn and needles.

I decided to actually try the thing on last night before I sat down to pick up the umpteen million stitches I needed to do the straps and edging on the bottom. A very good decision, since it is way too big.

Damn. I had actually thought that I'd picked right this time - I checked my gauge ahead of time, and chose the size 39 which should fit with slight negative ease, given my lactation enhanced boobage. However, it is easy 3-4 inches too big around. ARGH! I don't believe that I've actually lost that much baby weight in the two months or so it took to get to this point, so something else is off. I'll have to go back and check my gauge in the actual sweater and see how that compares to my swatch. But hell. This hardly ever happens to me, not because I'm such a careful swatcher (hah!), but because I usually can work around any issues and muddle through. But the construction of this tank is such that the only way to fix it is to rip out the whole thing. All 5+ hexagons. And I will definitely add in Kelp's waist shaping trick in the Basalt Reincarnation (TM). And maybe leave off the half hexagon on the back. The only good thing is that I wasn't going to be able to wear it until the spring anyway, so I can put it away to be frogged in a few months with out guilt.

And...now I can start on something else for myself, conveniently ignoring all the C!#$%)^ knitting lurking in the background. This is calling my name, and seems to be a really quick knit. And since we're going up north for the holidays, I'll need something warm, right?

Edited to add: my disappointment about the new froggy nature of the Basalt tank was, however, mitigated by the Red Sox. Or rather, by the absolute implosion of the Rockies' pitching staff. I was folding laundry and kept looking up at the TV, thinking "Did he really just walk in another run? No, he couldn't have...ohmigod he did!" Thank you Josh, thank you entire BoSox batting order, and thank you Mr. Hurdle for keeping Franklin Morales and Ryan Speier in there pitching as long as you did. I guess maybe the 8 days off wasn't very helpful. On to Game 2!

Ideas

My brain has been going off on little tangents over the past few months on things I'd like to design. Sweaters, in fact, that I'd like to make. It's a somewhat daunting prospect, seeing as the only things I've designed so far are a kid's sweater (using the EZ percentage system, not so hard), and a couple of pairs of socks. For whatever reason, the idea of A.Whole.Sweater. is both intriguing and terrifying at the same time.

I've got two ideas bouncing around in my head. One was inspired by a number of things, the most striking being a hike we took up Dunkery Beacon in Somerset while we were in the UK. It was the first time I've really seen heather. As in heather on the moors. Real English moors.

I was totally amazed at the colors - purple and lilac and shocking pink and yellow, blending with dark reddish green and brown, and shading off in the distance into straw. And I started mulling over the idea of making a sweater, starting with the fiber and dyeing it myself, then spinning it up and knitting my own design incorporating all the colors of the heather (except for maybe that bright yellow, which I don't really care for).

About this same time, I was being overwhelmed by Adrian's Fantom Bohus, which she designed herself. And then last month, That Laurie did several guest appearances (first few posts at top of the page) on Stephanie's blog showing some absolutely incredible sweaters she'd done with yarn she'd dyed and spun herself.

So now I have it in mind to create this incredible handknit, handspun (at least partly) Bohus inspired sweater type thing, that might instead have a handspun yoke with a slipped stitch pattern and long color repeats winding up the chest. I even bought Poems of Color with my birthday gift certificate specifically for this project. Phew. Maybe when the kids go off to college I'll have enough time for this puppy.

The other thing that I've been mulling over for a while, and is much more likely to happen in the near future (given the copious spare time I have in which to design, dye, spin and knit an entire wool sweater for myself while I live in Houston*), is a sleeveless sweater vest dealie that I could wear over something when it's "cold" and wear alone when it warms up on or before March 1. I've even got the yarn for it (left over from the Peapod cardi, which only took 1+ skeins out of a bag of ten),

so all that remains is the swatching/designing part. No big deal, right? I made a sketch of said vest during a seminar yesterday: empire waisted, with ribbing on the body, a garter stitch or reverse stockinette band to separate the bodice, and a small all over textured pattern on the top. Wide scoop neck. Narrow sides. And I can start right after I finish all the C$#)^)$# knitting.

* Note: it was 50 degrees when I left the house this morning, so I was able to actually wear a handknit sweater. Yippee! It was this, in this, which my MIL bought for me for C$#)^# several years back. Mmmmm...Mountain Mohair....

FO: BBC's Sweet Baby Cap

Long time, no knitting content...we had three of my friends from grad school/rowing days down here for the weekend for a triathlon/catchup weekend, so opportunities for blogging were slim and none (and Slim left town a while back*). But I have been knitting.

Devil has a friend at daycare whose parents are expecting their second baby any day now. Actually, her parents were friends first - the fact that C and Devil run around screeching like crazed banshees when we get together for dinner is just a bonus. I whipped up this super easy super cute baby hat in just a couple of days. Of course, being me, it took another week and a half to weave in the ends and wash the damn thing, but so be it.

Pattern: Sweet Baby Cap from Grosblog

Yarn: Hot Socks Sockenwolle, color #214 - this is how it's listed in my stash spreadsheet, but I'm not sure it's correct.

Needles: US 1 (2.25 mm) and 2 (2.75)

Comments/mods: no mods, I did the pattern as written (6 month size). It was a very quick knit, and the basic pattern stitch is the same as the Jaywalker socks, so if you've made a pair of those, this should be a snap. I used 19 g (about 40 yds) for this hat - a great way to use up left overs from socks.

Here's a picture of Panda doing an action shot:

This is going off to BBC (Baby Boy C) along with the pair of socks I made for Boo while we in the UK that were woefully inadequate for her footses. Hopefully they'll fit him for at least a couple of days before he grows out of them.

These were just a standard, no-pattern stockinette sock with short row heel and what I think would be described as a wedge toe (decrease on 1 stitch on either side of the toe every other row for a bit, then every row before grafting remaining live stitches together). Perfect car knitting.

In other project news, the Basalt Tank now has a front, sides,

and part of a back.

Hopefully it will be done before the snow flies (not that there's going to be any snow flying around here in any but the most metaphorical sense) (unfortunately).

* an Ironman phrase that gets a lot of use.