Seattle

I went to a conference in Seattle this week. On one of the evenings, one of the vendors sponsored an event at the Space Needle. They had food and drinks on the observation platform, 520 feet up, and the shop and some other exhibits were open. I've never been to Seattle before so it was nice to have an event at a landmark like the Space Needle.

We made pumpkin ale!

Actually, I didn't make the beer. Todd and Clint made it while I made snacks and meatloaf. We've made beer a few times before (those times I did help) and it's always come out pretty well. Of all the past batches the pumpkin ale from two years ago came out best, so we're trying out hand at it again. Hopefully it'll be even better this time because we're going to let it ferment longer and age longer. It's just a shame we won't have any to drink by Halloween.

Ravelry is really cool!

I'm away in Phoenix for a project right now but last night I was checking my email and I got my invite to Ravelry. When I first heard about Ravelry I poked around the site, read the blog posts by the creators and managed to check my rank on the waiting list only 2, maybe 3 times. Then I got busy and forgot about it so it was a pleasant surprise to get my invite and and ever greater surprise to discover just how cool it actually is. I have tried before to make lists or spreadsheets of my knitting projects but it always turned out to be lots of work and very unwieldy to actually look at again. Ravelry is like a super spreadsheet with pictures. You can keep track of your projects, yarn and needles. You can also see how other people are doing on the same project or what they are doing with the same yarn. All in all, extremely cool and with lots and lots of moving parts so I can see why they are doing extensive beta testing and adding users slowly.
http://www.ravelry.com/

Pumpkin Carving

Last week while we were at the grocery store I convinced Todd that we should get a pumpkin to carve and a basket of mums to put on the front steps to get into the spirit of the fall and Halloween. There was no assembly required for the mum and the really spruced up the front of the house. The pumpkin on the other hand required carving and I was afraid that it would go the way of some past pumpkins that never quite got carved, in time for Halloween or at all.
I have to say that I was feeling a little neighborhood peer pressure to do something seasonal. This neighborhood is very, very into seasonal and holiday decorations. I'm not sure whether people put stuff up so early because stores sell stuff so early or if stores stock decorations obscenely early because people are breaking down the door to put stuff on their lawn. Either way it was definitely like the second week in September when the pumpkins, ghosts, witches, cobwebs and cats showed up with a vengeance. Not that it doesn't look nice. It does, but it is a little overwhelming. And it isn't just Halloween, it is every holiday, and I mean every holiday.
We decided to go for subtle and I think the mum and the pumpkin will be all the decorating we will do. But I'm happy with the way the pumpkin came out and it was fun to do. I drew on the eyes and nose and a simple smiley mouth, then Todd upgraded it to an excellent toothy grin and cut out all the pieces while I picked out all the seeds for salting and toasting.

Entrelac Socks

One the same yarn store trip that I got the materials for the sock pattern that I made up and the Lizard Ridge afghan I also got some more sock yarn. After I saw the the Entrelac Sock pattern by Eunny Jang in the Spring 2007 Issue of Interweave Knits I decided that I would modify it to use the Misti Alpaca to make Todd a pair of socks. They turned out to be fairly simple and fun to knit. Plus they're small and easy to carry when I travel. That is especially since I got the handy orange point protectors so they don't turn the bag I carry them in into Swiss cheese. This is as far as I got before I shifted gears to work on some seasonal projects.

The Blue Table Runner Project

My sister gave me the book Knit 2 Together: Patterns and Stories for Serious Knitting Fun by Tracey Ullman and Mel Clark. In it are lots of interesting patterns that they created. They have patterns for a herringbone purse and a skirt suit that I want to try but I figured that I should start with something simple. So I decided to make the South Seas Table Runner. This is what I've got so far:
I have to admit that I've been a multi tasking knitter, but recently my multi tasking is going quite well. This project is small enough to fit in my handbag and the row pattern was easy to memorize. I know that the instructions say to put the beads on at the end, but I was actually at Wildfiber and got the shell beads to I put some on to see how they looked and they really make the table runner come together.

More pictures from our Los Angeles trip

The Pumpkin Project

When I first started knitting I was almost exclusively interested in clothing: mostly scarves, socks and sweaters. Last year I lost some steam and ended up with several unfinished sweaters. I told myself that I couldn't buy any more yarn until I finished something, but then I got a gift card to a yarn store and I couldn't resist. On that trip, I started knitting the Lizard Ridge afghan and I was off on my spree of very satisfying non clothing knits!
I'd seen other pumpkin knits, but this pattern, both functional and cute really caught my attention. Here is the pumpkin bag featured in last October's MagKnits. Before felting:

And after felting:It doesn't quite stand up as well by itself as I'd like so I might run it through the wash again, but I figure I'll live with it for a week and see how I feel.