A Super Sunday

Thanks, ladies and gents, for a really enjoyable Sunday SnB. Here are some pictures.

Dana with her Clara dress. The photo doesn't do the dress (or Dana) justice -- they're both really cute. Andrea's in the background, beneath our shedding ficus tree. And John's doing some swift wrangling.


Here's some of the food. Dried persimmons from the Asian market, poppyseed cookies with marmalade, spicy hot biscotti, pepper and purple potato frittata, olives, and bread. More cookies, cheese, and crackers made appearances later in the day.


Random photos from throughout the day:



You could tell when it was time to begin the herringbone project. Coffee cups were refilled, plates of food were set aside, and people gathered on the couch near the best light source. Why is Dana smiling? Because she has just cast on. She has no idea what's in store. Deep into the pattern rows, John and Jennifer, in contrast, are using all of their energy to concentrate. And sigh.


Knitting is serious business:


And the let-down, after everyone left.

Herringbone Glove Knit-Along

I have been meaning to send you all the links to the various sites that may be useful while knitting the Herringbone Gloves. Here's the pattern in Japanese. I think we could do it from there if we use this Japanese-English knitting dictionary. I may challenge myself and just use that. The charts are pretty good! Here are translations of the symbols used in the charts. And here's some more stuff on charts. Seems like they have two kind: simplified and detailed. I will try to print some of this out before the SnB. Also, Tara has finished one glove, so she can guide us along!

Effin' Feltin'

The French Press slippers were a disaster.

I think they're cute but not quite my thing. (I'm more of a Fiber Trends slipper person myself.) But then I had the bright idea to make them for Charlene as a housewarming present. That was on Thursday and Jim and Charlene's housewarming party was on Saturday. So I stayed up late into the night, knitting and sewing and resewing. Something about the pattern I couldn't quite get my head around -- which is the foot end and which the heel? So I ended up sewing BOTH soles on the wrong way and having to redo them. Bad craftsmen blame their tools. I won't blame the pattern. I am simply an idiot.

Meanwhile, tick. . .tock. . . tick. . . tock. I'm looking at the clock. Midnight and I need to sleep. I decide to wait until Friday morning to felt. Good thing, since I had the washing machine running for 3+ hours trying to felt these babies.

Before:


After:


No good.


Still no good. I tried shocking them with cold water, which kind of worked, getting the slippers down from size 17 to about a 13 EEE. Perfect for your average transvestite, who probably needs a pair of pink slippers in her/his wardrobe. But for Charlene, not so much.

I finally gave up on this pair and made the decision, grudgingly, to scour our recycling for an A.C. Moore coupon. I drove to the plaza, made my way through the haze of pot pourri, and bought some dark purple Paton's, the only 100% feltable wool the store carries. (A rant here. Most of their yarn is really hideous. Who are they marketing this crap to and who's buying it? I realize a 4-pound fetus of 100% bright red acrylic RedHart is cheaper than wool, but it would be nice if they could offer their customers something more decent than that. And another thing. . . what do they have against center pull balls? I tried to pull the Paton's from the center and all I got was a tangled yarn bolus. Totally disgusting. Are center pull balls too "liberal elite" for them??) And for those of you who are wondering, rightly, why I wasn't patronizing my LYS, well, I was working against the clock. It was by this time rush hour and I would otherwise have had to make my way through the guts of the city and find a parking spot near Rittenhouse Square. I needed to get going on these asap and going to the LYS meant blowing another hour or so, at least. (Think Kiefer Sutherland in 24 here.)

Ok, so back to our regular scheduled programming. I bought the Paton's and spent Friday evening knitting and sewing up yet another pair of slippers. I was determined. At midnight I was felting. Successfully this time. I dried them as best I could, shored them up with handtowels inside, and then put a fan on them through the night and all day Saturday. I was sewing the straps and buttons on just a couple of hours before the party.


Like Jennifer's (see below), mine are not "elegant" like the ones posted on Ravelry. There were so many people at the party Charlene didn't have a chance to try them on, let alone even look at them. I was grateful for that, since they were probably still damp and maybe wouldn't even fit her.

I don't need to make these again and I'm happy to be returning to my other projects. More on those later.

@#$! Slippers

How is it that everyone on Ravelry has had such luck with their French Press Slippers? They all look so elegant and fashionable. Both Wendy and I had trouble with these puppies. They took FOREVER to felt. I mean FOREVER! And then they never quite felted enough. I tried everything. I turned them inside out. I did some hand felting on the ridges on my sink. I shredded real soap into the water instead of detergent. I put them in the dryer! They looked like crap. They were really wide at the toe area. I was ready to toss them when I decided to cut them. Pictures below. I am still not thrilled with them. They are bulky and funky. Not at all elegant. The only thing I can figure is the yarn we both used- Bartlettyarn. It may have been a little too bulky. Most people used Patons. Wendy made a second pair with Patons. She will have to post the results. Here are mine:

Sheldon

Is this little guy cute or what? The picture doesn't really do him justice. The pattern is pretty ingenious. The shell comes off like a vest! He will be a gift for a 2 year old who is about to be knocked off his pedestal by the arrival of twins.

She's Got Thumb

Tara is really moving along on her Herringbone Gloves! They are gorgeous! I don't know about the rest of you, but I haven't even cast on. So now we are set because we will have someone who has figured out all the bugs and will be able to help us all when we get stuck.

No Easy Task

I think it is no easy task to find patterns for men that are 1. fun to knit and 2. appealing to them and 3. actually look good on them. I knit this Botanic Hat three times: for Hal, Noah, and Simma's boyfriend, Lane. They all seemed to really like them and have been wearing them a lot. Of course, it has been cold. I would have shown a picture of Hal in his hat but we had another (minor) hat crisis. He dropped his hat on the floor in the shower room at the swimming pool. Ewwww! I washed it and it was drying when the above picture was taken.
And here is a shot of Noah and Simma at Christmas. She is wearing the Odessa Hat (with beads) and Fetching fingerless gloves, both are fast and fun to knit.