Applesauce

All kids like it, right? Well, just as with macaroni and cheese, my kids didn't, though they'll happily eat sushi, tilapia, tofu stir fry, or dirty rice. The good news is that I've managed to convert Washington, at least into enjoying homemade applesauce.

We had a wonderful time apple-picking, and, though a certain little boy was more interested in eating than picking, we came home with plenty of apples. Coco was able to take in 23 for snack to her first grade calss, and when she sorted through, she found a few with bruises. So, on Tuesday, instead of knitting, I peeled and chopped and stirred until I had some delicious applesauce. I've even been able to make one of my favorite breakfasts, shredded wheat with applesauce and milk poured over it (though I can't get anyone else to try that).

This sweater seems to be going amazingly fast, to me. I brought three balls of yarn (including the one I'd cast on with), and I'd practically finished the first by the time we got to Connecticut. I finished the second at knitting circle Thursday, and now the third is getting skinny. To be able to go around and around, always looking at the right side and knowing exactly what comes next--my kind of sweater. The only problem is that now I'm convinced I must have Knitting from the Top to move along my knitting growth. It was the Knitty interview with Cat Bordhi that convinced me. I also really appreciated her talking about her ten-year (!) knitting slump.

Finally, the first tablemat is so close to done, yet I have not been motivated to finishe the last TWO rows. I guess I really need another movie to watch.

Lazy

Did I say this would be done in a week? I think I also mentioned, however, my reluctance to weave in ends. On the inside, there are still eight or so threads that need to be put in their place.

It's a miracle that I managed to get out my pom-pom maker to top this hat. Honestly, I actually needed the motivation of meeting the recipient, one Baby Sylvester, and seeing just how cute he is. He'll receive the hat tomorrow, in plenty of time for the nippy fall weather that the last rain brought in.
Truth be told, ever since I finished the book club book, (Like) Water for Elephants, and a very good read it was, too, I've been a little more into reading than knitting. Also finished in September: the Miss Marple classic A Caribbean Mystery, and a couple of very different nonfiction books that both deal with the adolescent struggles of minority girls in America. Once Upon a Quincenera, by Julia Alvarez, had a very sociological bent, with a side of woman's empowerment and a lot of self-reflection. Happy Birthday or Whatever dealt with Annie Choi's travails growing up as the youngest child of Korean immigrants. It is intensely personal and, in places, uproariously funny. I can identify with many of the experiences she describes, but the vignette that really made me think described how her mother decided to deal with Annie's out-of-control stuffed animal collection. What parent doesn't struggle with this? And, while I will probably never tell my daughter outright "You crazy. They no live," I do wish there were some way to thin their numbers. The final book I've just put down was a thin but fairly satisfying John Mortimer, Rumpole and the Reign of Terror.
Tomorrow we're heading to Connecticut to see the grandparents and to harvest apples, which should be fantastic, and my brilliant father-in-law pointed out that since there are so many of us, it might make sense to rent a van. So tomorrow, as Ian pilots us to his childhood home and the kids sing along to Dan Zanes, I will be in the passenger seat knitting away on Ian's long-awaited cardigan, which I just started today.

Wrong on all counts

I flew down to Houston sure that I would have little or no knitting time and that my nephews would have no interest in my knitting. In fact, when we took our short hiatus to Austin, I only brought the gauge-swatch hat, the Easter egg sweater, and some odd balls. Turns out I grossly underestimated drive time and also failed to take into account the enormous, netted trampoline, which occupied vast swaths of kids' time, while I could sit quietly on the gliding porch swing watching. I actually ran out of projects and had to come up with another:

It's a tiny baby raglan from odds and ends of merino style that I happened to have, but I'm thinking I can duplicate stitch or crochet some fish under the water (blue part) and a sailboat on top (white portion). Of course, I'll have to order more yarn for the sleeves and find a really tiny, nautical-minded baby, but it's also perhaps a pattern I could (enlarge and) use again.

The gauge-swatch hat turned out very nicely, also sized for a tiny baby, but after my two-year-old nephew was kind enough to try it on, he became fascinated by it and wanted to put it on again and again. I promised him one more his size for Christmas, but when I took out the measuring tape to check his head circumference he became enchanted with that and carried it around for the rest of the day (to be fair, it is shaped like a dinosaur).
Meanwhile, as my two-year-old nephew was angling for hat and supplies, my six-year-old nephew took some time off from jumping to come sit with me and gently hold the ball of yarn I had just finished with. What is Sam doing in this photo?

Knitting a hat for Batman.

Of course, when I say I've finished the Easter egg sweater that really means it's off the needles. Boy do I have a lot of weaving in to do. Somehow, all my tapestry needles were conveniently forgotten. But that did enable me to start one more project:

It's another baby sweater from the Knitter's Almanac, but this time in merino, so I don't have to feel as if I'm betraying EZ's trust. The color is called cornflower, but is much more lavender in person, and I seem to have internalized the simple lace pattern.
As for the V-neck, we've had a beautiful reunion, both armholes are done, and the neck is halfway to completion. A few ends to sew-in, and I think it will be waiting for the next 65-degree day.

Torn apart

Once again this summer, I'm leaving home and taking the kids south, this time to Houston. Apart from Ian, who doesn't have unlimited vacation time and thus can't accompany us, the thing I'll miss most will once again be the deep V-neck sweater.
Actually, it's just as well I'm not bringing the huge merino creation down to Texas, because I've managed to somehow just fall short of the yarn requirement. Happily, I had enough Hollyberry to finish knitting the body, bind the armholes together, and do one sleeve,
but I'll need another ball for the neckband for sure.
But, as you can see from the last photo, I have finally cut steeks,

and although it was a little nerve-wracking, it was mostly fun,
and the feeling when it's cut and doesn't unravel? Deep contentment. So, once I return, I should make short work of the other armhole and neckband (just 7 rows of ribbing each) and have a lovely fall vest.

Since I've finally proved to myself that steeking works, it's time to start Ian's Aran cardigan, and I'm following EZ's advice and making a gauge-swatch hat. I just started tonight, and I am in love with the yarn, Firecracker Heather, because it's mostly a deep orangey red, but every so often some blue or gold will pop out. The diamond and fishbone patterns are shaping up, too.
So, that will come with me, along with my long-lost autumn sock, and the two lace shawls, and possibly the table mat. Or maybe I'll finally finish the Easter egg sweater. That would be nice to have off the needles. But don't be surprised if I come home from Texas needing to rip out twelve rows of lace and with nothing else to show for myself, because the real purpose of the trip is quality time with the eight-and-unders and that requires a lot of running around, especially since my nephews aren't trained to let me knit and read them a story at the same time and are unfamiliar with the "hang on, just let me finish this row" which comes to the childern of knitters so early.

Progress report

The start of August was a little hectic for me, what with two assignments due, and various other commitments. Though, if one has to read a book word by word twice, Emma by Jane Austen is a pretty good choice. Speaking of lace shawls (there are quite a few mentions of knitting in the book, though it's mostly done by doddering old Mrs. Bates), I have proved and reproved over the summer months that lace knitting cannot mix with drinking alcoholic beverages, watching children, or even conversing with friends. It seems to be best done while your life's companion is watching sports and the kids are safely asleep, or while said companion is reading, silently or out loud. This is also meant to explain why I'm still stuck on clue 2 of the Mystery Stole. As for the non-lace stuff, the armhole steeks of the deep-v vest are fast approaching, and I expect it to fly after that. I love to lay it on the table to observe the hourglass shape already emerging, but the last time I did that, a certain young boy did his best to pull the circular needle out. My favorite way to work on the vest is while listening to the Knitpicks podcast, a wonderful feature that makes me feel much better about supporting them vs. my LYS. And I'm not the only one who likes to listen.

Coco: "Mommy, can we listen to your iPod?"
Me: "It's just a lady talking about knitting, I can't imagine you'd be interested."
Coco and Washington: "Pleeeease?"
Me: "Here."
Coco: "This is really cool. We like it."
Washington: "Yeah. We like it."
Coco: "This doesn't mean I'm interested in learning to knit, though."

Well, if I bide my time, I have a feeling she'll come around. She's back into the idea of karate, if we can only find a Saturday when she's not invited to a party or otherwise committed.
Speaking of karate, we bid a fond farewell to a brown belt student who's off to college, and I managed to assemble these flower face cloths:

In cotton, not chenille, since I have cotton coming out of my ears. and another thing I'm doing with one of the peaches and creme cones:

Here you see it lacking one sleeve, but it is now finished and was immensely satisfying. I modified a raglan funnel neck sweater from Debbie Bliss's Baby Style, then added a little seed stitch star that I got out of my Christmas stocking book. I love raglan decreasing and sewing up perfectly aligned mattress stitch seams, but I think top-down would have made it go even faster (6 fewer seams to sew).
I'll be back soon with pictures of armhole steeks and observations on finger pain.

Baking News

We interrupt this knitting blog to wish a Happy 3rd Birthday to Washington and a Hap 37th Birthday to Ian.
Since we haven't yet installed our air conditioner (and when we do, it will only cool the master bedroom), we decided to try to have Washington's July 21 party outside. Now, when he was asked who he wanted at his party, his first answer was "My sister will be there" and, when pressed, he added that he wanted his big red plastic crawfish to attend. Nevertheless, since we hoped to catch up with friends and knew he'd be happy to see some other kids after a very low-key summer, we started telephoning some families. My biggest quandary, though, was how to get a homemade cake up the hill to Mount Prospect Park. I've made the kids' birthday cakes myself every year that we've been home to celebrate, and usually only have to carry them from the kitchen to the dining room. The solution: a cookie cake.

Since I couldn't find a round cookie sheet at Bed, Bath, & Beyond or our local equivalent, I got a round stone and spread (on wax paper) an entire batch of chocolate chip cookie dough on it in a circle. Brought it out, let it cool, and added a Toob of horses for decoration. I let Washington help with the placement, and quite a few more horses ended up in the "river" than I anticipated, but the kids liked it, and it tasted good.

For Ian, Washington got it into his head that Daddy should have a chocolate cake, which seemed to go well with the requested steak and potatoes birthday dinner, and, anyway, I was eager to try out the Devil's Food cake that Ruth Reichl describes making as a teenager in Tender at the Bone.
I have very vague memories of making a velet spice cake from the Joy of Cooking as a tween, but in general I make cakes with help from my friend Duncan Hines. I've always felt that there was too much at stake to risk a baking catastrophe, and though Joy doesn't usually steer me wrong, the intro to the cake baking section is incredibly intimidating. But Ruth Reichl, with her simple instructions and her confidence that anyone can cook as she does, gave me the confidence I needed. (I used her lamb recipe, her Brussels sprouts recipe, and even made her cheesecake all for our Easter dinner, and I make her spaghetti carbonara at least once a month, usually at Coco's request.)
The cake was a breeze, and the seven-minute icing was exactly as she described it, though if I had it to do over, I'd put a little more frosting between the layers. We had a brainwave to try to make it Ian's favorite color instead of plain white (he actually likes more of a hunter green, but we couldn't dump in the whole bottle of food coloring).

Everything went according to plan, until the decorating was almost done. I knew I didn't have much black icing left, so I started by writing "Daddy", then "Birthday." Full of confidence, I moved on to "Hap . . ." and couldn't go another letter.

We walked all the way to Flatbush in search of some more writing icing, but turned up empty, so we decided to make the best of it with some leftover orange.

Now, I know that icing that is squeezed out of an aerosol can cannot be natural or good for the environment or for those I am serving it to, but it is so much a part of my childhood memories, and so good, that I haven't been able to give it up. Now that the stores near me no longer carry it, though, I will look on this as an opportunity to find a healthier, or at least more natural, way to bake.

Things to make one feel better on a rainy day

Imagine the boy on the sofa with the exact opposite look on his face. Now fill in the details: his sister is off visiting her grandparents in a different state, he is without a playmate, and the rain is pouring down (like in that movie about the kids who had colonized Venus). Now imagine that two of my knitting buddies come over to sit and knit and watch my Lucy Neatby video and bring two two-year-olds and two seven-year-olds. Believe me, we all felt much better. Add to that this very simple, very sunshine-y baby sweater (a Debbie Bliss raglan funnel-neck), and a major finishing breakthrough that I was able to facilitate, and things were really looking up.