I've been working on Lavoisier, trying to finish it up for Noel to wear this Autumn.

Click for a close up of the heathery yarn.

Meet the sleeve that would not end.

Not only that, but it's a race to see if I will even have enough yarn to finish this sweater at all. You see, last year, I ordered up the kit from Virtual Yarns, and promptly forgot which size I ordered. When I finally started working on the sweater I cast on for the 2nd size.

It's now becoming apparent to me that I ordered the kit for the 1st size.

Will I have to order more yarn? Will I dare to order another sweater kit to qualify for the free shipping?

Phildar Pitchoun #403 Printemps/Ete 2004
Sweater knit with Phildar Aviso in Rouge

Noel loves his new red zipper sweater. It's a nice thing for a kid to volunteer to put on a sweater for a picture.

On the whole, the sweater was nice to knit with a lot of thoughtful details that were fun to figure out in French. I liked how the decreases were done on the 2x2 ribbed sleeves. I did not like the whole zipper and backstitched neckband juggling as it took a bit of work for it all to come out even but the end result is worth it. And really, the zipper and collar are the whole reason I wanted to do the sweater to begin with.

This is the first time I have worked with Phildar Aviso. It's a nice yarn, but a bit splitty. Not only that, but the yarn tended to snag a lot. While I was seaming up the fabric, one of plies pulled (split!) and broke and it took some doing to repair. Aviso does create a fabric with a nice texture and lightness to it though, so I am sure I will use it again.

If you remember, the Habu Textiles silk yarn I was using for the cable cuff gloves gave out 3 fingers and 1 thumb shy of glove #2.

So, I ordered some more yarn and finally got glove #2 finished.

Click here for a close up of the cuff.

I like the yarn. I like the gloves, but I do not like them so much together. The silk loses its shape easily, but that is just what silk is, and I think I'd love the yarn used for a lacy edging for gloves, but not the glove part. (Cause I use my gloves when shoveling snow and making snowballs.)

Now that the gloves are done, there is a free slot in my knitting roundup, so I've decided to start some socks using some beautiful handdyed yarn from Spirit Trail.

So I did! Here is my swatch:

Next stop, a sock. I hope.

I love this yarn more than Lorna's Laces or Koigu--it's very soft and very elastic and the variegated colors are harmonious.

I just went to see The Village tonight and I can't get enough of the buildings and the furniture and the costumes and all the shawls and knitting and spinning and sheep. There was a very cool shawl on one of the town elders where they are outside discussing something important. I love this shawl! The pattern is a bunch of circles delineated by yarn overs and something else. I've never run across a pattern like this before and am dying to find out what the pattern is.

What bums me out is that the movie was filmed in Chester County, where I grew up and only a short drive from where I live now, and oh how I wish I could have been an extra or maybe one of those ubiquitious "Drivers."

I really love that shawl pattern. I will sketch it out tonight.

Here's some more information about the costumes from The Village.

Last year, after reading about antique sock knitting machines, I decided to try to buy one on ebay.

My Creelman New Improved Money Maker

Once I received the sock machine in the mail, I realized that perhaps I was in over my head a bit. The machine needed a good cleaning and a whole new set of needles before I even learned how to knit on it.

So, I put it up in the attic until the time seemed right to clean it and learn more about it (Becky was about to turn 2 at that time and I was really busy keeping up with her.)

Here are some more pictures:
I like the Creelman plaque.

Where does this go?

Needle

Scratched Yarn Carrier

I bought this:

1750 yards of Wool Hemp Yarn bought for a song.

It is enough yarn to make the Phildar hoodie I've been wanting to make. (Check out my right sidebar for a pix.) The only colors available in this yarn were sort of not what I was looking for. (Berry Blue? No thanks.)

Anyway, so I thought I'd just dye the yarn. But I hadn't really thought that through. You see, all my dyeing has been done in my Le Creuset pot (I know I know but it's only alum in queen anne's lace and alum is used in pickles so how bad can that be?) But that pot, as big as it is, is just not big enough.

This brings me to a little side story full of regret and woe. You see, my father, last Summer was cleaning out his house to move. He had a huge pot he used to cook corn-on-the-cob* in over a fire outside. Now, bearing in mind that'd he'd managed to fob off all sorts of nostalgic and moldy junk on me, he asked, "Do you want this pot?"

And I said, "No thanks, Dad." (What was I gonna do with a 10-gallon pot anyway.)

What would I do with that pot today!

Oh well, back to my other pot story. I went to K-mart yesterday and found the perfect enamel ware pot (thanks for hooking me up Martha!) to use for dyeing, toxic or not.

I got some cochineal and indigo dyes and some industrial alum at the Mannings on Saturday. Please send me some good-dye wishes.

As you can see, my helper is ready to go!

"Mommymommymommy! Can we put da waador in now?

_____
*He really likes corn!

Look what you can do with a hot-glue gun:

Click for another view.

Want to see more?

Dave wanted to conserve for a photo shoot at the Nittany Lion, but I say yawn, been there done that for the past 8 years!

This whole picture thing at the NL, it's just too much structure! Too much planning! One must stand in a vague line waiting her turn in constant anxiety that some new group should come up and butt in in front of everyone. Let's just bag the picture by the Nittany Lion this year, kay?

No such luck! Dave can be just a tech, shall we say, anal-retentive when he wants to be. We darn well will have a picture of the kids at the NL every year until the kids become adolescents and put their feet down.

Wave to the crowd waiting, little man.

Little known fact for you: Dave buried his hamster, Beavis*, at the foot of the Nittany Lion. Watch your step!

*Beavis had passed on at that time. No live offerings to the Nittany Lion.

On 7 am on Sunday morning, Dave and I woke up to a drip drip dripping coming from the ceiling.

Crap! The ceiling's leaking! We hurried up to the attic, put some old plastic toy boxes under the leaky area and went back to sleep.

We are used to this little leak when it rains really heavy. A few years ago, we had had our chimney painted and the guys who'd painted it were a tad heavy and apparently they compromised the shingles as they were lumbering around up there. Normally it only rains really heavy around here once or twice a year so we can basically ignore the leak, but all this July it's been a problem with all these heavy rains we've been getting.

Sunday morning's rain was very heavy, we just didn't realize how heavy it was.

So, this morning Dave goes to work and all his coworkers are asking, "Hey, are you all okay?" "Did your house flood?"

Dave says, "What are you talking about?"

Turns out that just down the road from us (less than a mile), roads and stores flooded with 4 feet of water and people were needing to be rescued by boats! Cars were floating away and the workers at McDonald's were swimming out the drive thru window. We had no idea.

Here's the story from the Delco Times.

And we were annoyed because our roof was leaking!