I-Cord Cast On?

The Koigu socks march on and I hope to have a finished pair and a full report for you very soon, including info about how I made my short row heel without holes.

The socks were purely diversionary, though. I was moving right along on my Excellent Jacket when I had an aha moment that I needed to think about. This chunky jacket is purely stockinette stitch. The hems don't have any other design features that would prevent rolling. The sleeves were already done (I did eliminate the cuff, though) and the back was almost to the armholes. I decided I could live with a roll on the sleeve but not on the hem of the body. So I started thinking about how to modify the design to remedy this problem. Most patterns that utilize a garter or seed stitch edge seem to call for four rows of said stitch pattern. That seems like a lot with this chunky gauge, texturally and visually.

What about i-cord? I could use Annie Modesitt's i-cord edging for the front edges of the jacket. I could also use a matching i-cord cast-on for the hem of the jacket.

Would an i-cord cast-on solve the rolling problem and be stretchy enough for the bottom of a jacket? Any ideas?

What a heel!

I've been off work this week (can I get an amen) and keeping myself busy with all those things we do (eye exam, teeth cleaning, organizing baby's boatload of stuff, house cleaning, et cetera). But I've also been very occupied with reinventing the wheel.

Sneak peek at sock numero uno of the pair...
Koigu madness

We were supposed to have a yucky, rainy week here but it has turned out to be quite mild and, dare I say, sunny. Yesterday, Peanut and I walked for three hours in the neighborhood with various friends. Like a relay race. Started out with one mama and baby, ended with another. Didn't mean to be out that long but it was beautiful out! We had fun! Now, off to the aquarium, perhaps?

Happy Valentine's Day From Seattle

Photo by Kelly Johnston

IK Spring 2007

Everyone and their brother has posted a link to the IK spring preview, but when the magazine hit my mailbox this afternoon, I was so excited to get it. I *love* the new layout and look. It's very clean and easy to look at.

I've been checking out knitting books from the library lately and want to post some reviews over the next several days, if only to remind myself which features and designs impressed me most.

Finally, thank you for your comments on family and tradition. I can't believe I didn't write a word about reading together. It must simply be an unspoken truth for me; I grew up loving books and started reading at age four. My brother and I spent many afternoons with our mom at the neighborhood library. Many of you also mentioned family dinnertime together. This is already a goodkarmafamily institution. Peanut sits at her high chair when we eat our dinner and she eats then, too. Every night. It's a fun way for the three of us to share bits and pieces of our days with each other.

Traditions

First of all, thank you to all of you who keep saying that the peanut looks just like me. It makes me giddy to hear you say that. Not because I'm a narcissist, but because of this:

Now. Do you still think she looks just like me?

Anywho, I've got this crazy, mixed up extended family that I felt really close with when I was growing up. They were far from perfect and quite disfunctional, but they were mine. But now that I'm a grown up they're all having grudges and arguments and he-said she-said and not speaking to one another. So peanut hasn't even met, for example, my mom's sister who was my super favorite aunt when I was a girl.

This all makes me v. sad, but it's part of this crazy world in which we live. So I've been giving a lot of thought lately to the kind of childhood I want to help peanut have, and to very intentionally creating new traditions in our own little family.

Some of my warmest memories are sewing, crafting, cooking with my mom. Also, we would make a gigantic bowl of popcorn, snuggle under a big blanket, and watch a Bette Davis movie on AMC together. The best. As for traditions, when I was little, we would make Christmas decorations together. One year it was salt-dough, one year it was felt ornaments, etc. I remember, too, picking buckets of blackberries so my mom could make blackberry jam. My mouth is watering.

What are some of your family's favorite traditions? What are some of your favorite memories from childhood, especially with your parents? If you have children of your own, what are some new traditions you're creating?

Color Theories

For years, red was my signature color. I always gravitated toward it when shopping for clothes and felt great when I wore it.

A couple of years ago I realized I was getting compliments when I wore cooler colors, too. I borrowed that classically tacky 1980s book about finding "your colors" from the library and decided that I should start steering toward aquas, blues, purples, etc. Bluer toned colors. I get compliments when I wear purples. I do look good in aqua, too especially in the summertime when I have a tan!

This week, though, I pulled a red turtleneck out of the closet and wore it with my red wool peacoat. My current favorite lipstick (MAC: Fastplay) is a chameleon; on this particular day it also looked red. I got so many compliments! I noticed, too, that the red I was wearing was a bluer red (as opposed to an orange red), so it fit in with the "cool" palette after all.

So here I am with a bunch of different blue yarns, some purples and aquas, and realizing that I'm coming close to committing the sin that I read about in Big Girl Knits this week: getting stuck in a color rut. I need to keep my mind more open when I'm looking at yarn choices instead of immediately grabbing the one color that stands out for me, whether that be red or aqua.

I'm craving a raspberry sweater. Or orchid. Some of those greens are looking pretty good, too...