Not Dead Yet

I have been desultorily working on hubs stockinette hat. A nasty cold derailed me for a while and stuff just got in the way of knitting. So, instead, an 'around the house' post. My stove is 17 or so years old. It has buttons instead of dials for oven and timer controls. The buttons are covered with little rubber mushroom. Which break semi regularly. Like so:

Fortunately, you can order new rubber button thingies. In order to put the new one in, you have to pull the stem from the broken one. Tweezers and needlenose pliers are handy for this job. Here is a crappy pic of a new button and the broken pieces of the old one:

Then all you have to do is push the new one in the hole and you have nice new rubber button thingies.

Tada!

Ciao

Fingernail Friday!

We Have To Call Them On It!

Today I read an article in the Globe and Mail about women and politics. "Re-Paving the Way for Women on the Hill....Again". The article opens with a comment from a rookie MP who said that at her first political panel, the moderator made a comment that the whole panel was 'hot'. The rookie MP said that she suddenly realized that that is how it is on the Hill.

Well, it might be the way it is on the hill NOW, however, if she wants to change that, she should be calling them on it. The host may not have realized how offensive that comment was. He probably thought he was giving them a compliment.

It is akin to a male saying "I'd hit that". I once pointed out to a male who had said that that it was violent and offensive and smacked of rape. He was flabbergasted and said he'd never thought of it that way, thought it was complimentary?!

I understand that if the female MPs spend their time calling out the men on the Hill their stay may be less pleasant. However, they are currently the the ones in the public eye and there are a larger number of them than there has been for quite a while. Therefore they should be making as much noise as possible about simple language that can easily be changed. Language can change behaviour.

The men on the HIll need to learn that the female MPs are not 'hot', they are colleagues. They are not 'girls' they are women. Their appearance is not up for discussion.

It is up to the women to point out the ingrained habits of thought.

Mittens!

After the ice storm we had, I decided I really needed to finish my mittens. My gloves got soaked and I wanted a warm dry pair to change into and I didn't have them. The horror. Therefore:

Pattern: Brier Twist

Yarn: Paton's Classic

Mods: Made cuff longer

I've been wearing them for a couple of days now. I think I would cast on a few fewer stitches across the palm of the flip top part if I made it again. They are a little big on me. I would also make the ribbing on the bottom part of the flip top (ie the part that is stationary) a bit longer.

Overall, the pattern is good, very easy to follow. I would suggest that you put a lifeline in on the last row of pattern before you do the ribbing so that it is easier to pick up the 20 stitches for the flip top part.

Ciao!

Fingernail Friday!

Chug Chug Chug.....

Not much exciting happened on the knitting front over the last little while Chez Knot. Still working on the hub's stockinette hat. I picked up the provisional cast on and am knitting the second hat. In stockinette. So it is a lot of knitting in grey fingering weight yarn. Did I mention it is stockinette? Round and round and round and round.

If you are interested, a couple of progress pics:

See? Boring. You can kind of see where the provisional cast on was if you look closely. Not that that is a problem as that is the edge of where the inside hat meets the outside hat...

Who knows, that may even disappear after blocking. At any rate, it is good tv knitting. Sadly in December I had very little time to sit in front of the tv. Hence how loooooong this project is taking. Did I say that it was stockinette? In fingering weight grey yarn?

All right, I guess I should go knit on it some more.....

Ciao

Fingernail Friday!

Cat Photobombed my Knitting

Or some such. I set down the hat I am knitting for my hubby as today is Get All The Things Done Day. I went back to pick it up to do a few more stitches while waiting for the laundry to dry. And found this:

Normally Elvis licks wool and felts it. For some reason this yarn was deemed worthy of sleeping on without correction as to texture. (red arrow points to knitting in question)

I am approx 8.5 inches into the hat. No point in posting another picture of the WIP as it is a boring stockinette hat. I guess I should thank Elvis for giving me a photo op?

Ciao

Fingernail Friday

Hat Knitting

My mittens are on hold. Hubby asked specifically for a hat. A very particular hat. So we went to the yarn store and he picked out the yarn:

At least it isn't black yarn!

I had to do some digging around to figure out how to get what he wanted. Specifically, an all-stockinette hat. With an edge that doesn't roll. I opted to go with a reversible hat design. Basically, you do a provisional cast on, knit one hat, then undo the provisional cast on, knit another hat from those stitches and then push the one hat into the other hat.

All in fingering weight yarn. Yah, it's taking a while. Although it is good tv knitting.

The provisional cast on was a pain. I didn't want to do the crochet chain one. I've done it before and detested undoing the chain. So I did a looped provisional cast on. The fist time I thought I'd be smart and do it onto a circular needle so I wouldn't have to pick up stitches. That just made the whole cast on waaaaaay too tight. So I did it with waste yarn. (the blue yarn above). In retrospect, maybe if I had tried it with a longer circular it would have worked. Either way, it's cast on.

Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire....

Warning:this post contains nuts and references to nuts. Do not continue if you cannot handle references to your nuts. Yes I am 12 in my head sometimes......

This is the time of year when a woman's thoughts turn naturally to...nuts. No, get your mind out of the gutter. Chestnuts. Roasting chestnuts to be exact. Roasting chestnuts is an activity I remember doing with my parents as a small child. Mom would peel them for me since they were hot. As an adult, I still have trouble peeling them. My sister blames it on my fingernails. I blame it on the chestnuts!

I had always roasted the chestnuts in a frying pan. with a lid. Every so often you would have to open one to see if they were done. This was a major pain. Recently my sister told me about an easier way she had discovered on the intartubes. This method makes them MUCH easier to peel.

I will now share it with you.

Step 1. Cut an 'X' in the shell of your nut.(snerk) A small paring knife works fine. I prefer one with a slightly 'hooky' tip like this:

Step 2: dunk your nuts (giggle) in a bowlful of water. Turn on oven to 425F

Step 3:When the oven is preheated, fish your nuts out of the water (tee hee) and put em on a cookie sheet. I like to lay em cut side down.

Step 4: Set the timer to 20 minutes and walk away. I am afraid I did not take a picture of this step. Use your imagination

Step 5: When the oven timer tells you that 20 minutes has elapsed, take your nuts out of the oven. (snicker) They should look something like this:

Step 6: You need to peel your nuts while they are hot. (that's what she said) Do so. I find a cutting board is helpful. Sometimes if you give them a smart slap with the palm of your hand they peel easier. Sometimes they don't and you have to pry. This step is significantly easier because of the soak them in water trick.

Step 7: EAT!!

And the Holidays have begun!

They ugly but cute!

Knitted Mittens for Me!

I decided I needed new mittens for me. After perusing various patterns, I decided on Brier Twist as it is a flip-top mitten which will come in handy. (Handy. Get it? heh heh. I crack me up)

The first one is almost done. Thumb not finished , ends not woven in and there is something funky going on where the one side of the flip top meets the mitten. However I am confident that I can fix all that. Want to see a picture of my not quite finished mitt? Of course you do. You are a knitter! (I suspect. However if you are just popping by for the hell of it, welcome!)

Same mitten, flipped open:

The cuff is a bit longer than the pattern calls for, I wanted it that way, I hate scraping ice on the car and getting cold bits on my delicate skin.

This is just the first one. I still have to cast on the second! SMS anyone? (second mitten syndrome. related to Second Sock syndrome)

Ciao

Fingernail Friday!

Winter Snow and Rain

I guess I was lucky the winter weather held off as long as it did. Today I went out to sweep the snow off my car and found this:

Yup, freezing rain UNDER the snow. Blech

Ciao

Fast Christmas Knit

This was a VERY fast Christmas knit. 6 days start to finish.

Pattern: Spiral Knit Tube Sock

Yarn: Bernat Satin Solids

As the pattern name says, it is a tube sock, no heel to turn. Thus it is good tv knitting. Since the pattern calls for worsted weight yarn, it is a pretty substantial sock. I am planning on giving this pair to a friend of mine as "Slipper Socks". I am also thinking I may make myself a pair too.

The hubby said they 'look fancy' so I think I'm safe in saying that simplicity does not detract form the pretty.

Ciao

Fingernail Friday

Christmas Knitting

Almost done the Christmas knitting! last dishtowel:

pattern:Chinese Waves Dishcloth

Only instead of a dishcloth, I made it bigger for a small towel.

One more Christmas knit to go!

Ciao

MOAR YARNZ

i have been remiss. I have more yarn I bought while I was in Italy and haven't shown it to you yet. Here is the next lot of interesting yarn:

It is very thick ribbon yarn with a 'traintrack' along one edge. I'm not even sure how to knit this, it was just interesting. I think you knit it through the traintrack part.

Here's a better picture of the yarn:

I'm thinking this may become a poncho or similar.

Another One!

Another dishtowel complete! That leaves me one to finish before Giftmas comes. I think I can, I think I can.....

This is the Double Bump Dishcloth pattern, but done over 47 stitches and longer so that it is a dishtowel instead. Yarn is Bernat Handicrafter Cotton in Ombre. ie self-striping

Ciao