Knitted Along the Way, AKA Field Hockey Knits

I don't dare count how many miles we put on the MDX with trips to Boston, Delaware (Vs. UNC), Colgate (Hamilton), Bucknell (Lewisburg), Lafayette (Easton x 7), American U (DC), and Ohio University (Athens).

Another way to measure the time was with the pairs of mittens knit along the way.

Confetti Fingerless Mittens, inspired by Fetching

These are knit flat and then seamed. There are three cable twists (CT) near the wrist and three more near the fingers.

The yarn combinations are a basic (Patons Merino Wool or Brown Sheep Nature Spun Worsted) and a fingering/sock (Koigu KPPPM or Claudia Handpainted Fingering Yarn).

Gauge: 4 to 4.25 sts per inch.

Needles: size 6 or 7, 16-in circular (handy to knit flat) and double points.

Notions: stitch markers, stitch holders, blunt needle

Cable Cast On 33 with cable cast on (counts as row 1)

Row 2 ( Wrong side row):

P6 K1 P4 K1 P4 K1 P4 K1 P4 K1 P6

This establishes the ribbing pattern.

Rows 3&4 in pattern
Row 5 begin cable twist

Cable twist (CT): knit into second stitch on left needle, then without removing, knit into first stitch on left needle. Slide to right needle.

Knit 3 CT in stitches 4 and 5, P1, then in each group of four knits:
k1 CT K1

Then in last group of six: K1 CT K3

Continue next three rows in non-cable pattern.

On the next right side row follow CT pattern again.

Continue in this established pattern until three Cable Twist rows are completed.

Follow in pattern with wrong side row.

On right side place markers before and after the center 5 stitches.

Continue in pattern to the first marker, move marker to right needle, Make 1 stitch. Continue in pattern. Before the next marker Make 1, move marker, continue.

Continue to make increases on right side rows until there are 15 stitches between the markers.

On next right side row, place center 9 sts on a holder.

In pattern knit to stitch holder. Increase one stitch, knit across gap knit 1 increase 1, and continue across.

Follow in pattern with wrong side row.

Establish CT pattern again and continue until 3 Cable Twist rows are complete finishing with wrong side row.

On RS row, bind off.

Thumb:

Move thumb stitches from holder onto double pointed needles. Join yarn on open side, pick up two sts. Continue across thumb, pick up two sts and work in the round for 4-5 rows until length desired. Bind off.

Finishing: Neatly fasten off thumb yarn, Seam the mitten. Repeat with second mitten!


(c) Luanne O'Loughlin, 2011

You can request the PDF here.

Boots and Books

I seem to a have a fascination with shoes on this blog. When these boots arrived at my door on Friday evening, this shot with hairy legs and shorts was too much to pass up. Yes, these are the legs and feet of the BF arriving to pick up DD. He said he has sneakers in the car. The temperature was in the 80s. So, while women suffer in heels, do guys wear workboots?

Knitting is fun again, and Maureen and I had a lovely jaunt to Uniquities on Saturday. I currently have three projects in the works (of various ripe ages) and bought yarn for a new top that I don't really expect to finish until Summer 2010. Maureen selected yarn for three projects and I dissuaded her from the fourth as it is much more fun to go to the yarn store without so much time in between. I may spend more time on Ravelry again soon.

Various Reads: Did I mention that I finished About Face (Donna Leon)? Not her best, but a nice trip through Venice once again. Then onto some ChikLit (hey, it's summer!): two of Anne Rivers Siddons beach books (Up Island, set on Martha's Vineyard, and Low Country, set in South Carolina) and plus Barbara Taylor Bradford's Being Elizabeth. Plus there have been three books on CD for roadtrips: Donna Leon's Blood from a Stone, and two Meg Cabots (teenage fun): All-American Girl and How to be Popular. Currently moving along: The Stone Budoir: Travels through the Hidden Villages of Sicily (Maggio).

Knitting and Buttons

Two projects are totally and completely done. The blue top is Seta, a silk blend from Berroco. I made it several years ago, and it grew and grew. Finally, over the winter, it was ripped out and re-started. In the smallest size and on smaller needles! On Sunday, it was (re) finished and the ends were worked in.

I've also added buttons to the red vest and it has been packed away to come out again in October or November. What do you think of these buttons? They are a mottled blue/red combo...

Pretty? Ugly? Pizza?

There are color combinations worth contemplating!

A fortuitous color combination came together for the knitting. The multi-colored Koigu thought by some to be the Nirvana of knitting, just didn't work for me in this bright green combo. (That's one of the hazards of phone order shopping). I had tried several stitch patterns and eventually combined it with the right shade of green in Berocco Touche, Sweet Pea. That made a nice scarf for Joyce, but took less than one hank of the Koigu. After playing with the way too bright Koigu again at a Lax game, I hit upon this combo with an oddball of Tahki Davos. The thick and thin Davos brings the color out in various areas -- brilliant!

The combination inspired a trip to Uniquities in Vienna, the first in a long time. I'll have to take a photo of the yarns purchased! (But some might be for gifts and that could ruin the surprises). I did by more blue, but not Davos, to use up more of the acid green Koigu.

Curiously, I must have enjoyed working with that color scheme as the pizza combo from Saturday night complements the hat! Tom asked me to remember the three pizza combos, but didn't suggest *where* to record such data. Left to right: (1) Basil and Arugula Pesto, sauteed red pepper, Vidalia onion slivers, (2) Sauteed red peppers, sauteed mushrooms and sauteed arugula, (3) Fresh tomato, vidalia onion slivers, topped with arugula, after grilling. Two were grilled and one was baked in the oven. Gianfranco Becchina's Olio Verde was used for every step of the process, from the pesto made the night before, to the sautee pan for the veggies, and even brushed on the pizza dough.

The weekend began with a thrilling lacrosse game, won in the last second. The ball was in the air when the buzzer sounded. Thank you, Megan. Congrats Robinson girls. On Saturday after rain, cancelled soccer, on-schedule field hockey and a quick shopping trip to the Exchange in Bethesda, we got to see the Weinermobile.

Mother's Day brought a cool, but pleasant morning, huge grocery run at the commissary, and rain, rain, rain, the rest of the day. Tom, Carly, and Katie prepared lobster tails (which Katie wouldn't touch....) while I watched a "taped" show from HGTV: House Hunters International -- on selecting a home in the Greve area of Tuscany.

Later in the evening, amidst torrential rain, clearing clogged gutters and downspouts and catching up on ironing(!), we purchased tickets for next weekend's NCAA Men's Lacrosse Quarterfinal games at the Naval Academy. That should be very exciting!

Lacrosse/NCAAs makes me think of MA and Greg. I didn't get to connect with MA this weekend, but she's in my thoughts as she flies to Phoenix for the funeral of a former neighbor, Margie who lost the battle with breast cancer. From this distance, I know that Margie's battle was long...and hope that her family finds a peaceful new path.

Knitters Wine Tote -- Is this Useful?

I visited a Wine Show this past weekend to determine if it would have been a good show for Olio2go to be at (sadly, "no"). It didn't seem to be a gourmet olive oil crowd! I did find this cute wine bottle tote bag. I can't possibly think of an occasion when I would need a 6-bottle wine tote, but this holds promise for a knitting sports mom (that's a term in need of a definition!) The dividers could well keep separate a couple of bottles of water, a small snack, and small knitting projects such as socks or mittens.

The bag holds a twisted hank of Ballybrae, and the Finished Object: The Farrow Rib Scarf in Classic Elite Wool Bam Boo yarn. I haven't blocked the scarf yet because today is Valentine's Day and I need a flash of Red. A special thanks to Claudia for a great pattern and scarf idea. I particularly like this pattern because it could also be well suited to a gentleman's scarf. I must get back to updating my knitting log so the details can be found when needed again!

Reading Adventures: I finished Adriana Trigiani's Home to Big Stone Gap. The beginning was familiar in the sense that I kept asking myself if I had read this book before or if the deja vu sensation was from being familiar with the characters in her prior books. It took until the mid-point of the book before I realized that I hadn't read this book before. I've now read everything except her cookbook, Cooking with My Sisters.

What was I thinking?

On the striped sofa is a striped vest, and on the striped vest is the red Ballybrae all-over cabled vest, WIP.

The striped vest fits well, but has slightly too much ease. The red cabled vest, I fear, is too small. It's been a pick-up/put-down project since July. I've counted and I've twisted cables 186 times thus far!

This was knit in one piece to the underarms. If you look closely, the two vest fronts are about an inch apart. Even with banding, I think it will be too small.

Then I studied the pattern again. My gauge didn't loosen as it usually does. I guess all those cables kept it tight. I don't think it will loosen with blocking.

Sigh.

Rather than rip out right away. I found another set of needles, larger this time, and started again. Some time in the next couple of weeks, I'll have the nerve to rip this out. After I knit it to the armholes again. Wish me luck!

Ski, Knit, Read.....Eat, Pray, Love?

The girls had a long weekend and it was filled with activities. Tubing at Liberty, Futsol in Alexandria, Field Hockey in Rockville, and Skiing at Bryce.

My 30th High School Reunion is coming up and I'm having fun trying to locate folks. It was great to find Gary Umholtz -- because he has an easy name to Google!

The knitting projects haven't changed. I'm not sure if the red vest will be the right size, but I'm going to knit a couple more inches before making the final decision. Right now, the red scarf is the most satisfying because there's no fit issue, and it seems I will have just the right amount of yarn. It's a great stitch pattern and the yarn is Classic Elite's Wool Bam Boo. It's a perfect red, a Talbots blue-red.

Current reads have included Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love (I really wanted to know more about her first husband! Where is his blog?) and Adriana Trigiani's Queen of the Big Time (I cried buckets at the end). I'm now reading a book of Katie's: The Diary of Melanie Martin or how I survived Matt the Brat, Michelangelo and the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Such fun--and child-like irreverence!

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Having recently read A Thousand Splendid Suns, it was time to do my part by sending wool hats to afghans for Afghans. If you haven't read the book, "compelling" is the best word for it.

I mailed them to San Francisco yesterday and know that four more people will have warm heads, comforted by hand-knit wool. The next due date is October 12.

My friend Joyce had a birthday yesterday, I left a goodie bag on her porch with two olive oils (Santisi and Goccia Umbra) and a bar of Olive Oil soap. One from Olio2go and others from my olive oil collection!

Porch Progress

Todd made great progess on the steps last week, and Tom worked hard on the landscaping (see the black-covered area?). We're waiting to hear from Bill of Twigs & Stones on the landscaping plans. Somehow, the landing is level my my photo is not. It looks like the lattice (square, not diagonal!) will be installed today.

The electrical work is planned for Thursday. I can get grumpy on that. I have. When you want to use conduit the size of a gutter/downspout, it's time to present another plan.

I've really missed having a gas grill this summer. It had to be disconnected due to the porch work. I'm down to only one bottle of olive oil in the house! It's time to do more new olive oil selections at Olio2go. I need more choices at home. Right now I have a DOP from Fontanara that Jeff brought back from the April trip. It's very nice, but it is always more fun to have a selection.

I'm excited to be knitting again. I've been working on the red Ballybrae vest, and am enjoying working with the spongy feel of wool. I'll try to put pictures in the next post.

On the reading front, I've also recently finished In Maremma by David Leavitt and Mark Mitchell. It's another find-a-ruin-and-rehab-it book, but this is set in a less-well-known part of Tuscany. We have Frantoio Franci extra virgin olive oils from Maremma. Frantoio Franci Extra Virgin and Frantoio Franci La Cinciallegra Organic are both from olives grown in Maremma.

It's time for work!

The Valentine's Day Snow Day

Two Wednesdays in a row! It's almost like being a kid in Upstate/Central NY. That said, I wouldn't mind being up there for the historic snowfall, reminiscent of the Blizzard of '66 and the snow of 1993. It's getting there that's the problem. For the fun of it, I keep checking the Syracuse.com website, and occassionally, even the forum for Cortland County.

Guess who turned 15 since the last update? Carly! She's off to a good start on her 3rd quarter grades, which is a good thing. We're looking forward to lacrosse tryouts, eventhough she broke a piece of Hardiplank siding last weekend with her lacrosse skills. She's signed up for a field hockey camp at William and Mary this summer.

We had a few friends over for dinner last Saturday night, and once again, we included an Olive Oil Tasting--all extra virgin from Olio2go, of course. The tasting table featured: Gourmet Sardinia Fruttato, Titone DOP, Vittorio Cassini Classico, Olio Beato, and Santisi Novello 2006. Our guests could appreciate the freshness of Santisi, the smoothness of Cassini, and the intensity of Fruttato. Titone was the overall favorite, and I used that for the field greens salad--along with splashes of white balsamic vinegar and red wine vinegar--one clove of garlic.

Our appetizers included a selection of olives (thanks to Wegman's olive bar), marinated mozarella balls (my own creation), peppery cheeses, bread and crackers.

The salad was served as a separate course along with bread from Wegman's and one of their gourmet/European/restaurant butters.

The main course was Tom's specialty --an unnamed pasta dish with chicken, red and yellow bell peppers, and mushrooms in a reduced red pepper cream sauce. Yum.

For dessert, we had another tasting, although unintended it turned out to be fun. I had two chocolate desserts from Trader Joe's the Chocolate Ganache and the Chocolate Decadence. It turned out that everyone wanted a small slice of each, for comparison tasting! I'm not sure we had a clear winner, as both were devoured.

In the world of olive oil, we've had a challenging learning experience in the process of importing. It's been a long journey and the arrival of San Macario Novello continues to be ....imminent. We've had a very helpful customs agent, been held up by Homeland Security, and continue to wait. It left the port in La Spezia, Italy on January 9th. Our pallet arrived at the port of NY on January 25 (I think), and there's been a long wait for release due to the extra inspections. We'll never know what in the container caused the VACIS exam or the complete unpacking of the container.

I hope to spend part of this snow day working on the Constant Contact announcement for the arrival of San Macario, and also working on pages for Olio2go's new web site. Launching soon!

There hasn't been much time for knitting lately, although I finished a scarf on Tuesday morning and wore it the same day. I bought the yarn when Maureen and I journeyed to Uniquities in Vienna on December 30.

Send me an email if you want to know about H e a d L i c e , attitudes about lice, facts about lice, and how to use olive oil to treat lice. Good readings: the Harvard School of Public Health guidance, the American Academy of Pediatrics position, and Virginia School Health Guidelines. It's always helpful to know your own school district's policy. I hope I don't have to speak with any of you on this topic again!

The books: I keep scaning the travel books and am ready for a return to Italy. I'm also continuing to read the Donna Leon mysteries set in Venice. The current book on my nightstand is Death at La Fenice. Before that, I finished Dressed for Death.

It's a good day to bake bread.....and read!

Happy Snow! Happy Valentine's Day... L.