what's ruffling my feathers

Still way too much going on chez Caffeinated Yarn for my tastes... to borrow from brokeknits: blah, blah, dissertation, blah, blah, scholarship application, blah, blah, the sound of deadlines whizzing past me, blah, blah... Plus some serious family health issues and lots on the calendar, including good things like a rather posh wedding yesterday (huzzah for top-shelf open bars, btw). One thing at a time, I suppose.

I did, however, manage to photograph a shawlette. This was knit a while back but mysteriously hasn't appeared on the blog previously:

 Pattern: Ruffle My Feathers, by Caryl Pierre

Yarn: Orange Flower MCN Fingering Weight, "Raindrop," 1 skein

Needles: Clover US 6 bamboo circs

my ravelry project page

Notes:

The yarn is soft and lovely, but perhaps a little more variegated than is ideal for this pattern. It was a pretty quick knit, although the feather-and-fan lace pattern is not handled in the most user-friendly way (cough, there may have been a wee bit of tinking, cough).  The shape is great -- it really wraps around you nicely.

BTW, please don't think I'm too enamored of 1990s country-style oak furniture. We live in a world of hand-me-downs, as my in-laws have done a lot of redecorating in the past few years. The stuff's solid and dependable, though, so we're sticking with it until we can afford to replace it with furniture we really love. It's the "reuse" part of the "reduce, reuse, recycle" slogan ;-)

walking on sunshine

Pattern: Whippoorwill, by Carina Spencer

Yarn: Yarntini Semi-Solid Sock (Honeytini, ~ 90 yds) &

Plucky Knitter Superwash Merino Wool Handpainted Fingering Weight 

(Madeleine Elster, ~280 yds.)

Needles: Clover US 6 bamboo circs

Size: Small

my ravelry project page

Notes:

I love the finished project -- it's a great shape, a useful size, and the graceful curve of the border is delightful. That said, it wasn't that fun to knit. The pattern is definitely aimed at the perfectionist who wants all the details to be just so -- mirrored increases, special types of yarnovers, etc. I am just not that kind of knitter.  My life provides me with enough small details to stress out about already!  If I'm going to be super picky about details, there had better be some fancy lace in play, not basic-looking stockinette with a few yarnovers and garter rows.

The yarns were nice to knit but not remarkable -- both are springy merino wool with a fairly tight twist. The Yarntini might be a little thicker than the Plucky Knitter yarn.  I wish that the grey were just a bit more even and less splotchy.  The combination of the two colors makes me very happy, though -- sunshine on a cloudy day.

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Today has been unseasonably glorious for November in Chicago -- upper 60s, sunshine, a light breeze.  Lo and behold, what did I see while driving home?

A city worker wearing a jaunty Santa hat while repaving our street.

Other terrifying signs that people are starting in on the holidays way too early:

- Christmas carols blasting from the outdoor speakers at the gas station

- Trader Joe's is pushing its specialty holiday goodies. The upshot, though, is that Dark Chocolate Covered Peppermint Joe Joe's are amazingly delicious.

sunshine on a cloudy day

It must be fall -- there's a cool, crisp bite to the air, my Jeep's covered in leaves, and pumpkin spice lattes are back in season. I baked pumpkin cream cheese muffins yesterday afternoon, and they turned out quite well!

The recipe is here.  I added some extra spices in addition to the cinnamon -- nutmeg and cardamom. Ginger would be nice, too, or substituting 1 T. pumpkin pie spice for the 2 tsp. cinnamon.  These are pretty light on the cream cheese filling, so if that's your favorite part, I recommend making a 1.5 batch of the filling. What else... I used half olive oil and half canola oil, as my olive oil was perhaps a bit more full-flavored than would be ideal.

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other sunny things

A Whippoorwill shawlette (rav link), in the scarf size.  I'm using the rest of the grey Plucky Knitter yarn from the contrast edging of my Damson, plus Yarntini in "honeytini" for a splash of accent color. 

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These are from the Renegade Craft Fair here in Chicago last Sunday.  Sofia Masri makes these lovely porcelain earrings and pendants.  I picked up two pairs of her earrings at last year's Renegade, too!

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pumpkins growing in the vegetable garden at Chenonceau, an amazingly beautiful castle spanning the Cher River in France

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Capricha, looking as gorgeous as ever

summer flies

Indeed it does.

Pattern: Summer Flies, by Holly Griffin-Weidner and Donna Griffin

Yarn: OrangeFlower merino/bamboo sock, raspberry, ~3/4 skein (330 yds.)

Needles: Clover US 6 bamboo circs

my ravelry project page

notes:
The pattern was a delight to knit, and it involved enough elements that I never got bored with it.  The knotted openwork section required concentration. The picot bind-off was new to me and took a while to do, but the end result is fluttery and lovely.

I really like the butterfly details:

I think Beatrix Potter would approve. It looked awfully small as I was knitting it, and I had to fight the urge to embiggen it.  Good choice, as it blocked out to the perfect size. Plus I had plenty of yarn for a change.

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urban oasis

When we moved into our new place, the deck off the back door looked like a trash heap, littered with an old mop, a bottle of bleach, an electric juicer (still in its box), dead plants, etc. I had high hopes for the space, though Paul thought it was a lost cause.

Voila!

It doesn't receive a ton of light, but enough for my plants.

There isn't a ton of room back there, but it's spacious enough for this bistro set (where I've been drinking my morning coffee), plus we have the cute Restoration Hardware chair and a grill, as well (not pictured).

Getting used to the lack of outdoor living space was one of the hardest parts about adjusting to Chicago for me.  Seven years later, I've made myself a little green place outside, and it's delightful!  Our neighbors couldn't believe the transformation, and described its former state as a wasteland. In fact, they were inspired to clean up their area, too, and plant a windowbox. Not too shabby for what's essentially a gussied-up fire escape.

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kitty-cat weirdness

Capricha in one of her trademark poses:

She loves to stand on top of Winnie the Pooh and slowly knead him with her front paws while she goes into an ecstatic trance.  We call it "giving Pooh the business." What an odd girl!

pink moon

on the needles

Something new!  Brokeknits pointed out the Summer Flies shawlette pattern a few days ago, and I was enchanted. See the rows of little butterflies?  Whimsical and cute, but not too twee.  I'm using yet more OrangeFlower yarn from my stash -- Merino Bamboo Sock in raspberry.  The bamboo content gives the yarn great sheen and a bit of crunch, plus it makes the yarn take the dye in a sunwashed, subtle way.  It's so pretty.  That said, I do miss the super soft squishiness of merino/cashmere/nylon yarn. I have a feeling this is going to fly off the needles. ;-)  groan...

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in the post

The ever generous and thoughtful Mia sent me this amazing parcel of goodies:

Not only did she knit me some pink fingerless gloves (which fit perfectly!) and a posh bamboo spa washcloth, she even knit a Traveling Woman shawlette!  I suppose it's fitting, as I knit the exact same pattern for her last winter.  It's so pretty -- she used handspun yarn from roving dyed by Scout.  I can't wait for some cooler weather so that I can wear it!

There's also fancy "tequila" soap from Biggs & Featherbelle, homemade jam (yum!), and books, Needles and Pearls and The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family, which is of great interest to me as I'm a big fan of The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate.  Any book about an eccentric family in a crumbling British estate pretty much has my name written all over it.

Mia also sent me a bounty of her gorgeous handspun yarn.  Lots of blues, in nice, heavy aran weights. Any suggestions for patterns that really showcase handspun?  The skeins range from 196 to 300 yds.

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lesson learned. twice.

Fresh off my finishing high from Hemlock Ring, I picked up Gaenor again and chugged along at a brisk pace.  Much to my chagrin, I ran out of yarn quite a few rows from the end...  Yeah, relying on guesstimation to figure out when I was halfway out of yarn didn't work at all.  

This is beautiful yarn -- OrangeFlower's 50/50 merino silk fingering in "leafy green." Naturally I don't see any more of it on Ravelry, and she doesn't do repeatable colorways.  I'm waffling between ripping back a little more than halfway or just ripping out the whole thing. Both the pattern and the yarn are amazing, but a springier merino with more body might work better with the pattern and the sawtooth edging.  The silk content gives this yarn lots of wonderful drape, but it may not be the best for the pattern.

After this knitting fail, I asked Paul whether I should start something new or resurrect a project from the graveyard of abandoned knitting.  His look of surprise at the existence of said graveyard prompted me to rummage around amidst the shades of handknits past.  I emerged with this Damson:

Another project where I had run out of yarn!  I had started the contrast edging last summer, but was stymied by Row 109, in which you do some fancy "(k1, p1) twice into the double YO" action.  Apparently doing something similar on my Hemlock Ring enabled me to wrap my head around the concept, so I quickly did the last row and bound off.  It just needs a good blocking (and a proper FO post). 

notes to self

1) check yardage

2) check gauge

3) weigh yarn
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I'm very busy with proofreading for work right now, and Kylie insists on helping.  That cat...

FO: Multnomah

Kate Flagg published this pattern just after I returned home from visiting Portland and Multnomah County!  It was meant to be...

Pattern: Multnomah by Kate Flagg

Yarn: Impulse of Delight Merino Silk, "Sun Dappled," 1.3 skeins

Needles: Clover US 5 bamboo circs

my ravelry project page

Notes:

the good
Delightfully easy pattern, and the yarn is great. Nice sheen, lovely shades of green, springy yet a little crisp. It seems more like heavy fingering weight (almost sportweight) rather than light. The color in the first photo, taken out on my wee little balcony, is true.

 

the bad
I don’t love the pattern, actually. Something about the big garter stripe down the middle bugs me, and  the feather-and-fan pattern isn’t incorporated into the design very smoothly (e.g., look at the garter panels between the feather and fan sections and the center stripe). Also, the top of the shawl seems kind of tight because of all the KFBs. Subbing YOs on at least one side might work better. Blocking did help a good deal with the tightness, but it’s still not perfect.  In fact, before I blocked it, I considered ripping the whole darn thing.  I'm glad I didn't, though, as it will be perfect with my brown corduroy coat this fall! Unless that combination makes me look like a tree nymph...

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hemlock ring update

10 rows left, plus the bind-off (which I've heard is neverending)!  Huzzah, huzzah.  I'm doing the larger size (beyond the gold line on pattern chart), and I need to wind my 3rd skein of Eco Wool.

good things

• casting on for a new project

Gaenor, by Corinna Ferguson, knit with Orange Flower's merino / silk fingering weight yarn.  The colorway is "leafy," which just happens to be one of my favorite words. The yarn is absolutely wonderful.  Karin has a great sense of color, and the merino / silk is slippery and smooth.  I'm using size 7 needles; size 5 or 6 might be better, but not so much better that I would frog and start over.

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• taking the Kitchen Aid out for its second test run

Buttermilk Pie Bars, from the Baking Bites blog.  Holy cow, these are amazing. They're like cheesecake, but better in that they're not too heavy.  Usually when recipes call for freshly grated nutmeg, I'm too lazy to bother.  This time I'm glad I did!  I also added a bit of lemon zest. They're light and cool and absolutely delightful.  The only thing that could possibly improve them?  A handful of black raspberries sprinkled over the top. 

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• my new desktop wallpaper

The Doctor plus a kitten?!? Be still my heart.  More Dr. Who desktop wallpaper available here, courtesy of the BBC.

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•  a new outpost of First Slice Pie Café just opened right across the street

Hurray, iced lattes and delicious salads all summer long for me!  First Slice is an awesome nonprofit organization; proceeds go to feed the homeless in Chicago.  Seriously, it's so new that they haven't even finished planting the flowerpots out front yet.

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•  my Jeep's sporting a new touch of class

Yep, a 1' tall Bucky Badger magnet.  Makes me smile every time.

FO: first in a series

Pattern: Verdaia, by Jodie St. Clair
Yarn: Knit Picks Gloss Sock, Pumpkin, 2.5 skeins
Needles: Clover US 5 bamboo circular
~ my ravelry project page ~

Notes:
Verdaia deserves better photos than these, so I'll revisit it with a modeled shot sometime soon when the photographer (AKA Paul) is free and not busy playing summer sports. The pattern was a delight -- very easy chart to follow, the leaves are fun to knit, and the main body zooms along quite quickly.

The cast-on method didn’t work terribly well for me, but I muddled through somehow. I knit 3 repeats of Chart 2 rather than 2. This was not the best plan, as now it's truly shawl-sized. I prefer shawlettes that I can wear as scarves.

While in progress, Verdaia looked like a lumpy mass, but blocking really worked wonders. In fact, next time I'd block it even more severely, just to open up the pattern even more!

This color is just gorgeous; sadly KP has discontinued it. What fools these mortals be...

All in all, a very affordable and successful project. Note to self: do not embiggen shawls!!

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While almost all of my books have been unpacked (especially my research materials), my knitting supplies have suffered a different fate, sadly. Still in boxes, alas...

I did dig up some cotton yarn (hurray for using up leftovers!), and knit up some quick washcloths:
Two Grandma's Favorite Dishcloths and one Corrugated Cloth. Perfect to knit while watching Miss Marple on Masterpiece Mystery. Guilty pleasures...

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things I'm loving:

• cats + patios = catios

Take a gander at the NYT slide show -- it's even funnier than the article! I'm sure Capricha would love one, but it's definitely not in the cards.

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• Dahon collapsible bikes

I checked out Mary's on Wed. night, and it seemed awesome. Anyone have any experience with them? 26 lbs, collapses in less than a minute, would most definitely fit in the back of my Jeep.

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• The IT Crowd

The BBC has done it again -- something simultaneously nerdy, hilarious, and wonderful. You can stream it via Netflix.

something old, something new...

something old

I dug Liesl out of the dark corner where she had been hibernating, and knit the sleeves last week! What's left to do now is reinforce the neckline with single crochet, which actually has me a bit nervous. I may rip out the body's hem and add the last 2/3 ball of yarn after I finish the crochet reinforcement. A little extra length might be nice, but we'll see... just finishing this up may prove miraculous enough! It has been on the needles for something like 2 years. The yarn is Debbie Bliss' Alpaca Silk Aran, which makes me a bit itchy and sneezy (sigh), but it's so pretty that I will make it work (a la Tim Gunn).

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something new

I had fallen off the wagon a bit with the 10 Shawls in 2010 challenge. There's nothing like a KAL to make me want to head off in a completely different direction! Those minor rebellions...

Anyway, I'm working on a new shawlette pattern, Verdaia, and I'm just loving it.
The yarn is Knit Picks Gloss Sock in the (sadly discontinued) Pumpkin colorway. The pattern is intuitive, and the charts are very clear. I didn't love the cast-on method, I will admit. I'm doing 3 repeats of Chart 2 rather than 2. This time I actually have plenty of extra yarn, so there's no chance of running out! The pattern requires some pretty serious blocking, so in the end it should look much less ribbed and smooshed.

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something both new and blue

We're moving next month, and I'm ever so excited! We're bidding adieu to Lakeview after five great years and heading to Ravenswood Manor, a charming neighborhood along the North Branch of the Chicago River. It's close to Lincoln Square, the most "Wisconsin" part of Chicago, complete with German bars, Gene's Sausage Shop, the Old Town School of Folk Music, coffeeshops, all sorts of good things.

Our new living room:
I'm busy contemplating paint colors for other rooms, though we're keeping the light blue in the living room, of course, because blue is the best color. ;-)

wandering the concrete jungle

Pattern: Wandering the Moor, by Celeste Glassel

Yarn: Orange Flower MCN fingering, "golden honey," less than 1 skein (~350 yds)
Needles: Clover US 5 bamboo circs
Size: regular/small
ravelled

Notes:
A very pleasant pattern to knit! The stockinette portion is mindless and perfectly portable, and the lace pattern is intuitive. I like that it's geometric in design and not too frou-frou. The yarn is soft and wonderful to knit. There were a couple of minor typos in the written-out directions for the lace portion; Celeste has updated the Ravelry page with errata.

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In a couple weekends we're heading north with a few friends for the Badgers/Wolverines outdoor hockey game. Yep, outdoors! UW's putting an ice rink in Camp Randall for the occasion. I need to get the ball rolling on some red hats for Paul and me. I wound some red O-Wool already, and I'm debating between a Slouchy Copy Cat Hat and a 16 Cable Hat for myself. Any thoughts?

Wandering the Moor #2 is already in progress. This time I'm using Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool in Verdigris, an absolutely lovely shade of blue-green. While I love Silky Wool for its sophisticated, nuanced colors, nubby texture, and crispness, it's a bit hard on my hands and wrists, so I can't do marathon knitting sessions with it.

I used Silky Wool for my Textured Shawl last year, and it's holding up beautifully. No pilling, snagging, or growing out of shape. I'm very tempted by Orange Flower's Textured Shawlette to give the pattern another go. While I'm happy with mine, I'd love to follow her modifications and make one that's wider and more scarf-like (hence more versatile).

fo: saroyan

off the needles

Saroyan is not only off the needles (which happened back in December), but even off the blocking squares!

Pattern: Saroyan, by Liz Abinante

Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold Silky Cashmere, cassia (#016)
7 skeins @ 44 yds/skein
Needles: Clover US 8 bamboo circular

Notes:
The pattern's very intuitive and easy to knit; extra kudos that Liz at feministy has offered it gratis. In look it's similar to Alana Dakos' Cedar Leaf Shawlette, but the construction is completely different. I'm not in love with the ends of the piece. They look a little blocky and unfinished. That said, it wasn't at all fiddly to knit, and I most definitely did knit it while watching Bones. How fitting!

The Elsebeth Lavold Silky Cashmere is soft and silky, but the yardage is truly maddening. So many ends to weave in! Also, the woven-in ends are fairly visible. It might be wise to undo the plies of the yarn and weave them in separately, but with so darn many of them, I was less than excited at the prospect. So while the fiber content may be luxurious (55% silk, 45% cashmere), the knitting experience is not. I'm very glad I purchased this at a steep discount or else I'd have been very annoyed.

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Also off the needles is my first Wandering the Moor shawl. Yes, I enjoyed the pattern so much that I've already cast on for another (we'll save that for another post, though). This one still needs a good blocking. The bind-off was new to me, and I'm not 100% sure I did it correctly -- we'll see how it looks after blocking. It certainly is nice and stretchy.

I did notice a couple of wee typos in the written-out directions, but nothing major, and I'll email Celeste about them. The orange flower mcn fingering was delightful to knit (with magnificent yardage to boot), and I'm looking forward to trying more of Karin's yarns.

It appears I'm not alone in my disenchantment with Wuthering Heights! Jane Eyre, though, I do get. :-)

Thanks, too, to everyone for the hand cream recommendations! I'm using Aquaphor at bedtime now (per Buster's suggestion), and it has worked quite well. It's like slathering Vaseline onto your hands, though, so it's not the best for all-day use. I'll have to pick up a few more of your recommendations.

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in the kitchen

chai tea

I found this recipe for chai concentrate via Amy's blog, and it's quite spicy and good! For the cost of one chai tea latte at ye olde Starbucks you can make enough concentrate to gussy up 28 regular cups of black tea. The mixture requires a thorough stirring to get everything to dissolve properly, so it's probably not the best for iced chai.

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caramelized onions

Remember that Seinfeld bit about the milk conundrum at the grocery store? Do you have enough? Should you buy more? I always feel like that about onions. Somehow we end up with way too many. I hate having them go to waste, so the Everyday Food article on caramelized onions was absolutely perfect (same recipe for caramelized onions available for free here).

I topped my standard focaccia recipe with caramelized onions and goat cheese, I threw them into an impromptu pumpkin sauce for pasta, and some I just ate plain. Delicious and easy, though a little time consuming.

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left: Joy the Baker's honey cranberry cornmeal quick bread - yum! This really grows on you. Not too sweet, not too cornmeal-y.

right: oyster mushroom, leek, and fontina quiche (weird pdf link -- not sure where it's from, but it came up in a google search) -- made with half the mushrooms, double the leeks, and gouda instead of fontina. The sheer amount of butter that goes into this recipe is a bit scary, but it's delicious. I followed the crust instructions from the recipe, which I wouldn't do again -- I would use my old standby, Martha Stewart's basic pate brisee pie crust.

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on the radio

Even if you're not an NPR buff, you'll still most likely enjoy the second half of today's feature on "The Story," where Brad Stoller tells about a rite of passage adventure in Big Sur with his not-so-responsible father. Very funny but also heartfelt.

The bit about Carlos Castaneda and the "gait of power" is especially humorous, even though Castaneda was a huge weirdo.