Purple Days Test Knit

These were a pair of test knits I did simultaneously.  Well, it's a set right?  You can't make just part of a set!  And so, here we have the Purple Days Mitts and the Purple Days Cowl.

The Yarn

Unfortunately, another yarn that's been discontinued.  I suppose I shouldn't complain too much, since I was able to afford it, being on super-clearance, normally alpaca-silk-cashmere yarns being a little out of my price range.  Still, it was absolutely lovely to work with, and unfortunately won't be available soon :(  It's really soft and nice to work with.  The colors are lovely (and totally the reason I chose this yarn for this project, the whole Purple theme).  And no color bleeding when I wet-blocked (sometimes an issue with these handpainted yarns)

I used just over 0.5 skein (82 yds) for the mitts, and about 2.25 skeins (310 yds) for the cowl.  Altogether, I've got about a skein left, so enough to make a matching hat or headband :)

The Patterns

Since these were test knits, there were changes to be made, simply being still works in progress.  The mitts, for example, called for too many stitches at the given gauge.  One tester solved the problem by casting on 10 fewer stitches.  I went waaaaaay down on my needle size to get to a size that would fit my tiny hands.  This has been corrected/adjusted in the final pattern, but it was something I had to consider as I made them.  I liked the pattern very much.  The lace was a simple little repeat that helped break up the stockinette without taking all your concentration.  The mitts were also very quick to knit - one mitt in less than 3 hours!  I think I finished the pair in about 3 movies worth of time, give or take.

 

For the cowl, I wanted it a little bigger than the dimensions that a sportweight gauge would have yielded.  So, I held two strands together for this one.  It was also nice, in that it helped prevent color pooling.  The cowl is long and drapey, with enough room to be doubled up if I want it a little warmer (the picture on the left below).

 

Notes, Alterations, Etc.

For the cowl:

Sport weight was a bit light for this pattern to get the size cowl I like, so as I mentioned above, I held the yarn double and worked that way. Love how it came out.  That was really the only change I had with the cowl.

For the mitts:

• Used a smaller gauge (6 st to inch, not 3.5-4) and still cast on 40 stitches - my hands are just not that big…
• Worked 7 rows in each of the ribbing and stockinette stitch sections (I kept the lace pattern the same).  The smaller gauge meant shorter rows as well, so I needed to lengthen the mitts a little to keep them functional.
• Held aside 8 stitches for thumb, then picked up 8 more (16 stitches total, not 20) - like with the gauge, just needed to make it a little smaller to fit my hands

The mitts are raveled here.  The cowl is raveled here.

Pinteresting Wednesdays - bamboo placemat vases

OK, this one might be cheating a little.  Well, stretching the definition of Pinteresting juuuuuuust a little.  Yes, this project is currently on Pinterest, and pinned on my Craft Ideas board, but I was the one who added it :)  Still, the original website where I found it, Dollar Store Crafts, was one I discovered through Pinterest.  The website I pinned was the full instructions for this project at In This Life.  So, in a round-about way, I think this still counts as a Pinteresting Project!

 

I did make some changes as compared to the inspiration project, but it's definitely still the same idea, just tailored to my own decor and tastes.  Here's what I used:

• Glassware of assorted heights.  I didn't use the sugar shakers, but two vases and a drinking glass.  The Dollar Trees in my area didn't have multiple sizes of sugar shakers, so to make an assortment of heights, I turned to other glassware to suit my needs.
• Two plain bamboo placemats.  I liked the colored ones in the inspiration piece, but the colors don't match anything in our house.  The plain placemats were slightly more expensive, not being at the Dollar Tree but at the commissary, but they were still only about $1.25.  Not too big a difference.
• The third placemat came from Target (I believe) and is a black and natural striped pattern.  Still not a Dollar Tree placemat, but also still only about $1
• Scissors
• Hot glue
• Paint - black

What next?

I really followed the directions as given this time!  *gasp*  I know!  That's kinda unusual for me with my knitting and craftiness.  As I stated above, the website with the full instructions and lots of pictures is In This Life.  I'm just summarizing here and noting the few changes I made.

1. Make sure the glassware is clean and dry.  Set aside the tops, if using sugar shakers. I was using vases, so didn't have to worry.
2. If you are doing anything to the mats decorating-wise, do it before you start cutting and hot-gluing.  Painting over hot glue can get messy.  I painted two of my mats plain black using just basic craft-store acrylic paint and a foam brush.  Make sure they are completely dry before continuing on.
3. Trim a mat to the height of one of the glasses.  The easiest way to do this is to score the placemat first with a craft knife, and then cut it with scissors.
4. Wrap the trimmed mat around the glasses.  
5. Cut the mat to just fit around the shaker.
6. Be sure to secure the end pieces of the mat immediately with hot glue in a couple of places, especially at the strings.  This will prevent the mat from falling apart.  Otherwise, the sticks in the placemat will fall away once the strings are cut.  Not a mess you want to deal with!
7. Carefully hot glue the mat to the glass, wrapping the mat around as you go.  Be careful to keep the bottom of the glass even with the bottom edge of the mat. 
8. Secure with rubber bands and let dry.  Ta-da!

Repeat these steps with your other glasses, and you'll have a set.  Fill them with whatever you want!

All in all, the biggest changes I made to the inspiration piece were what glassware I used for the bases, and painting the plain bamboo mats instead of using the colored ones.  I ended up with 3 vases still, but in patterned black and natural instead of eclectically colored stripes.  Definitely more my taste.

Also, it is easier to paint the placemats a solid color instead of a pattern.  I had originially wanted to paint the middle-sized vase a black and white pattern, but things just kept smudging on the slats.  When I found the striped placemat, it solved my problem perfectly.  So, personal experience, it's much easier to make it a simple paint job than to try and do something involved on the textured surface.

Review: Pride, Prejudice and Cheese Grits

One of my resolutions this year is trying to read more.  My goal is 2 books a month, and so far, that's a pretty good average pace.  Average, because I never read one book at a time, so it's not always an even 2-a-month.  For example, I didn't really finish much in June, because I had 4 books going, so I'm on pace to make up for that in July :) 

This one was one that was a free download on Amazon Kindle (click the picture below to go to the Amazon page): Pride, Prejudice, and Cheese Grits by Mary Jane Hathaway.

Summary (courtesy Amazon's page):

Shelby Roswell is a history professor on the fast track to tenure until her new book is crushed in a review by the famous historian, Ransom Fielding. She struggles to regain her momentum only to discover that Fielding has taken a visiting professorship at her college. The place that was once a refuge from the poverty of her past is now a battlefield of Civil War proportions.

Ransom is still struggling with his role in his wife’s accidental death six years ago and was hoping a year at Shelby’s small college would be a respite from the reminders back home. He never bargained for falling in love with the one woman who would give anything to make him leave. Together Shelby and Ransom learn that home is never very far away, and when you least expect it, love arrives.

With a cast of Civil War re-enactors, an evil wedding planner, antebellum mansions, and several mysterious diaries, 'Pride, Prejudice and Cheese Grits' will take you on a touching and hilarious ride through a modern South you haven't seen before. NOW WITH RECIPES

Yes, I got the one with the recipes too.  The only appearance of the cheese grits, as a matter of fact (they don't play any part in the story).

Free Kindle books are nice, but I'm still not going to waste my time, even if I haven't wasted money, on a book that's not worth it.  So, I always start with the other Amazon user comments, just to get an idea if it might be interesting.  Beyond that, I read it to make up my mind on my own :)

One of most frequent complaints in the the Amazon reviews questioned the Pride and Prejudice connections.  It honestly didn't bother me too much.  Hot-headed heroine, awkward hero, lots of butting heads and misconceptions.  At that level, it really didn't bother me.  There were scenes that were straight out of P&P, though.  Funnily enough, those were the scenes I liked the least.  Just didn't fit, somehow.  (Slight spoiler alert)  The party that Shelby goes to with her mom and sisters and the disastrous matchmaking attempt was straight-up Mr. Collins.  And that honestly bothered me.  It's a modern story, but that scene just seemed so... anachronistic.  I mean, I have friends who have received "You're not getting any younger" type comments from friends or family, but in this day and age, 27 is not absurd, especially for someone in academia.  PhDs aren't overnight degrees, after all.  Her mother getting frantic about her 27-year-old daughter turning down a date with a guy in his early 40s just seemed out of place.  Yes, Shelby did behave on the ruder side, but the guy was pretty much insulting everything she'd worked for and cared about.

The other big complaint in the Amazon reviews were about proofreading mistakes.  Looks like I downloaded a later edition, because it wasn't an issue.  There were still some, and a few continuity things that nagged at me, but otherwise, don't be put off by that criticism. 

As for the story itself...

It is Christian romance.  Meaning, no steamy scenes.  Lots of banter, smoldering looks, and a kiss or two before the wedding at the end.  It is listed as Religious Romance in the categories down near bottom of the Amazon page.  I hadn't really noticed it, but I'm up for Austen in any form.  If you're not, or you're looking for something steamier, this isn't the book for that. 

On that same note, it's not a beat-you-over-the-head preaching sort of story.  A character is looking for forgiveness, another for strength, characters pray and from time to time, talk about the importance of faith in a relationship. And that's about it.  No moralizing, not really heavy handed proselytizing.  I didn't find it distracting from the story at all. 

I liked the lead characters.  Shelby, the heroine, is outspoken, honest, pretty but not "everybody hates me because I'm too pretty" (yes, I recently tried to start one whose heroine was like that.  I couldn't finish it).  And yes, I have a partiality for nerdy, sarcastic, curly redheads :)  The hero, Ransom, is suitably awkward and proud for an Austen hero.  I liked them, honestly.  I powered through the book in 2 days, so it kept my attention pretty securely. 

I liked the best friend as a character, too.  A lot of the other secondary characters seemed very underdeveloped, though.  They just kinda appeared for a scene and then disappeared.  Tasha, the romantic rival, was entertaining, if aggravating, but then my personality tends more to Shelby's views than Tasha's.

I felt the disasters were a little rushed, especially at the end.  The video especially seemed to just come and go with little development.  Things just kinda happened and then never mentioned again, like the author was trying to fit in too much.  Like the faux pas at Ransom's aunt's party?  And the back-to-back disasters towards the end felt very rushed.  Everything worked out alright, and for the most part, no loose ends.  Just felt like things kinda happened and then were gone, no lasting repercussions.

My biggest complaint was the questionable Southern geography.  The book is set at the fictitious Midland College in the fictitious town of Spartainville, MS.  So, they talk about going to Oxford for shopping and so forth.  No problem, there's an Oxford, MS.  The heroine's hometown is Flea Bite Creek, though.  Though it's never mentioned where Flea Bite Creek is in the book, there really IS a Flea Bite Creek.  In South Carolina.  South of Columbia, actually, about 9 hours from Oxford, MS.  Resulted in a few issues for me:

• Her "regular weekends home" seemed off to me.  I've done the 8 hr drive from Greenville, SC to Virginia Beach, VA very regularly, and it's makes for a very draining weekend.  Add two more hours for the round trip... Hard to believe.
• With the 9 hr distance, the dismissive way people talked about Flea Bite Creek just didn't fit.  If you're going to be dismissive about a tiny Southern town, you're going to do so about the ones nearby, not ones 9 hours away.  People always talk about what they know.
• Also, characters mentioned Savannah and Charleston as destinations like they were just a couple hours away.  From Oxford, MS, these cities are each about 10 hours away.  People tend to be 'out of sight, out of mind' so seemed a little weird.  It's like being in Atlanta and regularly talking about Baltimore as a destination.  The Southeast uses a relatively small radius, as a region; things are more compact.  I've learned in Texas, an hour and a half drive is nothing.  "Oh, it's just in Austin."  In the Southeast, that same hour and a half would pass a dozen more towns than what would be in the same stretch in Texas or further west. 

I realize it's a stupid complaint for a work of fiction, but I spent two years looking at Southern maps for my job, including for some job sites in Oxford, and it bothered me. It was as if the South was just a nebulous region in this story, everything all kinda near each other.  Probably not something that would bother too many other people, but there you go.  One of those little tickles in the back of your mind in the story that wouldn't go away.

Overall: 3.75 of 5.  Glad it was a free book, but I'm always glad of a free book.  I don't know if I'd've bought it, but it was pretty good  and it did draw me in.  It's a Christian romance, as mentioned, so nothing steamy, but the characters are cute together.  Likable leads, and in all, a nice, fluffy, fun read.  Just some quirks that made me wonder if the author had spent much time in the South...

Surprise Cowl

This one's a follow-up to the Surprise Hat, the test knit from last month.

Again, the yarn is Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, and the pattern is the The Surprise Hat and Cowl by Cinzia.  Everything I'd say about the yarn and the pattern is really already discussed in the previous post.  As I mentioned, it's a very easy pattern to work with and to remember.  Obviously, I like it enough to make the cowl after test-knitting the hat!

 

I made only a few minor changes in the cowl, compared to the written directions:

• I went down a needle size (US9) and then knit the Large size.  As I tend to snag on things, I wanted the cowl lacy, but not too snaggy.  The smaller needle size gave me a slightly denser knit, not quite so open.  My aggressive blocking plus the cotton content in the yarn means that the cowl will stretch and drape plenty, even after finishing the blocking in the dryer (as I did for the hat). 
• I did 7 rounds of seed stitch for the borders, making wider borders than the pattern called for.  I wanted it to match the hat  :)
• With the wider borders, I didn't do all the pattern repeats.  I just worked it until it was about a width I liked, finished that pattern repeat and then did my border.

 

It's raveled here.

And those are really all my notes for that pattern!  I guess really, I just wanted to show off new pictures ;)

A pair of finished knitting projects

Two scarves to chatter about here.  Both finished last year, one all the way back in January, and I'm only now getting around to posting on it.  The other was knocked out later in the year while I was sick and spending a lot of time on the couch.  Both are finally getting noted now.

The first one was begun as we were travelling at the holidays and I needed a mindless project during all those hours of driving.  This suited the need perfectly.  The pattern is But I'm Biased by Kate D'Ettore, available as a free Ravelry download or on her blog.  It's one of those lovely, uncomplicated patterns where you just keep knitting until you run out of yarn, and then Ta-Da: lovely scarf!  And with only two rows to memorize, it made for wonderful in-the-car knitting.

The yarn is Malabrigo Rios, color Candombe.  The color reminds me of woods and dusk and other lovely things, all blues and greens and purples with touches of brown and light blues.  As we all know, "mmmmm, Malabrigo!"  Yes, it is as wonderful to work with as it's reputed to be.  The resulting scarf is delightfully soft and squishy and warm.  I only bought one skein at the Yarn Crawl in Oct, planning a simple one-skein scarf for myself as a treat.  This worked perfectly.

It's raveled here.

A required Kitty Helping shot.  Anytime I'm blocking something, Scruffy will choose the moment I'm taking pictures to sit right on top!

The second project for today is the one knocked very quickly.  Being sick enough to not want to be active, but not so sick that I could just laze about and not move at all, I settled in on the couch with White Collar (seasons 1 and 2 are both on Netflix Instant Watch!) and this scarf.

The yarn is Hometown USA again, this time in the Lake Tahoe colorway.  We took a vacation up there a couple years ago, so I do have some connection to the name.  Between weather and stress and timing, though, it wasn't really my favorite trip, so nothing really sentimental.  Honestly, I just really loved the color :)  It's rich blue with tweedy hints of green and purple. 

The pattern is the Icon Scarf by Elizabeth Nields, published in the Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts 2010.  The Icon Scarf.  Dorky little me, however, kept reading it in my head as the Ionic scarf.  I don't know if it's too many years of Latin or too many years in science labs, but Ionic just stuck in my head for this one.  As a result, I refer to this as the Column Scarf.  It's leaning toward the Latin 'Ionic' reference, and the long, thin scarf just seems to fit a column, so I think it works :)  The pattern is pretty easy to memorize, but the cable twist row does get a little fiddly.  Not that it's an impossible, physics-defying sort of knitting move, but it does take a little to get the hang of two cable needles going in opposite directions.  At least it did for me.  

The two pictures below each have their purpose:  show the colors (left) and the pattern (right).

 

Other than that, I wouldn't make this in acrylic again.  It did open up a little with blocking, but a natural fiber would have opened up more, to show off the laciness inside the cable. Yes, I do know that.  Yes, I used the acrylic yarn anyway.  Still, I am pretty satisfied with the final project, and I knocked it out in a weekend, so who can complain?  :)

It's raveled here.

And in case you were wondering, yes, I'm writing about scarves in Texas in May, where it is in the low 90s this week.  

Oh So Pinteresting Wednesday: Not quite sewn vest!

So, it's not sewing (not a single stitch) but I made a vest!  Just playing with fabric, really.  :)

 

Another idea I found on Pinterest.  There are several versions of the vest available on the web, so I'm not going to reprint all the instructions here.  The ones that I used the most were at Dried Figs and Wooden Spools, Behind the Seams and at S3w G33ky.  The method for all is summarized as:

• Buy jersey knit material.  I found mine on sale at Hobby Lobby, so in addition to being an easy craft, it was one on sale too!  I used a yard - made it a 45x36 in rectangle I was working with.
• Fold in half.
• Cut armholes at the location you want.  It helps to pin the pieces together to line the armholes up properly.  Dried Figs has some good pictures of the process, if you want a full visual tutorial.  I have broader shoulders than the examples I was working from, so my armholes were cut a little wider.  My armholes were approximately 10 inches long, located 6 inches down from the top of the material, and about 7 inches in from the fold (they are 15 inches apart in the final project)
• Wear!

Hmmmm....  So, apparently, I lied.  I did write up everything here.  It really is that easy!  

One of the other perks of this vest is that, being just a big rectangle (or square, if that's how you cut your material), is that it also acts as a lovely lightweight scarf.  We went up to Irving soon after we moved to TX for the Genghis Khan exhibit, and I wore the piece as a vest while we were out and about, but threw on a windbreaker and wore the piece as a scarf while we were inside the exhibit.  There was a Mongolian mummy among all the artifacts on display, so the exhibit had to be VERY well air conditioned (about 65 degrees!).  I really liked having the versatility in what I was wearing that day, because Texas in September is nowhere near 65! 

I'm sharing the crazy!

I got Zach to run a marathon!!  A full one!  This was a couple weeks ago, April 21st, but we just got the email over the weekend that the race photos were up and online, so it reminded me that I hadn't shared yet.

The Army Marathon was a point-to-point race between Temple and Killeen.  Pretty interesting race in itself.  Kinda crazy planning your long runs thinking about running to the next town over...

Good luck!  I posted both pictures, since you can't really read the sign in the picture with Zach in it :)

 

The grins are still nice and big at the starting line!  We ran into a coworker of Zach's whom we see at a lot of the races in the area and got him to take our picture.  A nice "before" shot, y'know?

 

The race planners had done a great job for timing.  The race start was 0630, so it was still dark when we all set out.  It was a little cool at the start, since we'd had a cold front move in.  But had it been normal spring weather, that early start would mean that even the pokey runners like myself would be done before the sun started being miserable.  The extra bonus to the early morning start is that we were on the course as the sun came up.  Made for some pretty skies!

But really, we couldn't have asked for better weather!  It's Texas in the spring, so goodness knows what sort of weather you're going to get.  We lucked out ROYALLY!!  65 and overcast the entire race!  It had been in the 90s the week before, and climbed back up after Sunday, but the race day itself?  Not too sunny, not too windy, not too hot or cold.  Very Goldilocks - juuuuust right!

How'd we do?  We actually finished about 6 minutes apart.  Zach took it out a little fast and his knees started objecting about halfway, so he did a lot more walking than planned.  I dropped about 20 minutes from my Long Beach time - new PR!  I seem to have come up with a training plan that works:  get sick the week before the race.  This isn't the first race that I've been sick right before, and then run a strong race.  As best I can figure, it forces you to rest (mandatory taper!) and it knocks off the nerves and pressure.  After battling a bad cold all week, I was debating up until Saturday morning if I was going to run on Sunday or not!  So, at the starting line on Sunday morning, my whole goal was "FINISH!"  With less pressure on myself, I relaxed and just ran as was comfortable.  Kept my goal pace up until about mile 14, then had to slow down a little.  By mile 17-18ish (my usual wall) I had pretty much reversed my walk and run intervals, doing a lot more walking than running.  That was the point I could tell I had been pretty sick the week before.  But I finished! And with a very strong first half, I dropped time!

And how was the race itself, being its first year and all?  Very well done!  I'd definitely recommend it to anyone in the central Texas area, or anyone who wants to come in and visit (kinda an odd destination race, but you meet all types).  Minor changes and suggestions to make, but really, the important stuff was covered.  Packet registration went pretty smoothly. Plenty of water and sports drink stations through the race, and port-o-potties on the course regularly.  Intersections were always staffed to direct runners and any cars passing through.  The shuttle back to Killeen from the finish line didn't have too much of a wait (veeeery much appreciated on tired legs).  Good shirts and a pretty decent finisher's medal, too.  And a side note - being held the weekend after the tragedies in Boston and West, TX (only an hour and a half or so from us), it was handled very well, considering the enormous impact those events had on the community represented at the race (both runners and central TX residents).  You could tell the security had been upped a bit - a lot more patrol cars on the route than a race this size might expect, and K9 units noticeably at the start and finish.  But the event still ran very smoothly.  For being a first year race, that's pretty impressive.  So yup, definitely a recommended race if you're in the area.

I know when I ran my first one, I wasn't sure I'd ever run another.  But hey, I'd finished at least one, which is a heckuva lot more than many people do.  I thought I'd pretty much stick with half marathons and shorter, now that the big box was checked off.  Unless of course, there were special circumstances...

Which lead to Long Beach.  A few days before a friend's 40th birthday, and with a handful of folk from post also running.  So, yes, plenty of reason to make an exception for another one, right?  The power of peer pressure!

And then the standard was set - if there is a good reason, I'll consider that crazy distance again.  Ta-da: Killeen decides to co-host a marathon with neighboring Temple.  And since I needed motivation for spring runs, I was signed up again (and managing to talk Zach into it too!)

Killeen is a kinda nondescript town.  It's not miserable (i.e. not like our last post!!) and civilization is available and not horribly inconvenient. But it's not a place that really has any character of it's own.  Just kinda a large bedroom community for the post here.  And with Austin and Waco being so close with so much going on, it's very easy to write things off, "oh, I'll just go to Austin for that."  With races though, that's kinda hard, even though both Waco and Austin have a lot each year.  For a big race like a half or a full, traveling an hour and a half or so away means hotel stay, meals to consider, lots of travel after a very long race... makes an already expensive and time consuming race a lot more work.  Having a race right here in our own back yard is a chance you can't pass up!

So, yes, supporting a marathon that is actually close to home was important.  And it supports some close-to-home causes, too, to ice the cake.  It was the inaugural race this year - if there's a good turn-out and positive reviews, they'll keep having the race.  Which means something positive for the community.  Definitely one to run.

The funny thing is, Zach had that "first-and-last" marathon attitude when we finished too.  And then yesterday, he said he might run another, just to earn a time he'd be happier with.  Who knows?  We'll see what we think next year!

(PS - sorry I didn't get any finish line shots - we were both exhausted and just wanted to get home to a nice long bath!)