Green Mountain Mama

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2009-02-08T21:02:00.001-05:00

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hiking stowe pinnacle

2009-02-08T08:39:00.003-05:00

Friday's plan called for an hour hike so I headed up to the Stowe Pinnacle trail. I thought that snow conditions would be pretty good for a snowshoe/crampon-less hike, and i was right. there was good traction and a well packed down trail. The weather was warming up a bit, mid-twenties and the sun was even poking through the clouds.

There was a couple in the parking lot when i arrived. they were trying to use every piece of brand new gear they purchased: snowshoes, poles, gators, crampons, hand warmers. i jumped out of the car and started my stopwatch and headed up before that expedition started clogging up the trail.

It's a steady, fairly steep climb - though not as steep as most trails around these parts. because i didn't have a lot of time. I was aiming for the vista, not quite the top.

It took me 40 minutes to reach the vista and the views were gorgeous. I hung out and snapped some photos and then took off down the mountain. Sliding down the steep parts and running the not-so-steep, I got down in half the time it took me to go up. But the day after I realized that running wasn't such a hot idea. My quads are really painful and it was challenging to do a high tempo workout on the bike the following day. Two days later, they're still hurting and I'm facing a long ride with fried legs.

seeing results

2009-02-06T08:45:00.003-05:00

For anyone who lives in any sort of a metropolitan area, this might sound strange. But for others like me who live 45 minutes from the nearest shopping area of merit, you might understand. I never get out to go shopping for clothes. Not unless I'm traveling for work or perhaps if I'm visiting parents. Which means when I need new things I often order them online, sight unseen, fit untried. Sometimes this works out great, sometimes not so great. It's okay, I've given myself permission to return anything that's no good.

Last december I did an order from Boden, they have some good stuff for work and were having a nice sale. In addition to my new favorite cashmere sweater, I also got a pair of jeans. Jeans are hard. Every pair fits differently and may or may not look good on any particular person. So I got these new jeans. I pulled them on. they came up over my hips - but zipping and buttoning was impossible. Not going to happen. No twisting, pulling, jumping, writhing was going to get those jeans to close. But I liked them, and I wanted them. And since I was already at the beginning of this training thing - i didn't send them back. I stuck them in the drawer and decided to wait it out.

This morning, I thought it was a good day for a clean pair of jeans. For some reason I grabbed the ones I stuck away almost two months ago. and i decided to give them a try. I pulled them up over my hips, then I zipped them all the way up, and I did the button. They fit! They really fit. They're on the snug side, but seems like you're supposed to have tight jeans these days. It's just awesome to see that what I'm doing is working.

trainer time

2009-02-04T20:34:00.003-05:00

This was my view for an hour and a half today. Same on the schedule for tomorrow. It's doable, but it's not fun. Neither would be riding outside in this cold, cold weather.

Honestly, it wasn't as bad as I was expecting.

It's been a rough week. Since AZ I've had an insatiable hunger. Just can't seem to stop eating. Some of it is okay but some is not so good. Fruit binge i can live with. Cookie binge is bad. so my weight is now showing some of my inability to control myself, and that bums me out. I know that in the big scheme of things I'll get back to normal eating and i'll return to where I was going - but still it makes me sad. wish i had better self control.

Now i have to work on designing the new Bike29 race kit. I'm not really feeling very inspired, so i'll go surf around the web a little trying to get some ideas. Wishing that we'd finish moving the computer upstairs so i could work on the design layout without freezing. Also working on my to-do list, all the stuff i've been meaning to do but haven't. Race kits, sock order, new biz cards for George, web updates, blog changes, etc......i need to write it down to have a chance in hell of actually doing it.

cross ride 1.30.09

2009-01-30T16:17:00.002-05:00

January 30, 2009

28 degrees

very cloudy

My plan called for a cross bike ride today. I checked the weather yesterday and it was calling for a high in the upper 20's which fits within my parameters for 'warm enough' to ride outdoors. So i started to pull together all the stuff. tights, warm socks, shoe covers, foot warmers, layers, merino wool, balaclava, big jacket. on-and-on-and-on-and-on. that's a lot of stuff and i was sorely reminded about how little I needed in AZ last weekend.

I launched my ride (once the temp hit it's high point for the day) from my gym down the street. We have a shower and changing room at work, but i'm just not that keen to have all my co-workers gawking at me as i clump out to go for a ride. i'd rather have strangers gawking at the oddball going out to ride a bike.

The ride was about 75% paved roads and 25% dirt. A little sloppy, mostly it wasn't too bad out there. the dirt roads were slick under the slush and i ended up letting some air out of my tires for the 2nd dirt section for additional traction which helped a lot.

In the end I really enjoyed the ride. After my last snowy ride, which was miserable cold, I was apprehensive and not really looking forward to it. But putting more thought into my route (more climbing, as little descending as possible) made a big difference.

SSAZ09

2009-01-25T09:52:00.005-05:00

We own a bike shop. this means that George and I can never travel anywhere together from March through November. We also live in VT where it is very cold and snowy these days. I decided that this year, we were going to take a trip somewhere warm during those few months that we can actually escape. We're not really beach people, prefering the active getaway. So when Deejay started talking about SSAZ in Tucson, our decision was pretty easy. We were headed to AZ to ride singlespeeds in the desert.

The first couple of days in Tucson it was raining. Pouring at times. At least it was a warm rain, but I was really hoping for some sunshine. We had to get up wicked early on Saturday morning to make it over to the starting park, as we drove there the moisture had made fog as thick as pea soup. Temps weren't bad for us northerners, i didn't bother with arm or leg warmers to start - wasn't that cold.Above is the starting group. There were about 60 riders headed up, only 5 of them were women including myself.
We left the staging park and rolled out en mass to the starting line, chit chatting and getting to know some of the other riders.
The first part was a long fireroad climb. You can see in the photo above that i'm pretty much solo at this point. There were a couple of people behind me somewhere, which made me feel just a little bit better. But, you see, it was all part of my strategy. I knew it was going to be a long day and I wasn't going to waste all my energy on the fireroad and have nothing left for the singletrack. Besides, I had a backpack full of food and water and nothing better to do than ride my bike all day. Why rush things?
Here I am rolling up to the first aid station, end of the fireroad climbing part. You can see that there are others here, I wasn't actually too far behind. George and I headed out together onto a super fun singletrack section. It was fast and smooth and just amazing. It was still early in the morning, so the light was perfect and the whole desert riding experience was really amazing. It wasn't too long when we caught up to a pair of riders fixing a flat. We passed them there, but ended up riding with them for a little while afterwards.
Above you can get an idea of the landscape and the beautiful day. So different than VT riding and such a nice change from snow.
Due to all the rain they head earlier in the week, all the washes and streams were flowing. The first half of the ride was definitely a wet feet ride with loads of crossings. Some you could ride, others got a little deep and George wasn't keen on me to submerse my hubs. I wore the wrong socks for this ride, I should have scrounged up some wool socks as the synthetics rubbed wrong when they were wet and I was hiking - which was unfortunately pretty frequently.

So after the superfun singletrack, came some steep climbing and lots of stream crossings. Followed by fire road climbing and descending. This area is heavily used by off-road vehicles and we saw a lot of them. They were all quite friendly and courteous and looked like they were having a blast. It seemed to take forever to get to the next rest stop - you know it's coming up, you just have to get back to the main road but it was taking forever. I was already tired at this point and we'd been at it for 3 and a half hours - the amount of a normal long ride for me. And we were only about half way done. I knew George was feeling it to - after all, he hadn't been on his bike for a month. We agreed that we were going to ride on at a totally sustainable pace and we were going to finish the whole ride.

So back on up the fireroad to the other aid station for a beer. We were right on the heels of a group of 3 guys and there were a couple of other riders just hanging out there drinking in the sun and beer. After eating as much food as we could stomach, off we went for more singletrack. This stuff was pretty fun too, though more climbing in the first part. It would have been more fun with fresh legs, but I certainly enjoyed it.

After a little while we joined forces with the group of three in front of us. They had one guy who was not doing well and they were locals and knew where we were going and what sort of terrain lay ahead. Towards the end the trail got really technical and rocky and rough. I was beat and having a hard time steering and braking appropriately and was definitely walking a lot of the stuff. There were cacti of all sorts all along the trail, and landing on one was not something I wanted to do. Sure enough, I fell over at one point. Thought I was good, but when I stood up there was a cacti ball lodged in my butt. You cannot pull them off like burdock seeds, i tried.
Anyway, we made it to the end. 48.5 miles on a mountain bike with only one speed. It took us 8+ hours, but we weren't last and there was still beer and pizza left when we got there. I'm stoked. Three months ago i was in the cardiologist office on a treadmill trying to figure out why my heart didn't work right when exercising. I didn't know if I would ever get to have a good ride or run again. And so it was just a huge personal victory to do this ride.

saturday - january 17

2009-01-17T11:19:00.002-05:00

we've been in the middle of a major cold 'snap'. seriously. it was -33* degrees when I woke up on Friday morning. You know it's cold when 9* feels warm and toasty.

there's been a lot of time spent on indoor bikes this week. frankly i'm tired of it - but it is what it is. Since it's Saturday and it was -20* this morning and no new snow, i headed out to get my workouts done first thing in the morning.

First up, a delightful pilates class. Challenging, but still fun. Then onto the bike for an hour. However, since I haven't done laundry in a long time, I didn't actually have any sports bras or bike shorts in any type of condition to wear. I ended up going with a yoga top and the unders to an old Nema bike kilt. Those suckers are short. Honestly, the lovely women on Rock of Love wear more clothes than I had on for this ride.

Made it through and it was actually a good workout. The sun is shining and K and the dog and I spent some time out of doors for the first time in many days. I pulled out my old Kona and started to get the dog accustomed to running next to the bike. But I guess he got tired cause after a couple of trips up and down our road he refused to go farther.

It's really going to happen

2009-01-14T13:36:00.003-05:00

View of the full moon over the Green Mountains from the plane as I was landing at BTV on 1/10/09. Click to see larger and check out the bridge and waterfall in lower left corner.

Last week the posted the registration form for SSWC09. I colored it in and sent it in right away - even though as a woman I'm guaranteed a place on the start list as long as I pay my $35 USD. BTW - i think it is very cool that they've done this for the ladies. It's such a male dominated sport in general and particularly with the SS category. I bet they'll see a ton more female participation this way.

Anyway. So I'm on the list. I'm paid. I'm signed up and I'm going. Which means I've got to be ready. I can't go out there and ride like the lazybones that I've been for the past few years. That's not going to work in this instance.

All things considered, the fact that I began this training as winter arrived. The fact that it's been freezing cold and snowing. The fact that I've got a job and family to juggle - I think i'm doing well. The workouts are happening. I'm enjoying them. and I'm seeing results. So here's my big goal - it's concrete. No longer am I wondering if I'm putting in my base miles for naught. It's on.

Monday - January 5

2009-01-06T07:50:00.002-05:00

January 5
Singlespeed ride
30 degrees (ish)
Not enough clothing
1:40
Picking up the new pooch took all of the day on Sunday, and with family visiting I had no opportunity to fit in a long ride on the weekend. Seemed the right thing to do to squeeze it in on Monday, besides it was going to be a whole 30 degrees which seemed a lot more palatable than 16 degrees.

Sure enough it was 'warmer', but the wind was blowing, the roads were slushy, wet, sloppy and for some reason no matter which way I went there wasn't enough climbing. I was freezing on this ride. Hands. Feet. Core. Just completely chilled and uphappy.
I rode in Stowe and headed up Nebraska Notch road to the Trout Club. That was an enjoyable climb, mostly in the saddle with my gearing. The Weirwolfs did great at about 20 psi on the roads which were covered in about 1" of new snow on top of old crunchy snow. Not much ice on the dirt roads yesterday.
Here's the dam at the Trout Club lake. The water was still flowing over the ice and it was very pretty.

Although I was aiming for a LONG ride, I just couldn't stay out any longer. Sucks because I know that I'll be wishing I had a lot more hours in the saddle when we're in AZ. But at least I don't have frostbite I guess.

why my long ride didn't happen today

2009-01-04T19:12:00.002-05:00

Because we had to go on an 8 hour excursion to get this guy. But I am going to reschedule for tomorrow. It's supposed to be a lot warmer tomorrow than it was today and warmer makes it a lot easier for spending hours and hours out on a ride. And by warmer, i mean 27 instead of 13 degrees.

January 2

2009-01-02T15:18:00.002-05:00

Attempting to start the new year right. I was up extra early this morning and hit the gym. I sat on that bike and started pedaling and just felt like crud. Like that cold that i've been so smug about not getting was being gotten.

My heartrate wouldn't really go up. My tv wouldn't do the closed captioning thing. It was a pretty miserable morning on the bike.

New Years Eve workout struggles

2008-12-31T15:37:00.004-05:00

Today the Universe seemed to throw every obstacle in my workout path. It started out well enough, I got my body out the door and off to the gym. However, when I arrived I looked into my bag and realized that I didn't have my spd bike shoes. I didn't even have my sneakers. Just some snowboots. I did have my Speedplay bike shoes still in the car, and I guess I could have used them in the toe straps, but I didn't think about that and I went to work instead of the gym.

K had a friend over this afternoon and I was planning to ride the trainer while those guys kept each other entertained. But then I couldn't find the trainer. I thought it was at the shop but eventually, while cleaning up some junk, I found it in a corner and set it up for a ride.

One hour. That's as long as I could make it. The trainer is too loud to hear the audio on the computer and so it's pretty mind-numbingly boring. I only had to stop twice to check on the boys/mediate.

I put the Van Dessel on there because it had pedals. The plan is that the Soma will live on the trainer with a trainer tire in the back. But I only have two pair of pedals, one on the SS and the other on the VD. I don't want to constantly switch them (laziness) and Santa didn't bring me another pair but I hope he does cause i want to be able to ride the cross bike on the road outside this winter while still having an indoor set-up ready to go in a pinch.

This set-up is in our basement which I am actively working on tidying up to make it more conducive for kids/adults.

Christmas Day Ski

2008-12-30T20:16:00.002-05:00

This is a bit out of order. But i'm finally home and have access to the shots from our Christmas day ski. My cousin and her husband came up to VT from VA for a skiing holiday. Unfortunately for them, we had a big warm up and the snow conditions were less than optimal.

But these folks are tough and fit and I wasn't about to let them come all the way up here without a quality outing. Off we went to the Waterbury Resevoir where we embarked on a 4 hour tour.

The temperature was pleasant. The sun was pale and soft in the sky. The trails largely untracked and the snow mostly crap. We had a tough, steep climb followed by a less steep slog. The lead person had quite a job laying tracks and the fun of the whole thing was compounded by numerous open water bars.

Finally, after a couple of hours we made it to the 'road.' For some reason, no snowmobiles had been by recently which meant that the snow was SOLID. Rock hard. I'm not a good skier. It's fine on anything that goes up or stays flat, but if i start descending i'm a mess. No idea why. I skied downhill very proficiently for 12 years. I snowboard well. I like snow. Just can't do the downhills on cross country skis. Anyway, this is where we started going downhill and I started to go down.

We took a turn that I was familiar with and cruised down a wide open fire road. All was well and good until we discovered that the bridge was out. This led to an amusing stream crossing. When we finally skied up to the car, 4 hours after starting out, we were all happy to be done. And I was pretty stoked that I managed to tucker those guys out and give them way more of a ski than they were expecting.

Down in PA

2008-12-28T21:17:00.003-05:00

It's the end of the year, a few vacation days left, daycare is closed and the ski pass is not valid between christmas and new years. So I headed on down to my parents in PA with K in hopes that I'd be able to get some good riding done.

Doesn't it just figure that this is the year that PA gets a white christmas. It was 38 degrees on Saturday when George and I attempted a singlespeed ride in Jim Thorpe. It was also very snowy. 4-6" of wet, slushy snow. We got a nice hill climb up a road, but as soon as we turned onto the fireroad it was a nightmare. Running low tire pressure with my easy gearing allowed me to ride fairly smoothly, but George was really having a rough time. In a way it was making me laugh, all those lectures he's given me about tire pressure and tire selection and weight balance and riding in the snow - all those things that I was actually doing (and have been doing for weeks) and they were working for me. He hadn't even followed his own advice and it showed.

Today I went out on the cross bike and was hoping for several hours of fun riding. However, about an hour into the ride the wind picked up. Gusts were pushing me off the bike, the sky was getting dark and I was not stoked to be out on those roads in that weather. I'm just not used to riding with all this traffic. More intimidating than the volume of cars is the fact that people don't get over. In VT cars give you wide berth if no one is coming opposite, and if someone is coming they still give you as much room as possible and pass with great care. Not here. No shoulders, no space, no respect. So hard to feel comfortable on these roads.

Christmas Eve Ride

2008-12-24T14:51:00.003-05:00

December 24
29 degrees
Snowing
Singlespeed - one hour

Gear - 2 polypro layers on top, all winter gear, with the addition of my softshell Cloudveil pants that I normally wear x-country skiing, balaclava.

I played fast and loose with my plan today and swapped the Wednesday and Thursday schedules. And then, instead of riding inside - I rode my SS outside. And instead of following it up with a weight workout - I started my day with some pilates. crazy, absolutely crazy.

I stood in the garage doing eeny-meeny-miney-moe to pick what bike to ride. In the end, I went with the SS for two reasons. #1 - I missed it and wanted to ride it. #2 - I felt the tires might be a better choice for today.

It was snowing pretty hard. I would have been happy to have goggles for this ride. The climb part was sloppy and I found myself riding in the middle of the road for optimal traction. Good thing the traffic was light to non-existent. Still, I wasn't breaking any speed records today. The bike picked up a lot of extra weight. See what I mean:

Today's ride was a blast, I wish I had more time and some goggles as it would have been a great day for a longer ride.

Diversions - December 23

2008-12-23T17:13:00.004-05:00

Today the plan was to head up to the mountain and grab a few runs before work in the fresh snow that fell Sunday/Monday. Monday was a super windy day, so generally the day after you can still find stashes of powder seemingly untouched.

However, turns out that today was bitterly cold. On the walk back from the bus stop those old frost bite patches were twinging and we weren't outside for longer than 15 minutes. Come to find out that it's -15 degrees outside. No wonder the face was cold. It was totally calm, so windchill wasn't the issue. Just the temp being so low. I thought about going up anyway, but really I'm not that into getting more frostbite so it was off to work.

Today was the office holiday pot luck - and it was full of lucky pots. I ate way too much food followed by too many sweets. So it was off to the gym for me. Another hour on the inside bike and honestly it was a good ride today. I pushed the pace and kept the legs moving fast and the hour flew by. Then I had to get back to the office to finish up a few things. I can't seem to find a way to fit these weight workouts into the schedule. Just have to make time I suppose and be a more dedicated to making the workouts happen.

Anyway, I get back to the office and find this set up outside my office:

It's like a rumpus room up here right now.

Oh - and the best news? I booked our flights to SSAZ today. We are going to AZ for some warm weather biking and I can't wait.

oh the snow

2008-12-22T19:31:00.002-05:00

We all knew it was coming. Winter. And it's here.

Sunday dawned grey and gloomy, the forecast was no good. George headed up to the mountain and I got K ready to go up and do a few runs on the bunny slope. Between starting the car up and actually leaving the driveway the snow started to fall hard and fast. By the time we were coming off the mountain at noon it was piling up significantly and we were far from the rumored high temps in the mid 20's.

it was at this point that i knew that my planned afternoon ride was going to be a bust. the road conditions were pitiful and plow trucks were out in force, not a good time for a cyclist. Temps were only 15 degrees, my feet just aren't equipped for that low. I thought about the gym, but honestly driving back to Stowe was not sounding like a wise choice.

So i just laid low. Oh well. And to top off Sunday, today I didn't want to go to yoga. We're getting a new instructor on Monday nights and I'm just not that into her style. It'll be fine, i just need to mourn the loss of the old instructor.

I did however go to the gym and sit on that damn bike for over an hour and pretended like I was riding over my favorite hills on my singlespeed. The glimmer of hope in my future? Looks like 50's for the mid-atlantic region later this week. I'm looking forward to riding outside and not totally freezing.

December 19 - hiking

2008-12-19T16:08:00.002-05:00

December 19
19 degrees
snowing

so, my goal was to hike for an hour. I debated where to go and whether or not I should trail run instead or ski or what-have-you. I ended up choosing the Stowe Pinnacle Trail which is in general, one of the most accommodating trails around. It's not nearly as steep as most and it's only 1.6 miles to the top.

What i wasn't sure about was the conditions. And sure enough, they sucked. 6-8 inches of fresh, fluffy snow on top of shear ice. It wasn't all ice. Just the parts with an incline. Which is 90% of the trail. In the beginning it wasn't too bad. A few people had been there and the trail was tamped down enough to be passable.

But after a certain point I was breaking trail. At this point i needed to watch for the blazes and watch my footing.

This is where it started to get really treacherous. All of the rocks, of which there are many, were covered in a layer of thick, slick ice. There was nothing for traction. So, after 40 minutes of up, i gave up and turned around. Good thing, cause it took me 30 minutes to get down (about 15 minutes more than it should have). There were a few crashes and there were lots of feet skiddering out from under me at totally random moments.

Right now I'm feeling stoked that I got out without breaking a wrist or a femur or something like that. The positive side is that it was beautiful in the woods and the snow was just starting. Very quiet and calm and nice to get outside for a little while. And really a good workout. Despite the tricky footing, my heartrate was up the whole time.

12/16 and 12/17

2008-12-18T07:35:00.002-05:00

On Tuesday - I won. It was a nutty day with lunch out and a work dinner and I didn't know where I was going to fit in my ride. But I ended up having some time in the early evening and I slipped over to the gym. Those 45 minutes on the bike flew by, I didn't want them to end.

But yesterday - I lost. I had a meeting scheduled for 10:30 with my boss's boss. He was running late, it got pushed and pushed and pushed. And I kept thinking that any moment it was my time. It finally happened at 4:50. For ten minutes.

Meanwhile, George has K on Wed and I could tell that it just wasn't going that well for him and me going to the gym for 2+ hours after work wasn't going to be an option. I hadn't been home for two nights at this point, and that's just not right. So, I sucked it up and went home and had no workout.

Today, my plan is to do yesterday's long ride. And lift when I get home. It's warm enough that I could ride outside this afternoon, but pulling all the gear together for a 25 degree ride from work seems really daunting. So i think i'll just throw a movie in and ride this afternoon inside.

12/16 Fitting it all in

2008-12-16T08:20:00.002-05:00

I woke up today determined to have my butt to the gym directly after loading K on the bus. But then I realized, that I don't get done with bus duty until 7. By the time I got to the gym, rode for an hour and got to work that'd i'd be later than I should be.

But - my salad was made and I was feeling pretty organized. So I took care of some business and did a 20 minute weight workout and aimed to get to work early to make my afternoon workout less guilty.

Then - I realized that I have a holiday lunch date today. And I have a dinner with the boss of my boss.

I believe that I can fit my ride in directly after work and before dinner. Or, I'll sneak out mid-afternoon and just work until dinner. The hard part about doing this training is not the workouts, that's the fun part. The hard part is arranging schedules and owing favors and managing guilty feelings to get it done.

December 14 - long ride

2008-12-14T17:46:00.004-05:00

26 degrees. cloudy. windy.
3 hour singlespeed ride
all winter gear + balaclava

it was another one of those days. George needed to go snowboarding this morning and we needed to get our tree before i could head out to get my ride in. my goal was to be on the road by 12:30 so that i could be sure and be home before it started to get dark - well, it was about 1 when i got on the road.

at first i was freezing, which is generally a sign that you've chosen your layers well. the paved roads were messy with slush and ice. the dirt roads had a layer of ice under the slush and grit on top. for the most part traction was fine, but going up anything steep i often found myself spinning out on ice just as I was most committed into a standing climb.

with a big climb at the beginning and end of today's ride, i spent the middle portion enjoying a nice spin down River Road - the closest thing we have around here to flat. Once I was going, and especially the sheltered parts of the ride, the temperature wasn't too bad. Only the last 45 minutes were the feet really cold. and there was no tingling when i got home so they didn't even actually freeze today. that's a good thing.
it was a balaclava sort of day. it gave me a nice coccoon and with my ipod i happily hummed along the frozen roads.
between the slush that built up on the bike, and these damn 2.55 tires (which were filled with cement that last hour) i had a devil of a time getting up the last hills. it was just so heavy. and there was only one gear, which was not the right one for this suddenly 45 pound bike. it wasn't a proud moment when a runner passed me as i walked up a hill. but hey, i passed her much faster a few moments later.

not quite sure how exactly to clean this mess up. i know i shouldn't leave it - this is a steel frame. but since it's so cold outside i don't exactly know the best way to tackle it.

December 11, 12 and 13

2008-12-14T08:51:00.003-05:00

A quick update on the past few days. Thursday the 11th was one of those crazy days that you get at this time of year. I ran three miles first thing in the morning and it was a good run, nicely paced with good energy. Then I went into work, had a hair appointment and our company holiday party - hence no weights at the gym. But at least I got the run done.

Friday dawned with 8" of new snow on the ground and rain falling from the sky. Then it was snow again. Then rain. Then sleet. The roads were a mess and I just couldn't see any wisdom in trying to ride on any roads. So I broke out the skis and went to cottonbrook. No one had really skied yet, so i made my own tracks through the crust for 1.25 hours. At the end my legs were worked and my upper body as well. I took some photos, but the camera apparently didn't want to hang on to them.

Saturday I totally missed my workout due to this:
This is the sole craft show that I did this year for Hug-a-dub-dub. Actually, it was on the 2nd floor, so my workout was lugging all the stuff up and down two flights of stairs and then standing all day. The show was good, it's always fun to talk about my hobby to people and I was happy to sell a lot of soap which will go a long way to subsidize my training and our christmas this year.

Preparing for 3 hours of riding today. trying to figure out how to keep my feet warm, i think it will be in the high 20's.

December 10

2008-12-10T11:41:00.003-05:00

Inside again.

I haven't done it yet. But i'm supposed to get a nice 2 hour ride in today. At the moment it's 34 degrees and raining very hard. Two hours ago it was 53 degrees and raining. 24 hours ago it was -6 degrees and snowing sideways. Within the next hour they predict that this rain will turn to snow and we'll have 4-8 inches on the ground by the end of the day.

It's just wild. My window to ride outside would have been daybreak, but unfortunately I've got to do this job thing.

So, I have am movie to watch on the bike this afternoon. I forgot my ipod as it's charging in the basement. This will definitely be a test. I know that there are plenty of people out there who can cycle indoors for long periods of time. Let's hope that i'm able to channel some of their persistance today.

I promise, more photos later this week.

December 7

2008-12-07T17:00:00.003-05:00

December 7

2 hour singlespeed ride

stowe town loops and outer loops

28 degrees to start, 33 degrees at finish

light snow falling

gear: oakley baggies, wool knee warmers, tall and thin snowboard socks, shoe covers, one poly pro top layer, merino wool sweater, thick softshell jacket, snowboard gloves, helmet liner

todays ride went well despite a couple of challenges. I forgot my inhaler, so there was a lot of wheezing going on and I could feel that I hadn't done a good job stretching and rolling my back lately - it was killing me by the end of the ride.

most of the trails had just a light snow layer which was pretty good for traction. Parts of the trail had seepage that had frozen into a wicked slippery layer and some sections had 3-6 inches of snow.

i had george swap out my tires, bye bye 1.9 and hello 2.55. These gave me a lot of extra traction without taking out a lot of air. But - I could really feel the extra 1.5 pounds. Felt more like 8 extra pounds. It was a lot more challenging pedaling uphill through snow. Funny, i didn't think i would feel the difference as much as I did.

Also note that my feet did not get frozen today, they were fine the whole way through. I would have ridden a bit longer if not for the combo of the back and trying to get home so we could take the kiddo to see santa at the park. I made it home in time for family duties, so it was worth it.

December 6 - in the gym

2008-12-06T10:03:00.003-05:00

saturday is supposed to be my day to go to the mountain - but it seemed so cold. the snow seemed to hard. that i just ended up doing everything quick at the gym first thing in the morning. Maybe I'll take K up later this afternoon.

Pilates - done
One hour on the spin bike - done

I thought that the workout looked easy today, but once i was doing it I realized that it was a lot harder than i anticipated. The worst part though, was I wasn't organized with my clothes ahead of time and couldn't find my bike shorts this morning in the dark. So i wore running shorts and there was a screw from the seat digging into my leg the whole time. If I had longer shorts, I don't think it would have been a problem.

December 5 Ride

2008-12-06T09:55:00.004-05:00

December 5
One hour gravel/road ride
28 degrees
skull cap, snowboard gloves, 2 layers of poly-pro, big burly softshell jacket, fleece tights, wool socks, shoe covers.

My feet froze today, but all in all it wasn't too bad of a ride. I would have gone longer if it wasn't for the cold feet and the need to get into the shop to tidy and get ready for the open house party. The timing ended up working quite well.

The dirt roads had a confidence-evaporating layer of ice on them, but there were no mishaps although i think i backed off a bit so as not to skitter out unexpectedly.
Best thing was the view coming off Ripley road. I love seeing Camel's Hump in the distance.

Changing gears

2008-12-04T20:49:00.002-05:00

I haven't been very good at posting crafty things on this blog, mainly because since i've gone back to work full time and have been trying to work for the bike shop - there's hardly time for crafty things.

It's time to change gears around here. I'm working on a new project, getting myself in kick-ass shape for riding bikes.

Last summer was awful for me. I had some sort of nervous breakdown which resulted in me having terrible heart palpitations whenever I tried to run or bike or do anything aerobic. By fall I was 15 pounds overweight and really unhappy with myself.

Luckily, I know better than to sit back and wallow. So i'm training. I need someplace to prove to myself that I'm doing what I'm doing, so this blog is to take that place. It will allow me to make a record of what I've done and hopefully inspire me along the way.

sorry if you came here looking for cool knitting stuff. my patterns are still here, and who knows what I might post along the way. For now, enjoy the training ride.

noro scarf is done

2008-11-08T13:28:00.004-05:00

45 stitches wide. 4 balls of noro silk garden. size 7 needles. 1x1 rib, alternating between 2 balls of yarn every two rows. how it turns out is a complete surprise due to the colors of the noro. it's softish and warm, and if the temperature ever drops and real november should ever begin - i imagine i'll wear this a lot.

fall photos

2008-11-08T11:42:00.002-05:00

exciting advancements in packaging

2008-11-05T13:29:00.004-05:00

since my knitting isn't proceeding at any sort of measureable pace, i thought i'd chat about some other topics for the time being. Starting with something I saw yesterday that just made me say, "right on!".

Amazon is debuting Frustration-free Packaging for some of the toys and electronics it sells. This is a pet peave of mine, I absolutely hate all the boxes and plastic and ties that toys come with. I hate clamshells. hate, hate, hate that it should take so long to get into an item that you've just purchased and it's such a waste.

This will definitely be an area of the site that I will keep my eye on as I consider holiday toys and what now. If I can, I'll definitely support this initiative with my $$.

frosty morning

2008-10-19T09:41:00.004-05:00

We're getting thick frosts now. Most of the leaves are down and I'm working on cleaning up the perennial beds for the winter. I thought that this pile of frosted vegetation and seed heads in the wheelbarrow was very striking this morning.

noro scarf

2008-10-18T17:09:00.004-05:00

last year i was gifted with two skeins of a lovely noro silk garden yarn in a pinkish color. For a year i've been trying to decide what to make of it. Looking at this scarf, and at all the beautiful serendipitous color combinations of this scarf and others inspired by it - convinced me to pop into the yarn shop and pick up a couple of extra skeins to make my own.

So far i'm liking how it's coming out. not loving. it's not quite wonderful, but it's okay. the yarn is nice to knit with and the rib pattern is nice for a scarf.

It's been a couple of years since i last made a scarf, and now i remember how monotonous it is. and why i decided not to make so many of them. regardless, this one will be a nice addition and it's good mindless knitting for tired nights, of which there have been many lately.

syncopated is finished

2008-10-13T19:40:00.003-05:00

Here it is. Syncopated cap is done. Once I got rolling with it, the actual knitting went quickly and was amusing and challenging. There will be more fair isle in my future.

making progress

2008-10-02T19:07:00.004-05:00

for those of you that have started one of these and wondered if your left hand would ever get with the program. i'm happy to report that mine is falling in line. it seems to know what to do. this is making the rounds much quicker and I finished another inch in no time at all.

at this rate the hat will be done before halloween.

don't scoff. if you got 30 minutes of quality knitting time a day (if it's a lucky day) you'd be happy with that sort of progress as well.

syncopated cap

2008-09-30T18:59:00.004-05:00

George is on my case for a knitted hat of his own. Nevermind the 4,000,000,000 other machine knitted hats he owns - he's specifically requested a hat with snowflakes and a giant pompom.

I'm not that comfy with fair isle, having attempted it only once before. What if I hated it? So I decided that first I would knit a pattern that I have wanted to do for a long time, even if it wasn't quite what he requested.

Welcome syncopated hat from Interweave Knits Summer 2007. It's a Kate Gilbert pattern, and as a rule I like her stuff. I like the non-traditional take on this traditional sort of hat. Plus, I had a couple of sock yarns that I thought would work well in this contrasting pattern.

So I cast on. All went okay, despite my left hands unwillingness to do it's share of the work. We're slowly getting it to fall in line with expectations. Row by row it's starting to build. A little bit of a pattern reading problem resulted in me having to frog a couple rows, but it's working now. I took this on my trip to Oregon and enjoyed a little calm Sunday afternoon knitting in between all the hoopla with my brothers wedding.

testing

2008-08-04T20:03:00.000-05:00

is this still working?

Treeline Cardigan - not finished yet

2008-05-04T13:00:00.003-05:00

I bookmarked the Treeline Cardigan eons ago. And it took me eons to clear out my WIP progress and collect the yarn (malabrigo) to get it started. Now that it's begun, it's flying along.
Two sleeves are done. The waistband is finished and i've begun the stripes of the body. really having fun with some fast knitting for a change.

Arisaig is Finished

2008-04-13T14:37:00.007-05:00

8 months, plus or minus. Finally Arisaig is finished. I used the same yarn and needles as suggested in the pattern. The only mod was to make the ribbing a little bit longer. I have big arms, so had no problems with my sleeves being too big for my arms. But they were too big for the armholes and I had to rip back 1.5 inches to get my sleeve in there.

This was my first seamed sweater. Seaming? Not really that bad. 80" of tie? Not really that bad. The worst and slowest part of this project were the sleeves.

I think it looks good on me. It feels good to wear it and i think that this sweater will get a lot of use. I'm so pleased with myself - an entire sweater with all this lace, on #1 and #2 needles - it's done and I did a good job. Well done me!

hard at work

2008-04-10T20:30:00.006-05:00

sorry for the radio silence. i've been hard at work. working on a project I can't blog about yet. working on moving the bike shop. Working on all those little things involved in moving a business. Working on planning a couple of bike events in our town. Working on doing a good job with my 'pays-the-bills' job. Working to keep my soap customers happy. And still trying to be a good mama and give my little Star Wars fan the attention he needs.

Here he is recreating the final battle of Empire Strikes Back

I have to be honest. There's not much time for anything else. The house is a pigsty. The laundry is suffocating. Used to be I was at least home a couple of afternoons to deal with the house, now I'm working at the shop. I'm trying not to let it get me down, I wish I had 30 minutes a day to keep up with things. But you have to choose, dinner or cleaning?

Never fear. I'm meeting someone on Monday who will hopefully help with the housework. And I think I'm going to have a stay-at-home-mom friend help me with the soap business.
What I have been slowly finishing is my Arisaig. It was put on the back burner for the special project. But I've finished that and now I'm finishing the ties and the seaming. should have some FO photos in a little while.

80" of 1x1 rib over 7 stitches

malabrigo booties

2008-03-12T14:13:00.004-05:00

are these not the cutest things? Little baby booties out of malabrigo with itty vintage buttons.
They were so quick to knit, I swear I had the first one finished in the time it took my husband to cook his breakfast bacon. I want to try them out in a not-so-varigated colorway and make them a smidge bigger. These appear to be newborn sized. They might also be nice in cotton for spring/summer babes.

and, so you know i'm not slacking. here's the sleeve. i'm getting about an inch done every night - so not far and not fast, but it's still moving along.

finished socks

2008-03-01T15:15:00.004-05:00

Pattern: Inspired by Dobby's socks in Charmed Knits, but the heel and toe are done per Knitting Rules!: The Yarn Harlot's Bag of Knitting Tricks.
Yarn: Alpaca Design 80% Alpaca, 20% silk from Australia
Needles: #1 Susan Bates metal DPNs
Notes: I ran out of yarn part way through the 2nd sock. Luckily, the woman who sent the yarn in the first place for a swap was able to find some more within her stash and agreed to send it to me. The stripes made for wicked fast knitting, but note the extra thick green stripe on the green heel/toe sock. I didn't quite think the strip thing through on that one, but had it dialed for sock #2.
I'm wearing them now and they are wicked soft and warm. A little bit thick, but that's perfect to fit in my slippers and clogs on a snowy day like today.

soap soap soap soap soap

2008-02-26T16:34:00.006-05:00

so part of keeping my soap business means making a lot of soap. here's the first batch. 9 absolutely gorgeous logs of wool wash soap. they turned out brilliant and i will have only a few 2nd quality bars. This entire pile of soap plus one equally as large will be headed off to Green Mountain Diapers. Seems she sells quite a few of these. So many that I actually struggle to keep her in stock. Thankfully Karen has been very understanding and continues to order from me.
There's been a bit of knitting. More sock yarn arrived from Australia so I've been working away on my striped socks. On Saturday night I was having a bit of wine with my knitting, and somehow skipped a very important step of the heel. whoops. So i put the whole thing down and got myself back on the straight and narrow the next morning and it's coming along quite nicely.

Funny thing about the stripes, I do believe that they make boring ol' stocking stitch fly right by.
Hey, what's this? Hello second sleeve for Arisaig.
(sarcasm)You're practically knitting yourself it's going so quickly (/sarcasm)

we have sleeve

2008-02-20T16:04:00.002-05:00

one sleeve down.

that took forever. and i still have yet another sleeve to go. onward.

this is taking forever.

2008-02-18T07:45:00.003-05:00

Oh Arisaig. You are taking forever. I cast on in August. Little by little I've completed the right front, the left front and even the back. Then I put you aside for a while. For months you languished in my knitting basket - not sleeping, still a work in progress, just not progressing.

Last week I pulled you out wondering just how much I had to do and low an behold I've only got to finish TWO sleeves to be done. Two little sleeves. Narrow things without many stitches, what was I waiting for. Let me tell you something, those sleeves are little devils. All lace, no ribbing, it's taking me forever! I thought that I might be able to breeze through the sleeves before resting again on this project. But nope. I think, after I finish sleeve one it will be time for a little break again. At this rate this sweater will be done in time for wrap sweaters to come back around in style - in 20 years.

and there's still the matter of the trim and the blocking and the seaming. sigh.

you may have noticed a little more posting from me. I took the past two months off from the soap company. Having trouble finding time to do it all. In fact, the soap business is officially for sale. But I keep getting emails from customers who NEED to have salve or lotion or something, so I had to open my doors again. And of course, talking to potential buyers has made me more excited about the business.

So, until I have someone who wants to love it as much as I do we're back in business. I think i'm going to work on refining it a bit more and concentrating on the products that I do best. But it is nice to feel wanted by customers out there.

temptations

2008-02-15T15:16:00.004-05:00

it's so rare that I get to meander into a yarn shop and just poke around. but yesterday I found myself in the 'city' with some time on my hands. I stopped into Northeast Fiber Arts Center and poked around -- there's nothing i really need right now. I had no projects planned. I thought maybe i'd pick up some trim yarn for a collaborative project.

but this was calling my name. isn't the color divine?

Sock patterns that I'm thinking of, at this moment include:

Earl Grey by the Yarn Harlot
BFF Socks
Perambulate
Vinnland
Estonian Button Stitch Socks

knitting footwear

2008-02-10T15:53:00.001-05:00

At Christmas I participated in a yarn swap over on Ravelry. My partner sent me two skeins of alpaca/silk sock weight yarn in very yummy colors. A trip to the library resulted in scoring a copy of Charmed Knits (projects for fans of Harry Potter) which just so happened to have a pattern for jolly striped socks.

I cast on during a plane trip to TX, and the flight attendant was most impressed. If you're out here Wonderful Jet Blue Flight Attendant, I hope you were brave enough to cast on those circular projects and knit those hats! Anyway, one sock flew off my needles the second quickly following suit - but OH NO! I ran out of green yarn 25% of the way through sock #2. Nearly out of pink yarn as well I hit the internet looking to pick up a couple of other skeins and nothing. I cannot find this yarn! Here's hoping my swap partner is able to score a couple of extra skeins for me.
Project #2 are these footies that were a request from a friend. Over the years she had been the recipient of heaps of these style slippers from the grandmother of a roomate, she requested a pair in black so that she could wear them on the plane during her frequent travels. Done in Wool Ease, she can throw them in the washer without care.

A pretty quick knit, however the pattern she supplied was not without it's challenges. There was a long stretch of alternating rows of K9 P11 K9 and K10 P9 K10 -- and I could not keep it straight. Each footies had to be ripped back 10+ rows because I messed up. Each row I found myself counting bumps from the row before to figure out how much I had to knit for that row.

new art

2008-01-27T20:14:00.001-05:00

I can be so tempted while surfing around Etsy. Last week, while following a link originally found on Decor8 - i stumbled upon a beautiful ceramic bowl and had to have it.

It came beautifully wrapped (love the look of the bag, I may get inspired by this for Hug-a-dub-dub) and I love the finished piece.This will hopefully soon become part of an artful display of 'plates' on the dining room wall. Thank You Paloma's Nest!

Another fave on Etsy is Tabbatha Henry. I bought one of her pendants from her studio at christmas and always get compliments on it whenever I wear it.

Puff Sleeved Cardigan - Fitted Knits

2008-01-26T15:20:00.000-05:00

A second finished project in one week! this may be a record for me.
Project: Puff Sleeved Feminine Cardigan by Stephanie Japel in Fitted Knits (ravelry link)
Yarn: Auracania Nature Wool in a dark blue
Needles: Size 6 mainly, a little bit of Size 5
Notes: I swatched for this. really I did. I chose size 5 needles as the appropriate size to get the right fabric. BUT - for some reason when I went to knit this sweater, I picked up the #6's and cast-on and didn't realize my mistake until I was 1/2 way through the first ball of yarn. So I just kept going.

It's not too terrible. The fabric is a little too drapey for the pattern and the whole thing ended up bigger than necessary and therefore not really 'fitted.' The first skein of yarn was very different from the following skeins. I liked the first one best, very little variation of color. The bottom half is a little more varigated than I had thought.

The peplum kind of looks like an afterthought, it's a bit bizarre but I do like it and I'm glad I did it and it's done.

January knitting

2008-01-20T13:40:00.000-05:00

K's been asking for me to knit him a sweater for a long time. So, before christmas I took him to the yarn store and let him pick the color yarn (reddish brown Harrisville New England Highland) and over the holidays I cast on for the Children's Hooded Tunic #232. I did one of these already and liked the pattern and the result.

What seems like a million years later, but actually less than a month, turns out that there wasn't enough yarn for the hood (BIG disappointment!) but truly he's happy to have a new sweater all of his own.

Needles: 8 and 6
Mods: just the garter stitch neck instead of a hood.

couple of other quick picks. I did a yarn swap on Ravelry for the holidays and scored this precious alpaca/silk sock yarn from my pal in Australia. I love it and the socks are going to be tres chic.
My favorite christmas gift? This big, posh Emma Bridgewater tea pot. It also came with two matching mugs. Thank you UK Father Christmas! This is my new weekend teapot, it's a little too big for a weekday morning when i have to run out the door so quickly, but it's perfect for a wonderful Sunday morning with the family.

where are they now? revisiting past projects...

2007-12-05T21:49:00.000-05:00

I thought it might be fun to take a look at some past projects and see what they've been up to lately. First up - Monkey Socks. I swear, when I knit these no one else had done them yet. I had the hardest time finding any FO's on the web to look at, and at that time Ravelry didn't exist for me.

I like these socks. the color is fabulous but I think they should have been knit on #1's not #2's. they're a bit saggy and baggy and you can see that we have some yarn breakage. i liked the KPPPM - but haven't really wanted to go out and buy more based on the performance from this sock.
Sock Monkey - yes, it's supposed to be a bear but somewhere along the way this got named 'sock monkey'. the pattern is from Jess Hutch's book of knitted toys which is apparently out-of-print and highly coveted. I'm glad I have a copy as my son loves this monkey. it gets loads of love and cuddles all the time and is close to becoming 'real' a la the velveteen rabbit.
It's made with Knit Picks Wool of the Andes which has held up really well, just a little bit of pilling. The eyes don't work so well. I got the kind suggested, but think that my knitting was a bit loose and they push in all the time which has led to some panic on the part of a little boy.

peep peep

2007-11-30T15:30:00.000-05:00

This little guy will be my mascot at the upcoming craft shows. My logo includes a cute little duck, but this fellow is a little bit more 'natural' than the traditional rubber duck. Only, he wouldn't be a very good bathtime friend.

Pattern: Easter Peeps by Kat Knits (free on her blog)
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpaca Dyed Cotton in yellow
Needles: #4 dpns

Notes: a quick, easy and fun knit. I changed the bind off on the wings to get a more feathered effect. Next time I knit this I will fill the base with some beans or something to give it more stability for sitting. K has quickly decided that I made this for him, so I had to discretely steal it back this morning to get photos and grab it for the show tomorrow.

center square hat for a toddler

2007-11-22T18:09:00.001-05:00

Pattern: Center Square from Knitty
Yarn: Main color is Mountain Colors Sweet Grass Wool 2 ply in Missouri River Blue. Contrasting color is Araucania Nature Wool Bulky
Needles: #9
Notes: I used one strand of the Mountain colors and used the Nature wool doubled. I knit this on smaller needles than called for so it would fit the little guy.

Jaywalker Socks Finished

2007-11-13T09:10:00.000-05:00

Pattern: Jaywalker Socks
Needles: #1 Susan Bates metal dpns
Size: to fit my size 9 feet
Yarn: Socks That Rock Lightweight in Fire on the Mountain Colorway - almost one full skein
Notes: nearly everyone who knits socks has already knit this pattern, and I see why. It's simple, looks interesting, works well with all the nifty varigated yarns out there and it just fits well. This pattern is easy enough for a beginning knitter, but interesting enough for anyone.

Queen City Craft Bazaar

2007-11-08T12:14:00.000-05:00

I'm so excited that I'm going to be part of the Queen City Craft Bazaar on December 1 in Burlington. I'm busy finishing up all my soaps and things to have a great table. Hope to see you there.

Knitted Bunting: a pattern

2007-10-29T15:23:00.000-05:00

I'm planning to participate in several craft shows this holiday season including the Queen City Craft Bazaar which is much cooler and more indie than anything I've done in the past. It threw me into a spin trying to think of how to make my table space cooler and more indie and I decided that I needed to have a knitted sign. I've seen a lot of sewn bunting out there and thought that a knitted bunting would be tres cool. so here we are...

Materials:
Worsted weight yarn (I used Blue Sky Alpaca Dyed Cotton in three colors)
size 7 16" circular needle
size 6 double pointed needles
tapestry needle for weaving in ends

Instructions:
Cast on 25 stitches with larger needles
knit two rows plain
Begin Stockingette stitch pattern:
Knit 2 stitches, purl 21 stitches, knit final two stitches. This row and every other row (the purl rows) - Knit the first and last two stitches so the edge is in garter stitch.
Next row: knit all stitches
Next row: K2,P21, K2
Begin decreasing:
Row 1: K2, SSK, K until last four stitches, K2Tog, K2
Row 2: K2, purl to last two stitches, K2
Row 3: K all stitches
Row 4: K2, purl to last two stitches, K2

repeat rows 1-4 until there are three stitches between garter stitch sections. end with Row 4.
K2, Slip 1 knitwise, K2tog, PSSO, K2
K2, purl 1, K2
K all
K2, purl 1, K2

K1, Slip 1 knitwise, K2tog, PSSO, K1
next three rows, K all stitches

Slip 1 knitwise, K2tog, PSSO
K1
end.

Knit as many flags as you need. Embellish with duplicate stitch as is your preference. My letters are about 17 stitches high. They start 5 stitches from the top of the flag and the serif reaches to the garter stitches on the sides.

To join the flags.
Cast on three stitches to your smaller dpns and knit icord for 8 to 10 inches.
Then begin applied i cord (there's an excellent write up on this technique at the Keyboard Biologist) Knit 1 stitch, kfb, slip one knitwise, pick up and knit first stitch of flag, pass slipped stith over. slide work to end of right hand dpn and repeat until you've reached the end of that flag.

K1, K2tog, K1 and continue to knit i cord for five more rows. Begin next flag. repeat until all flags are hung and finish with an appropriate amount of icord.

knitting on the road

2007-10-23T19:42:00.001-05:00

This past weekend found us on the road to visit with my folks in PA. As it's a seven hour drive and I knew that this time I wouldn't be the principle driver, I brought what I thought was a considerable amount of knitting to bide the time.
My 'so cool it's still secret' project and the second sock of the jaywalker series are what's filling the French Market Bag. Should have been plenty to keep me busy, but i was so productive that I ran out of yarn for the secret project by the end of the journey down. AND THEN, I discovered that despite repeated preparations I had forgotten the sock dpns. and there are no yarn or craft stores within Sunday panic distance from my folks.

so for the entire ride back to VT, I basically had to sit on my hands. what do you do in a car if you can't knit?

A Swiffer Cozy for Penelope

2007-10-17T06:40:00.000-05:00

This was a quick knit on a request for a friend. It's headed down to Mexico where a swiffer is much loved, but replacement pads are hard to come by. I hope that she'll enjoy using it as much as we enjoy ours.
As I finished weaving in the ends last night, my husband asked where his new swiffer cozy is. You see, he wants one with the fancy adjustable tabs (three sets of button holes this time). I'll be happy to make him one.

Details: My own swiffer cozy pattern
Yarn: Blue Sky Dyed Cotton and miscellaneous superwash wool
Needles: size 7 addi turbo circs
Mods: added extra button holes

Republic Hat

2007-10-14T19:57:00.000-05:00

We went from 80 degree days to 40 degrees days almost overnight. hardly any transition at all. So, I've been thinking about knitting hats. Quick and simple and great stash busters. I've got lots of yarn leftover from the cardigan that I just finished and it seemed to fit the gauge for this Republic Hat - so here it is.

it actually came out far too big and baggy. so i threw it in the washing machine on hot with the towels. still too big. so it went in the dryer and this is a pretty good size. the circumference is still a little wide, but it will work. I like how felting it made the fabric a little more dense, better for the winter.

Fitted Knits - Short Sleeved Cardigan With Ribbing

2007-10-09T19:20:00.000-05:00

Pattern: From Fitted Knits - Short Sleeved Cardigan with Ribbing
Yarn: RYC Soft Tweed in Twig
Needles: 10.5, 9 and 8

Mods: I added an extra 1-1.5 inches in the body before the ribbing, then I accidently made the bands before the ribbing extra wide, then I knitted the ribbing until the sweater reached my hip bones (I'm a long torso type). The body ribbing was knitted on 9's instead of 8's because I couldn't find the 8 circs that I know I have somewhere. The sleeve ribbing was knitted on 8's. I made the ribbing on the sleeves a lot longer than was called for in the pattern.

I've read some complaints about this pattern but no complaints from me. I checked the errata, measured myself (38 bust) and knit the size 36 bust version. It knitted up quickly and cleanly, and looks beautiful. I'm very happy with this finished object.

Swiffer Cozy Pattern

2007-09-29T11:04:00.000-05:00

Here is the long awaited pattern for my Swiffer Cozy, winner of an honorable mention in the Whiplash Competition Color theme.

The ballband pattern is a classic dishcloth pattern printed on the back of Peaches & Creme worsted weight cotton yarn. It's been popularized by the 2006 book Mason-Dixon Knitting by Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne. This swiffer cover was directly inspired by Mason Dixon and their use of color and levity for ordinary household items like dishclothes.

For the swiffer cover, I recommend a superwash wool. You can use cotton, but I find that the cotton tends to get a little tacky on the floor, while the wool glides right over. My wool cozy has held up much better than the organic cotton version, and is my favorite for swiffering.

Materials:

worsted weight machine washable wool or cotton yarn, assorted colors, this doesn't use a lot of yarn so it's a great way to use up leftovers or stash yarns.
#7 16" circular needles
4 buttons
needle for sewing in ends and sewing on buttons

Gauge: 18 sts and 32 rows = 4"

Pattern:

Cast on and follow the pattern for ballband dishcloth. You have a copy of Mason-Dixon Knitting, right? Or get the pattern off the label of a ball of Peaches & Creme. It also can be found here under Textured Slip Stitch.

Knit rows 1-12 a total of three times. You should have 6 bands of the pattern and that's just enough to cover the base of your swiffer.

Knit one row
Purl one row
knit one row

start tabs:
change color if you'd like. knit 15 stitches. bind off next 15 sts. knit 15.

work these 15 sts in garter stitch for 16 rows.

buttonhole row:
Knit 3 sts. K2tog, yo,k 5, K2tog, yo, knit 3 sts.

knit three rows and bind off those 15 sts.

there should still be 15 sts on your needle for the other tab. work 16 rows in garter stitch. repeat buttonhole row instructions. knit three rows and bind off.

For the other two tabs: pick up 15 sts from right side. work 19 rows of garter stitch and bind off.

pick up 15 sts from left side. work 19 rows of garter stitch and bind off.

try it on your swiffer and note where the buttons need to be sewn onto the tabs.
Sew on buttons and swiffer away!

the business of soap

2007-09-29T07:26:00.000-05:00

in my spare time, when i'm not working my real full-time job and when i'm not helping out with Bike29 and Five Hills Bikes and when i'm not attempting to be a good mother or futilely cleaning the house, i have a soap and lotion business called Hug-a-dub-dub.

I got started making soaps and lotions when i was trying to find ways to deal with my friend, the eczema, and discovered that i really liked it. It shouldn't have come as a surprise. As a kid, I can remember fondling the homemade soaps in gift shops at historic sorts of places like Williamsburg. I bought a bar, and brought it home and just smelled it over and over. and it was unscented.

for myself, i enjoy the smell of the soap itself. scents don't strike my fancy that much, but just plain soap is the best thing ever.

life has been pretty crazy since we started the bike business and i needed to take some time away from all my commitments. so i did almost nothing with the soap biz all summer long. only what i had to in order to maintain my wholesale relationship and my best and longstanding customers.

but i missed it. and am happy to say that i've been making soap like mad. trying to be prepared to do craft shows and holiday orders, like no one elses business.

one jaywalker done

2007-09-16T14:26:00.000-05:00

here's a sneak peak at a future FO. Jaywalker sock in Socks the Rock Fire on the Mountain colorway. Done on size 1 needles. This is one BRIGHT sock. but i like how the stitch pattern compliments the varigated yarn.
The material is nice and dense and the fit on these is just perfect, or maybe a smidge too big.
look how the yarn patterned on the slip-stitch heel. I like that a lot.

birthday and sheep and wool festival

2007-09-08T13:14:00.000-05:00

Monday is my 32nd birthday. I'm traveling for work tomorrow and will be in San Diego on my birthday. It's not all bad, we have some great friends there and I'll have a birthday celebration the day afterwards. We just did the husbands birthday two weeks ago and had a babysitter for a really nice dinner out and then a party with all of our friends -- so that means that my birthday celebrations will be pretty non-existant (except for the yummy cake that i'm baking.)
so that's why, when I pulled this sweet little package out of the mail box, I was so happy. One of my running dingo friends sent me these two gorgeous balls of Noro Silk Garden. So lovely, so thoughtful. Thanks Monica, you made my birthday!

The VT sheep and wool festival is this weekend. K and I needed something to do so we drove out to the fairgrounds to spy some sheep and alpacas.
I bought one skein of sock yarn. The vendor is Ball and Skein and her hand-dyed yarns were gorgeous. absolutely gorgeous. this is the one that i got, but I almost picked out the black cherry or the comet or the mountain spring.

If you want to control your purchasing at an event like this, by all means bring a three year old. I guarantee that you will not purchase anywhere near the amount of things that you might otherwise. there were some good looking naturally dyed yarns that i wanted to look at and i had hoped to pick up some wooden dps to replace the Susan Bates that i currently have for socks. but alas. one skein of sock yarn is all i brought home.

super-natural stripes baby cardigan

2007-09-05T13:30:00.000-05:00

I had a little vacation from everyday life last week. I took the week off of my out-of-home job and tried to do as little work as possible on the other businesses in my life. The goal was to just rest my brain for a week in hopes that I could come back with more creativity, energy and power to get things done.

One of the things I did was to make this:into this:
Pattern: Super-natural stripes cardigan
Yarn: Blue Sky Cotton in organic and dyed
Needles: #7s and #5s and some #6 dps because i couldn't find the #5 dpns
Mods: I didn't use all organic and I did two buttons instead of one, but otherwise it's true to the pattern.
Comments: I forget who linked to her blog, but f.pea has some of the cutest free patterns out there. As soon as I saw it, I knew that this cardigan would make a great baby gift and I had several colors of the Blue Sky Cotton in my stash (it's one of those yarns thats very handy to keep around.)

The pattern was a simple, enjoyable knit and I definitely think i'll do it again. As a result of knitting this pattern, I researched how to pick up stitches and I learned how to do a single-chain crochet stitch. I love learning new things.

I'm not totally sold on the colors, but these are what I had in the stash. The organic came from a swap a few years ago and I never really found a good little project before. The colors were ones that I had, but I wish I had been bold and adventurous with the colors instead of 'typical' baby colors. oh well, it's still pretty cute.

What else is on the needles? Here is progress on Arisaig. The back has been knitted and I'm working on the right front. I don't want to jinx anything, but now that I have a feel for the lace pattern and the shaping, I think it will go faster and better.

Socks are great travel knitting. Here's the start of a pair of jaywalkers. I started this on the train ride to Boston to see last saturday's no-hitter at Fenway. These may just be my lucky socks.

mini socks

2007-08-28T07:42:00.001-05:00

K and I were having the most no-good, rotten, horrible day. Fighting and arguing about everything. Nothing was making either of us happy. And then I finished the first sock of this pair, and handed it over for him to try on. He was elated and his angry words quickly became "mama, i love you for making me socks."
Pattern: On-Your-Toes socks from Interweave Knits Summer 2007
Notes: see the other socks finished two posts back.

I had just enough yarn left from my socks to make socks for the gremlin. seriously, there were about 8 inches left when all was said and done. i used their sockula (sock-formula) for these, but ended up going a bit smaller. Eight cast on stitches for the toe, increased to 48 stitches for the body equals a toddlers size 9 with enough room to grow.

I think i'll enter this in the contest over at Stash and Burn.

huge rainbow photos

2007-08-18T08:06:00.001-05:00

Finished Toe-Up Socks

2007-08-17T13:21:00.001-05:00

Pattern: On-Your-Toes socks from Interweave Knits Summer 2007
Yarn: A lovely wool with Aloe built right in to soothe your feet. gifted to me from a friend, and yes, I lost the label.
Needles: #2 Susan Bates metal (I think #1 would have been a better choice, but this is fine)
Mods: none really. i bound off wrong on sock #2, but i just wanted to finish something.

These things are finally done! After the #$*&% heel disaster on sock #2, i stuck these in my stash bucket until i felt ready to face the problem and do a good job. Luckily I had a business trip with several short flights. It's nearly impossible to 'work' on those short hops, but sock knitting is perfect for fidgety flying fingers. So I figured out where I went wrong with the heel and reknit the whole thing on the way to JFK. Finished the cuff between JFK and Richmond and back . very efficient.These are my first toe-up socks. I still think the cast-on is pretty fidgety and tricky, but I really like the short row heel. Now that my first try is over, I think i might be up for trying some Jaywalker socks...

new floors

2007-08-08T14:37:00.000-05:00

Before:

And after. sorry i didn't style these. it's just life.
up next - the bathroom

Arisaig and mini-quilt progress

2007-08-01T13:45:00.000-05:00

so, I've cast on for Arisaig. So far it's great summer knitting as the yarn is quite thin and not wooly. It's knit on #1's and #2's, so it's going to take me forever with the limited time that I have for knitting. Mainly I knit at the end of the day while watching a bit of Red Sox. If it's been a rough day, I may not even have the energy to pick up these tiny little needles. I envisioned myself knitting this at the beach cottage in Maine, never mind that this year the beach cottage may or may not happen, that's how i envision it going down.
Here is a long term WIP. A mini log cabin knitted quilt. Inspired when the Whiplash challenge over at Whip-Up was about mini quilts. I took the Mason-Dixon info, and started with my leftover sock yarn and size 2 needles. Some friends sent me additional sock yarn as I quickly ran out. This will be one of those projects that will go on forever I imagine. Possibly I'll do them like granny squares and eventually sew together.

summertime

2007-07-30T10:42:00.001-05:00

when this is your definition of fun:

You definitely need to follow it up with a little bit of this:

hope you're having a good summer!

sock-tastrophe

2007-07-25T10:18:00.001-05:00

i have no idea what happened. i was knitting away on my toe-up sock, cruising through the short row heel. YOing, K2tog, turning, etc, etc, all seemed to be going so well. but it was taking me forever to work through all those paired stitches. And then it hit me. Somewhere, somehow -- there were 3x as many stitches in that heel than needed. whoops. big whoops.

i've never messed up a heel before. after i knit my first pair of socks, i scoffed at all the 'turning the heel' drama that intimidated me from sock knitting for the longest time. and here i am. with some heel-turning-drama of my own.

it's so disappointing. i hate to rip, but i have no choice but to back it up and start over some night when i'm a little more focused i guess. for now i think i'll put it aside and concentrate on casting on for one of my new projects.

speaking of new projects. the postman brought me the yarn for a few of the projects that i've been obsessing over. #1 - Arisaig from knitty.com. This will be my second Ysolda pattern, I actually did her skull illusion scarf a few years back. I anticipate that this will be a 'reach' for me in terms of stretching my knitting skills. It's a challenge and i'm feeling a little intimidated, but i love the look of the sweater. The yarn called for in the pattern was on closeout at Knitting Garden, so at least i'm not out a million dollars if it should go to heck. yarn shown below with new Craft which also appeared today. colors are not very true at all.

my other obsession is Stefanie Japel's Fitted Knits book. I heard the buzz, saw some of the finished sweaters and decided that it would be a good book for me. and it is. i even made it to an actual, live yarn store to try to find the yarn to knit one of the designs that I was into (short sleeved cardigan and textured tunic were my favorites). but they didn't have anything that would work that i liked. so back to the internet and I found some RYC Soft Tweed on closeout at Webs. and here it is. lusciously soft yarn. I immediately began swatching for what will hopefully become the textured tunic. we'll see how the swatch goes.

BTW - both the Knitting Garden and Webs shipped my order extremely fast. I was very pleased and will consider ordering from both shops again.

And finally, to take you out. A view of our front garden and the adirondack chairs that a friend made for us this spring.

toe-up sock progress and swatching

2007-07-20T06:10:00.001-05:00

The toe-up sock is growing. faster than I might have thought. At this point it's just p2k2 over and over again for another 7 inches or so.

yesterday while running i made some knitting resolutions. i want to knit more sweaters, but the finishing and seeming of sweaters makes me nervous. so resolution #1 - knit more sweaters so that i get good at the finishing and it no longer makes me queasy. #2 - it's okay to have some stash yarn. sometimes you need to knit up a project and it's nice to be able and go pull somthing else from the stash. Still not sure that i'll ever let it grow beyond the one bin, but i think i need to feel okay about having any sort of stash at all.

I've been thinking about my next big project. I bought the book Fitted Knits, and there are three projects in there that I'd really like to do. But I'm having some troubles finding the right yarn online. I even went to a real live yarn store and they didn't have the yarn in the pattern or anything that would be an okay substitute. At some point I'll try another local yarn store, I think the Knitting Studio carries Cascade 128.

During this process I stumbled upon the yarn for Arisaig from knitty, on sale. and so i bought it. there are some beautiful finished examples on Flickr and i hope that i can knit something of that order. time to get cracking on those socks so that I'm ready when this new yarn shows up.here's k learning to ride the pump track at Catamount.

Toe Up Socks

2007-07-18T13:36:00.000-05:00

Socks from the toe up. One of my running friends sent me a lovely package last month with some sock yarn and a copy of Interweave Knits which features a big section on knitting socks from the toe up. I'm keen to make a nice long pair of socks and have been wanting to learn something new, so I cast on. Again and again. That eastern cast on is a bit tricky. It's not the neatest toe, but it does look nice and smooth. Once these are off the needles I think I'll be able to smooth things over a little bit.

Apparently some people like the toe-up method because they don't have to Kitchner stitch the toe. Grafting never bothers me. It's kind of fun and it's totally cool to make a toe look like a smooth knit. But remember, I also Kitchner'ed the entire Lace Leaf Pullover sweater body and even before that when i was knitting all those Woolly Wonder Perfection Shorts - loads of grafting. So it's just something that I don't mind.

Perfection Shorts

2007-07-14T05:43:00.001-05:00

K was essentially potty trained by the beginning of last summer, so it feels like I'm a long way out from diapers and all the soakers that i was once making. one of my friends on the running group recently had a little boy and i've been wanting to make her something.
These are the Wooly Wonder Perfection Pants in approximately a size small. Knit with very soft 100% wool from the stash and trimmed with Trelisk organic merino. The body was knit on #9's.

A quick shot of our garden as it finally starts to come into bloom. in a few days the purple coneflowers will bloom and then it will really start to pop.

RIPhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

2007-07-07T14:49:00.001-05:00

Afterthought socks. Knitted in a gorgeous hand dyed alpaca fingering yarn that I picked up at the Sheep and Wool Festival almost two years ago.

One finished. the second started but I just don't like #1. They're too tight around. The pattern is best suited for someone with smaller feet. And someone with stretchier yarn. I don't think i'll ever wear these, should i finish them.

But i'm not going to finish them. I'm going to rip up the one in progress and try to find something else for this gorgeous yarn.

Photos from Catamount

2007-07-04T13:25:00.000-05:00

Noro Tea Cozyhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

2007-05-16T14:17:00.000-05:00

Pattern: Kureyon Kozy from Knitty small version 1
Yarn: Noro Kureyon
Needles: as per the pattern

Notes: I followed the pattern as best as I could. Frankly, although there was nothing difficult here, I had a hard time with the pattern instructions. It could have been written more clearly. Side 1 shows some of the difficulties that I was having. I even frogged to try to fix it, and I never frog anything. Loved the Kureyon, the colors are beautiful.

The finished product is cute and practical and it really does keep the tea warmer longer.

local yarn shop shout-out

2007-05-04T14:08:00.000-05:00

On Wednesday I found myself in Montpelier with Keiran and a little time on our hands. He had just put in an amazing performance at the dentist. Honestly, he should win an oscar for "best impersonation of a good, non-wiggly little boy" for his behavior there. So I decided to try a visit to the local yarn store, The Knitting Studio. I have to give them a huge thumbs up. The woman was happy to see us, very welcoming and friendly. They have a big bin of toy cars for the little guy and he plunked down and ate his snack and happily played cars for 30 minutes while i went around and petted the yarn. A few other customers came in, also very nice and in the end it was a great experience, even with my three year old.

Though I'm trying to dutifully knit through my stash, I couldn't leave without a little something so I picked up a little sock yarn. Hopefully this will work for Clessidra, but even if no I'm sure I can find a use for it.The Child's Placket-neck Pullover is coming along slowly. It's all baseball knitting a little bit at the end of the night. So slowly it will come together. K. misplaced his handknit brown tunic sweater at preschool today. We searched the room and the playground and couldn't turn it up, but hopefully the teachers will be able to find it. I'd hate to see all that gorgeous brown organic wool go missing.

stash knitting

2007-04-27T13:11:00.000-05:00

I've not been a prolific poster lately. Honestly, the whole bike jersey thing. The advent of spring. The overwhelmingness of it all has left me with little to post about. Even though the bike shop business has been doing better than I might have expected, it's still meant that I've had to dip into the proceeds from my soap business for things like groceries and gas for the car. In the past that's been my fun fund. Allowing me to get yarn and other goodies as I wanted, but when you have to choose between cereal for the kid or a little yarn porn - you make the right choice.

it's nothing but stash knitting for me for right now. it's not a bad thing. it's a stash of lots of one or 1.5 skeins of lots of variagated natural fibers. You can see it here:

that's it. All in one container. there are some FO's in there as well. things that I'm not sure what to do with. things that I knitted for my next baby who will probably never be conceived that I should give to someone who is actually having that next baby but i won't give them away because i think that they're wonky in some way and can't tell until i try them on that 'next' baby of mine because another person's baby shouldn't be subjected to my wonky knits. phwew. breathe.

but i am knitting now. a placket pullover thingy from Last Minute Knitted Gifts for my son. Using Wool of the Andes in the miscellaneous colors that I have.
hoping i have enough of all three to finish a cohesive piece. but it doesn't really matter. he wears anything. there's lots of knitting and baseball watching going on these evenings. trying to not burn out on all the other stresses.

jersey thoughts

2007-04-18T13:44:00.000-05:00

We're designing jersey's for the bike shop (finally!!) but i'm so stressed out trying to ensure that they'll look good. Here are a few of the ideas that we've come up with so far. We're inspired by vintage cycling jerseys and want to keep it simple and not so cluttered. Let me know your thoughts.
Edited to add one other version. Please feel free to leave any comments.

a different sort of knitters tea swap

2007-04-17T19:24:00.000-05:00

a dear friend came for a visit a few weeks ago. she's been a good friend and a house mate and we've had loads of lovely times together. unfortunately we now live very, very far apart and our visits are far too infrequent.

a few weeks after her visit, imagine my suprise to arrive home to two packages from her. the first, a collection of teas from SBS Teas and the second a parcel of Lion Boucle yarn. Whether she knew it or not, she had just sent a perfect tea swap package and very apropos considering my obsession with both tea and knitting.

Monkey Socks

2007-04-11T13:22:00.000-05:00

Voila! the finished Monkey Socks.
Pattern: Monkey Socks from Knitty
Yarn: Koigu KPPPM (can't remember what shade exactly)
Needles: #2 dpns

I really enjoyed this pattern. It was easy to follow, hard to mess up and I'm enjoying the finished product a lot. The one change that I made was that I only used 4 needles. I like needle 1 to have half the stitches, and 2 and 3 to split the remainder. i like this configuration especially once the whole heel and gusset bits begin. The yarn was super easy to work. I haven't washed them yet, so I can't report on how they hold up.

little guy socks

2007-04-01T08:07:00.000-05:00

i used the leftover yarn from my socks to make some for the little guy. sorry about the photo, three year old boys are not known for sitting still to pose for pictures of their new socks. still, i like his socks better than mine in that the color didn't pool at all and overall it's a nicer effect. i didn't use a pattern, 2x rib and make it all up as i went along. they won't fit for long, but they're cute for now.

hills

2007-03-28T21:08:00.000-05:00

Laceleaf Pullover progress - almost there

2007-03-16T15:52:00.000-05:00

lest you think i gave up blogging for lent, i'm back. these past few weeks have been filled with traveling, family emergencies, work, soap business, and least of all - tax preparation. this is the first year with the bike business and though i haven't been involved in the books all year long, taxes fall under my umbrella. this has meant spending a lot of time to figure out just what was going on. but we're almost at the finish line with those. Normally I like to have the taxes done much earlier, but i'll still be happy that i'm not filing on the last possible day.

So what has been going on?

Laceleaf Pullover Progress:
sorry for the dismal photo. we're about to get another 18" of snow and the sky is all grey and nasty. Overall, i like it. I like the shape of the sweater. I like the yarn. It didn't really do anything with the leaf pattern, so i just didn't do anymore after the bottom hem. You can't tell anyway. All that's left to do is weave in ends, find a button for the neck flap, fix the dropped stitch that I just found and give it a litte wash. and then wear it. i think i'll wear this one.

My other project is the Monkey Socks from Knitty. The yarn is the Koigu that I blogged about earlier. These are going really, really, really slowly. But the taxes really took a bite out of my knitting time. The pattern is cool. Not hard per se, but it keeps your attention.
It's been hard to pay attention though, because I've been watching this:
I know I'll catch a lot of crap for it, but I remember watching it as a kid and I was so enthralled by Jan Michael Vincent. I read the books a few years ago and tried to score the videos off of ebay, but they were going for hundreds of dollars. Now the dvds are on Netflix. And I'll tell you, whatever i saw in JMV when I was 8 - it's still there.

baby stuff knitted

2007-02-20T21:12:00.000-05:00

A little while ago I posted pictures of a sage green WIP baby bolero from One Skein, and I guess it never got it's finished photo taken. Too late now as it's off to it's new home and it's still nearly two months until this baby plans to arrive. I brought my knitting to the baby shower and quickly whipped up the coordinating hat (see above) out of Blue Sky Cotton. I just guessed on the # of stitches to cast on, and guessed on the decreases and really I don't think the baby will mind that I've never figured out how to do the jogless join neatly and thus gave up on it halfway through her hat.
The other baby project on the needles are these booties in leftover sock yarn. Based on the ubiquitous booty pattern, I changed the garter stitch rows because I prefer a smoother knit. This one isn't complete yet, there are still a few ends to weave in and really with this varigated yarn it's hard to get a feel for the actual booty - all you see is COLOR!!! The second booty is started, the sole is complete but I somehow lost a couple of my #2 dpns during my last travels. I did have Susan Bates metal dpns but think that I'll replace those with bamboo just as soon as I can get to the yarn store.

Big Snow Pictures

2007-02-15T21:00:00.000-05:00

Here are some pics from our big Valentine's Day storm. Above and below: midday during the meat of the storm.

Having a quick treat.

The aftermath. Snowplow stuck in the driveway, trees and bushes buried.

Huge snowbanks and lots of snow to move around.

I know our house is behind that snow somewhere.

Laceleaf Pullover progress

2007-02-10T14:55:00.000-05:00

Progress is being made on the Laceleaf Pullover. My main goal for today was the grafting. I'm not afraid of a little kitchener stitch, but this was 102 stitches of kitchener - which is frankly quite a lot. It took me the better part of two hours to get it all done, with breaks and everything and it looks pretty good. This yarn hides it well. I experimented with two different routines, and for this yarn I like slipping the stitch and then priming the next before pulling the yarn all the way through. it just looked more natural that way.

the body is really long because i have a wicked long torso (and short stubby legs). after viewing everyone else's pullover on their blogs, i was really afraid of the sweater being too short and too tight so i made the medium version and added to the length and at this point i like the look - very tunic-y.
here's a shot of the photo area coming together. we're putting together an area to take pics of the bikes and parts and so forth - but this requires much gear. most of it pricey. so it's coming together slowly but surely. the second light showed up today. that in conjunction with adjusting the white levels on the camera itself should help us get much better photos. the next step is figuring out how to hang the 14' roll of background paper so that we can shoot entire bikes.

new cars

2007-02-02T13:27:00.000-05:00

corners of my home

2007-01-26T21:08:00.000-05:00

I've seen countless other corner of my home posts and really enjoyed seeing these intimate spaces. so here are a few corners of my home. Above, our miniscule entryway. The mirror is by artist Kate Pond. The story goes that she made that to commemorate my husband's favorite word when he was two or three years old. It lived in the UK for the longest time and a few years ago we dragged it back. It made the security guards chuckle at the x-ray machine.
a pile of outerwear in our spare room. See the half-life print Burton snowboard pants? Special edition - close up of the dots that you'd see if you look at a color print page.
A corner piled with books everywhere. Not enough room to keep them all on a shelf.
knitting in progress. bad news, my stitch number is off so I have to frog back a couple of increase rows and get back on track.

little projects

2007-01-19T20:33:00.000-05:00

Because of the sheer number of babies coming this spring, I've quickly begun to work up another baby bolero from One Skein. You see I brought in all these baby color skeins of the Blue Sky Cotton which are enough for a bolero but one skein is not enough for the kimono in Mason-Dixon knitting. So I cast on this lovely mint green and it's coming along nicely. I think I'll trim it in the main color, and then make a cute striped hat in green and blue. Then I'll take the 1.5 skeins of Blue Sky Organic cotton and knit a kimono.

Also on my list is the leaf sweater from Loop-d-loop. I have some yarn (more details later) but needed to order needles and there aren't too many places on line to get 13 circs. I ended up at Purl SoHo, so I also picked up some sock yarn. This is Koigu KPPPM - the rest of the world is quite familiar with it, but as I'm a new sock knitter it's new to me.
I love it. Can't wait to cast on. And doesn't my camera have nice macro skills?

This weekend is a really rare sample sale at Hug-a-dub-dub and my shopping cart has a terrible tendency to oversell when quantities are limited - so, i'll be spending some time sorting out orders this weekend. Not to worry though, I've cleaned up the Sale! section of the cart so that everything that is sold out is taken off.

baby bolero is complete

2007-01-14T09:42:00.000-05:00

So I ended up using a light pink Blue Sky Cotton to edge the bolero. The color isn't exactly the 'right' color, but in natural light I think it looks pretty good. After a gentle wash this seemed to come together pretty well. I'm sure all the super picky knitters are sitting out there tisk-tisking the stitches that I picked up along the front...one side is pretty good, the other not so good. i'm trying to decide if I want to do a second one of these or if i want to do the kimono from Mason Dixon or other. baby showers are coming up in a months time, so i do have some time to think about what would be best.
we needed a new dishcloth, so here you go. from Mason Dixon. they look so wonderful when they're freshly knitted...
...and not quite so beautiful when they've been in heavy rotation. i hope to do another one tonight.

the pictures are looking pretty good today, aren't they? i just spent all my christmas money on a digitial SLR so that we could take quality product shots for bike29.com. kind of a bummer to use fun money for work, but hopefully the improved pictures will help boost sales and i'll get it back someday. i'm just trying to think longterm.

frustrated knitting

2007-01-06T15:36:00.000-05:00

this is the little baby bolero from One Skein. knitted in an 'i forget' cotton from the stash. something pretty luxurious, it was deeply discounted from a retail price of $20 a skein when i bought it over the summer.
here is the back. it's curling, so you can't see the cute little detail at the back of the neck. and i really like the colors. especially for a baby girl. there's the palest of tawny pinks with the blues and tans and i think it would be great for a springtime little girl who doesn't want to wear pink all the time.
i'm frustrated because of several things. first, is this going to be wearable for a little baby? See the photo above for scale. The sleeves are huge. the whole thing is pretty wide. will this just end up being a fugly handknit? the second thing is that I'm nearly out of yarn and there is still a bit of edging to do. and that makes me not want to finish it. and so this is just sitting around on the dining room table, waiting for me to not feel weird about it.
check out the cool rainbow that we had this afternoon. note the lack of snow. this was right before a thunderstorm hit, a lot of rain and wind and a bit of hail too. wish it would just snow.

Mateo socks are done

2006-12-30T09:49:00.000-05:00

Our little family trip to PA gave me the time I needed to cast on, and finish, the second sock of the pair. They're done. and you know what? I like sock knitting. they go pretty fast, even on tiny needles. it doesn't take a lot of room and I will definitely wear my finished project. these are going to look great in my beat up red Dansko clogs. and as soon as I pick up some more sock yarn i'll start another pair.

Details:
Yarn: Giddy Feet sock yarn from Cinnamon Stitches
Needles: Size 2
Pattern: can't remember where I got it from now. but it's a simple slip stitch pattern.

Next on the needles is a little hat for a friends 1 year old baby. He finally outgrew the hat that I knit when he was just born. Then there are a couple of little girl babies on the way and I think that I'll knit some baby boleros from the One Skein book out of the Blue Sky organic cotton that I have kicking around. They're due in April, so it'll be a perfect layer for those still chilly times.

Happy New Year everyone!

some holiday photos

2006-12-23T08:15:00.000-05:00

christmas meme

2006-12-21T21:29:00.000-05:00

From here and here. I've been reading everyone's responses and thought it be a good blog post. I've been meaning to post pictures of our muddy christmas tree hunt, but just can't get excited about a mud christmas.

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? hot chocolate. but not the Swiss Miss stuff, it would have to be good, quality cocoa.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree? definitely wrap. recycled wrappings are best though.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? all white this year. though there aren't any hard and fast rules.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nope.

5. When do you put your decorations up? about a week before the weekend before christmas. we don't have a lot of decorations, or a lot of room to decorate so it's best to wait.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? cookies probably.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? waking up early on christmas morning and going downstairs to put on Christmas music (we had quite a collection of Mormon Tabernacle Choir albums) in an attempt to rouse my mother and brother.

8 . When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? can't recall, but i stayed up to listen one night when my dad was still living with us, and that must have been 6 years old. and i think i figured it out around then.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? sometimes. although now with K. I think we'll stop that until he doesn't believe in Santa anymore.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? a mish-mash of ornaments. lots of homemade.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? love it. where is it? we're waiting. VT is supposed to have snow at this time of year.

12. Can you ice skate? sure can.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? the boombox cassette player that I got in jr. high probably.

14. What's your favorite thing about the holidays? lights and decorations.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? cookies probably.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? watching Christmas Vacation on thanksgiving night. and getting the tree.

17. What tops your tree? Usually nothing. this year we made the Moravian Star work.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? giving. i wish i had more time to do it right.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? i can't pick just one.

20. Candy canes yuck or yum? yum. in moderation.

21. What's number one on your Christmas list this year? hah. really, all i want this year is for the bike biz to be a success.

2006-12-10T20:55:00.000-05:00

After much stress, anxiety, preparation, angst and late nights - my first craft show is done. le fin. over with. it was a really long day. the fair was on the second floor of the city hall in Montpelier which has only one tiny, and very slow elevator. so up and down the stairs i went with my heavy boxes for set-up and take down. below you can see my humble table. traffic was good and i did a fair amount of business. People were interested in the soaps, Mojito was the hands down favorite, Lavender & Chocolate was another favorite and the Morning Inspiration. I sold out of all the Grapefruit & Eucalyptus Shower Gel - it smelled really good.

After running a business strictly on the internet for three years, it was very different to get up in front of people and have to verbally tell them about the products and what makes them special. and then to have to watch them as they inhaled each soap and touched everything on the table. kind of eerie. quickly i figured out that my value proposition, at least for soaps, is that my flavor combinations are a bit different. Sure, everyone does handmade soap and who cares about essential oils, but nobody makes a Mojito flavored soap. Figuring that out really helped me come out of my shell a bit.
I brought one of my soakers to hopefully catch the eye of any other cloth diaper using mamas who might need wool care. it was a great conversation piece, everyone loved it as it's a beautiful cover from Curly Purly in hand dyed BFL wool. Due to freaky timing, it's never been worn, so it's still in mint condition and very attractive. I sold a little bit of baby care, a bunch of Wonder Lanolin to expecting mamas - but mostly soap.
Here you see the 'may-i-take-your-money-please' apron that i made last week. I used the tutorial posted at Creative Little Daisy . Which was super easy to follow. My patchwork is a bit more simple and i made it almost 2" shorter in length - but it's a great tutorial and I'm stoked to have the apron to wear for crafting, or maybe, possibly, more craft shows in the future.

my current WIP is a pair fo socks. this gorgeous colored yarn is Giddy Feet Sock Yarn from Cinnamon Stitches. The colorway is called Mateo, which is my God Son's name, so how could I pass it up. it's slow going so far. tiny needles do not make for a project which flies by.

cable socks and soap stories

2006-12-03T15:18:00.000-05:00

Two cabled footies from One Skein

As I said when I posted about the first one, these were my first cables and my first sock-like things. The second went really fast. Two days I think. One for the cuff and heel and the second marathon session finished the inseam and toes and so forth. I'm thinking about doing a pair for my mom for christmas in some sort of superwash wool. I have some in the stash, not in any good colors. But not like my mom would really know that the colors weren't that good...
So what is this mess? It's a mid-stage of handmade liquid soap. Not too many soap makers bother with liquid soap. Unlike making bar soap, which is sort of a 'fix-it-and-forget-it' operation, liquid soap requires several steps and none of which are particularly fast.

First you have to source the Potassium Hydroxide, normal soap is made with Sodium Hydroxide (lye) but to get a liquid you need a different form of lye. Once you've finally found that, you make soap like normal but instead of pouring into molds you cook and stir for an hour until you have the crazy paste as seen above.

Instructions that you find will tell you all sorts of things about what you see during this process. I can tell you that it never happened exactly like the instructions, and can be completely different each time you make it. One time I through out a batch that I thought had been botched, but later I discovered that I just hadn't kept up with the stiring long enough.

After you have paste, you make liquid by adding water. This part takes forever until you get it all liquified and smooth. Usually 2-3 days. This is why most folks don't bother. But really, it's so much nicer than detergents.
Here's a quick peak at the paperwhites. Coming right along.

And my other soap story? This week I found a dead mouse in the middle of the basement floor. No biggie. We live in the country, we have mice. We have a cat to catch the mice and sometimes we have to pick them up. The odd things was that this fellow didn't look like he'd had much of a struggle, and the cat wasn't strutting around proud. But I didn't think much of it.

Until today when I was packing some soap orders. I moved aside two bars of the Tea Tree & Sweet Orange Soap that I had used for photos - and there were teeth marks all along the edge! The stupid mouse had eaten the soap. And died! So I guess the lesson is, buy my Tea Tree & Sweet Orange soap if you're tired of baiting a mouse with cheese...

pictures

2006-11-27T20:55:00.000-05:00

First off, some pictures for a particular Grammy in the UK. She picked up this beautiful sweater for him when he was just a wee thing and it sat in the cedar chest, protected and happy until this fall when I spied it during a sweater clean-out. What luck! It's time to wear it. Any longer in the cedar chest and it would have missed the window of appropriate size-ness. Thanksgiving weekend was the perfect weather for it - not too cold, a little sunny and not too breezy.

Saturday was an extra special day. I couldn't bear going without movies any longer. Actually going to a movie theater is out of the question between cost and babysitters and so forth. And besides, I'd much rather have our comfy couch and all the snacks in the kitchen and our very own bathroom than a stinky old movie theater. So, even though it's not in the household budget, we're back with Netflix:
Add one napping little boy and a pile of this:

And you get a very happy mama who got to watch an entire movie in one nap and finished the second cabled footie (pics to come next post).

Though we won't decorate the house for the holidays for a couple of weeks, I spied these paperwhite bulbs while I was at the nursery getting the decorations for the bike shop. I've always wanted to force bulbs, but being as I don't go shopping much and when I do it's unlikely to be a stores that carry such a thing - it almost never happens. So when I saw them, I got them. And here they are started:

It's another week of transitions here. George is starting a full-time job to keep him busy over the winter and hopefully help to relieve some of the strain on our coffers. But this means that K. has to start preschool a couple of mornings a week. Luckily my work is flexible, so I moved some of my hours around and instead of a three day weekend, I'll have two afternoons a week with my boy. Hopefully we'll survive the changes - but if i don't surface for a week, you know why.

thanksgiving traditions

2006-11-22T18:18:00.000-05:00

it's not even thanksgiving yet, and crafty blogland has erupted into the nightmare before christmas. everywhere you look people are decorating and scheming and planning and remembering and on the mark, ready, set -- CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!

aaack!

Not me. i absolutely refuse to even consider christmas until thanksgiving (except for attempting to put together a holiday plan for the soap biz - but this is for my own survival and an attempt to not run out of everything by December 4).

Thanksgiving has a particular set of traditions that must be maintained.

Watch Macy's Parade. The coverage is awful. They wreck everything that's fun about the parade. But it must be on the tv for part of the morning.
Attend a minimum of two thanksgiving dinners. Minimum. Children of divorce get accustomed to this and learn to feed appropriately at the various family gatherings. Any less than two dinners and we feel lonely and hungry because we maintained the same eating traditions from the multi-dinner days
Watch National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. We always watch this on Thanksgiving. Always. It's always funny and serves to mark the official start of the Christmas season which cannot begin until this movie has been viewed.