A Day in The Life: Baking Cookies

Today I'm baking some cookies. In my head, they were going to be cut into the shape of graduation** caps, but apparently Graduation Cap Cookie Cutters are not a thing. So I am opting for stars, because all graduates are Rock Stars and should be celebrated as such. There was some talk of using the bizarre Santa/penguin cookie cutter, just because it's so much like a summer cloud in that if you squint, it looks like pretty much anything you imagine (a graduate in cap and gown??), but I like stars, so stars it is.

Today I have been planning some classes for summer, this being the last week of May. The month has gotten away with me some. When you are working so hard at living in denial** as I have, it's easy for days and weeks to slip right by you. I'm thinking of teaching, in addition to another round of Beginning Knit and Super Socks, an I-Cord class, appropriately titled "I Heart I-Cord" since I do indeed heart I-cord. More on that when the classes go on the schedule!

After some laundry (more than usual, thanks to being busy planting flowers in the yard on the Memorial Day holiday yesterday) I did a bit of cleaning. Knowing we will have company this weekend has spurred me on to tidy up more than I normally do. I'm hoping that the overall effect will be one of welcome and hospitality. 

After dinner, I will finally settle down to do some knitting. Yesterday evening I finished my project from Josie's lace class, so today I am working on that new bag pattern I'm writing, using mitered squares and some mathematically pleasing stripes and lots of shades of blue. (I can't wait to show it to you!)

The lace project was actually very fun to knit. This surprises me a little because I've never found complicated lace to be fun. I did, in all honesty, have to hone my tinking skills a bit, but it was easily done and now I have the most elegant spa cloth I've ever seen, much less made.  I would love to make a longer version in something drapey for a scarf. Am currently goading the writer of said pattern to list it on Ravelry so the rest of you can love it as much as I do.

My finished spa cloth, before blocking, "Cygnus Lace" pattern by Josie Goff, in KnitPIcks "Dishie".

Since I put a big batch of vegetable soup in the slow cooker this morning after coming back from my morning walk, I will most likely make biscuits as well. For years I had used a recipe for biscuits that came from a very early episode of Martha Stewart when she had a guest Southerner on the show, making biscuits. It's a good recipe and has served us well, but this recipe I found on Allrecipes.com is now the ONLY biscuit recipe I will use. The biscuits are amazing--flaky and slightly buttery and still fresh the next day if you have leftovers, still moist and delicious, hot or cold.

It's not really the right weather for vegetable soup, being hot as blue blazes outside, but it's always the right weather for vegetables. Also, it is an excellent excuse to make biscuits.

So the house smells amazing (vegetable soup AND cookies? Yum!) and I hope that your day has gone well and you too, manage to get in some knitting before bedtime.

**graduation, denial....yes, my baby graduates this week. I am trying to be brave...

Simple Knitting Tips: Learn to Love Cable Knitting

I love the way cables look. They add a texture to knitting that make life, I mean, knitting, exciting. But I haven't always liked making cables in my knitting projects. I tried the standard cable needles, but never got past the fiddly-ness of it.  You slide the stitches onto the needle then position those stitches in the middle of the needle, knit the next stitches off the left-hand needle, then slide the stitches out of the middle of the cable needle to the other end and knit the stitches off the cable needle, while holding onto the other needles at the same time.

Not a fan.

Then I read somewhere that you don't HAVE to do it that way. You could move the stitches from the cable needle back to the left-hand needle before you knit them! It sounds so simple, and it is, but it made such a difference in how I knit cables. It was so much easier.

Then I knit with a lady from Ireland who was making...wait for it...an Aran jumper.  She didn't muck about with a separate kind of fancy needle for cabling.  She just used a spare double-pointed needle. She said it was easier than using cable needles, and well, you know me; I like EASY!

So I gave it a go. In knitting up a horse shoe cable afghan block (look for the pattern in June!), I used a double pointed needle that was near to the size of knitting needles I was using for the block (I could have used one that matched the size, but frankly, I just grabbed what was handy). After I had knit the stitches off the left needle and was ready to knit the stitches that had been transferred to the dpn, I slipped the stitches back to the left needle to knit them. It was life-changing.

Here was the answer to the awkwardness. Here was the answer to keeping up with a wee little cable needle in between cable rows (my dpns are longer and somehow that makes life easier). Here was the answer to my (slight) aversion to doing the work of cabling.

 It is true what they say: sometimes it's the little things that make a big difference. These little changes have made cable knitting SO much more enjoyable for me. How about you? Do you love cable knitting or just tolerate the process to achieve the look? Do you have tricks that make it more fun for you? 

Guest Blogger: Josie on Knitted Lace (and Lace Knitting)

Since Josie will be guest-teaching a lace class (Saturday, May 23, click HERE for more info. Sign up soon!) I talked her in to guest-blogging today. It didn't take much talking...it was more like, Hey do you want to guest-blog? and she said Yes. She's cool like that.

I LOVE CHARTS! Since doing my first chart project a few years ago I've been hooked. I'm reluctant now to even bother with a pattern that doesn't include a chart. I'm a very visual person so I personally work faster with a chart then without. I hope that with this class I will be able to pass on my love of charts and lace to you! You'll need to bring either post it notes, chart tape, or a fancy magnetic board to stay on track.

I've devised a pattern that can be made into a spa cloth or a lovely scarf. I recommend bringing 100% cotton worsted wight yarn and size 7 needles if you wish to make the spa cloth. (Size 8 if you are a VERY tight knitter). A different blend of yarn in a larger quantity would make a nice scarf.  You'll also NEED some stitch markers.

Also here's the low down on the redundant title, it's not. Knitted Lace has pattern rows on every row. Lace Knitting on every other row. Lucky for us, our project for Saturday at the Panera Bread in North Charleston from 9-11 has both kinds. :)

Simple Knitting Tips: Mark your progress

Let's face it--no matter how much you love garter stitch (I love it A LOT), sometimes in the midst of a very long garter stitch project (especially a rectangle or square without any shaping), it can be a challenge. You knit and you knit and it can feel like you're getting nowhere.

To give myself a reference point so I'll know I AM getting somewhere, I put in a marker when I pick up the project for the day. When I put it away at night, I can see, "Oh, hey, look. I knit 400 inches of this today." Sometimes I exaggerate.

That simple step helps me enjoy my garter stitch project much more. This can also be helpful for any other all-over pattern stitch that seems unending: stockinette stitch and seed stitch come to mind. Just put a locking stitch marker on your project, attached to the yarn so it won't get moved up each row, and you'll know at a glance how much you have managed to knit since you started for the day. You can also use a small piece of yarn, in a contrasting color, tied on in the same manner.

See? Progress! Yay!

Try it on your next basic project and see if it doesn't give you more of an ongoing sense of accomplishment!