Friday, December 28, 2007

Pi anyone?

So I've had my eye on Elizabeth Zimmerman's Pi Shawl for a while now, but it wasn't until I bumped into someone (a new friend!) on Ravelry that I decided to jump off and do it. She had stumbled upon someone who varied EZ's increases to 4 simple increases EVERY round. I'm knitting EZ's Pi in st st with 4 increases every round (see the pretty increase spirals)!


I also opted out of EZ's start method instead I used a simple join in the round. I like the hole. What can I say! This is such a very addictive pattern to work up. I have a really hard time stopping. I'm also using it to bust through stash. There's a little bit of everything in here.

In other news, I designed my first sweater -- for a dog. This time, I think the recipient dog will be more appreciative than my own yarn-chewing Schnoodle. I knit it top down in one piece, and while it's a very basic dog sweater, I'm very very proud of the fit and the engineering that I did. I don't have any pics of the dog wearing the sweater yet, but here's some of the FO.



I measured the dog's neck, multiplied that by my gauge, cast on, joined in the round, and knit a long turtleneck. Then I made some increases. When I got to the leg holes, I worked the piece flat in two pieces, binding off two stitches for each leg. After the leg holes were the desired length, I joined the two flat pieces and knit in the round a bit longer for the stomach before binding off and working the back flat, ending in 2x2 rib. See?



Back to Pi...

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Christmas 'o Christmas

Here I sit, working on my second one-skein project of the day. The first was a hat knit from some old bulky stash -- it's remains are becoming a dog sweater for a dog friend who needs a sweater (no, not my yarn-chewing, unappreciative fluff of Schnoodle).

I'm thinking about Christmas, the boys are overflowing with excitement. Eli has tried to convince me that he can sleep with his eyes open on Christmas Eve despite my telling him that Santa just won't come until everyone is asleep.

Tomorrow we feast - Cuban style. Pork tenderloin, frijoli negros, flancito. The presents are wrapped, Santa is ready, and as I try to reflect a bit on the year behind me and the new year approaching, I can't say anything better or more eloquently than my pal mamacate said it.

In my early 30's we were 5 years into trying to start our family. I relied on angel friends (including mamacate) through those years. On December 18 of this month, I turned 40, and we are now 8 years into parenthood -- a family bursting at the seams with 3 busy boys. A healthy household with more blessings than we can count. May I live intentionally, embrace each moment instead of pushing through it. Celebrate the magic and not-so-magic all around and live it -- the good, the bad, and the ugly -- fully and with great intention.

Ditto Cate, ditto!!!