I love WD-40

What does WD-40 have to do with those orange socks? Nothing.  I just needed to share my love of this odd substance.  I just used WD-40 to get tar off my car.  Worked like a charm!  I then dropped a bit of wax on my bathroom rug (hair removal wax – the sticky kind) and didn’t kow what to do.  I ignored it for a bit then thought of the wonder elixir.  WD-40 removed the wax from the carpet.  What is this stuff?!

Today I learned on Dr. Oz that I am addicted to lip balm.  I’m ok with this addiction, though may hit the CVS when I’m off work next week…

I am knitting some Spey Valley Socks in orange for the Halloween season.  I’m not hurrying to get them done for Rhinebeck.  I am convinced that Rhinebeck will be warm and pleasant this year.  I am a big baby and don’t like the cold.  I am sick of wearing a warm, but semi-unflattering puffer jacket just to keep from whining myself to death.  Really, I almost lost the will to live at a few of the past festivals.  So this year, I am declaring global warming to be my friend.  Warm, pleasant temps please Rhinebeck.

Just in time for fall…

Thank goodness for the uncomplaining fence.  It’s wearing this alpaca scarf with nary a complaint.  Me, I’ve got twenty pictures of me wearing it with a big old puss on my face.  Too hot!  No, I mean that literally.

Finished is Different Lines by Miss Veera Välimäki.  Another enjoyable pattern, this one shaped like a triangle the melted and warped in the sun.  Again with the hot references.  I again used Isager Strik Aplaka 2 which is an amazing yarn that I would eat, should it be edible.  It is not so I knit with it, often.

This scarf has used 2 skeins of orange and 1.75 of the taupe or about 1000 yards.  Please remember that math is not my strong suit.  I like using the Isager and knitting a bit loose so I can scrunch it up scarfwise into a jacket.  It’s light and warm and much too hot for today.  Finished measurements are 88″ across x 27″ at short side x 64″ at not the short side; the length from top to point is 22.5″.

I blocked this scarf using a new method that worked pretty well here, but I can’t see it working in all situations.  I soaked the scarf in Eucalan, spun it out and hung it over my shower curtain rod.  No pinning necessary and kind of embarrassing to share, but there it is.  It looks fine.

And because you didn’t ask for it, pictures of me with a puss on my face wearing a hot scarf and a sundress.  Enjoy!

What are you wearing?!

These pictures should immediately make you wonder why I’m wearing a hospital gown.  I’m not, it’s the muslin for my Raspberry Coat, which has been going slowly due to sloth on my part.

The next question that should pop into your head is why I have 4 yards of this material clearly only suited for hospital gowns.  I don’t know.  I don’t remember buying mass quantities of this cotton – curtains or a duvet cover are projects that spring to mind, but I’ve got nothing people.  What it turned out to be is good for a muslin.

Now the problem I’ve had with the muslin is that this is a coat.  It’s supposed to have gobs of ease since you wear it over clothes – not pjs like this photos shows.  The front seemed ok, but the back gave me pause.  I’ve got shoulders like a linebacker and a noteworthy booty, but even this seems big.  Or is it.  I decided to lay this muslin against a coat that fits me well and compare.  They are almost identical, so I shall go with this configuration.  I will add 1/4″ to the seams below the waist since I want lots of booty shaking room and can always take it out if it’s too baglady.

Also this muslin is longer than I envisioned so I shall shorten the pattern by 2.5″.  The finished coat will be about 4″ shorter than this muslin when it’s hemmed and altered.  Also the wool version won’t have pencil marks all over it – they’ll be on the inside.  I shall write naughty things in chalk on the inside pieces…

Knittingwise I thought I’d start a scarf with the Noro Taiyo I bought with Cheryl the other day.  I’d liked the shawl Hercule Poirot (as I obsessed about here) was wearing but I wanted an easy scarf.  I do love those colors though!  Also with Missoni being all over the media with their Target release I thought the Taiyo would be a good faux Missoni yarn.  I worried I’d not have enough yarn to make a substantial scarf so I decided on a cowl.  I chose the 12 Stitch Razor Shell from Barbara Walker’s First Treasury and 217 stitches in the round to make a cowl about 50″ (fingers crossed on the math part) around – good for a double wrap.  I think it’s the right size and it does look Missoni-esque if you squint.  Plus I didn’t need to brave the Target melee to get it.

The only problem with the cowl is that it’s so hot outside that it almost spontaneous combusted while I took the quick snap you see above.  I’d like some fog please!

Hot scarf of redness

Yay!  A finished thing!  I’ve finished this years contribution to Foster Care to Success’ Red Scarf drive!  I must admit, I do find this a lovely scarf.  But please note at no time did I contemplate keeping a scarf made for a foster kid in college.  That would be VERY wrong.  Plus it’s HOT here and I couldn’t even bring myself to model this outside in the heat, much less think about keeping it.

What we’ve got is the very nice Fast Forward pattern which has you start with a provisional cast on and work to each side.  A good project if you don’t know how much yarn you’ve got.  I knew I had plenty, I just liked those diamonds at the end.

The yarn is handspun by my sister.   I took this from her fiber room last time she wasn’t looking.  It’s about aran weight, most of the time…ah the beauty of handspun.  It’s a lovely, soft wool with some tweedy bits here and there.  It’s more than soft enough to wear on your naked neck, so an excellent choice for a scarf.

I also have some odd scarf requirements.  Since I live in a nice warm climate, if I need a scarf it’s because it’s weirdly cold or I’ve picked a bad vacation destination.  I think a scarf should be long, at least long enough to wrap around your neck twice otherwise why bother.  Then you’ve got to have enough fabric left at the end to make a stylish remainder.  So my scarf is 7″ wide and 84″ long.  Yup, that’s long.  In fact I had to include the (sweaty) pic of me with the scarf wrapped around my neck THREE times.  It’s almost swallowing my head!  Success!

Now if you want to make a scarf or a donation to Foster Care to Success, go there and do your best for them – you’ve got until 15 December to make a scarf!

I don’t do the dew

I must admit that any knowledge I possess is limited.  I will never be an asset to your quiz team.  I’m ok with that though.  Here again is another thing I knew nothing about – this is a track built under my hotel room window wherein people (I only saw young men) ride bikes and motorbikes up and down these massive jumps and do tricks while going very fast.  While their skills amazed me, I must admit that I was thinking of the future first class holidays being banked by orthopedic doctors on behalf of those riders.

Now those riders were rather adorable and friendly, they would do their thing across the street, ride off the track, across the street, into our hotel lobby and up the elevator (bikes only – no motorbikes).  Very efficient.  This event didn’t go too late (it is SLC afterall) and the band after the races finished at 11pm (I had to be at work at 5am!).  All is well right?  No, the earth movers and dump trucks worked on that dang track all night!  I don’t think that was quite fair, but there it is.

Luckily I’d had a super awesome day with Cheryl who kindly picked me up and took me to the Greek Festival down the block.  We had yummy food and sips of Greek wine with Greek music to entertain us.  Delish!  I forced Cheryl to take me to her local yarn shop so I could look for a yarn to make a scarf to coordinate with my raspberry coat (still making the pattern fyi).

Blazing Needles is one of the best shops I’ve been to.  Excellent stock with a wonderful atmosphere.  I was quite at home on my first visit.  Cheryl even put up with me shoving balls of yarn onto her neck to determine if the yarn was soft enough to be scarf worthy.  Two skeins of Taiyo were procured and then we met up with Margene for a bit of knitting and conversation.  A wonderful day!  Thanks to Cheryl and Margene!

My destination the next day was meant to be San Francisco (I bid layovers at home!) but alas we were rerouted to San Juan (they got the San right anyway).  I think it was because of my well known love of tropical storms and PR was getting a bit of TS Maria.  When is hurricane season over?  I can’t take the pressure…

Tropical storm ho

Everywhere I went last week, I seemed to be following around a tropical storm like a besotted rock groupie.  OMG!  Why do people live in tropical storm places?  Gray rain, flooded and hot.  How can that be?!  My hair is still mad at me.

Oh well, enough about me, here’s more about me.

Here we have my active WIPs. We will not discuss the semi-active projects hanging out with me.

Upper left is the rolled up pattern (sans seam allowances and planned design changes) waiting for next week when I’ve got a big ol’ chunk of time off to work on my Burda Raspberry coat.  I think of you constantly my love!

Upper right is the almost completed Red Scarf for this year’s scarf drive for Foster Care to Success (FCS).

Lower left is the much neglected, but much-loved Different Lines Scarf for MEEEE!  I actually carry this project around in my suitcase but never work on it because I’m always exhausted at work.  I’m trying to work on it on my off days because it’s gorgeous.  The first Stripe Study I made was given to its intended recipient and it’s much-loved and worn.  Because I get jealous since I don’t have one, I’m making the next one for me.  Hah!

Lower right is my dinner and it’s freaking delish.  When I travel (well, when anyone travels) the food choices are awful and usually fried.  When I get home I CRAVE vegetables!  This was my dinner, Weeknight Curry from Super Natural Every Day - it’s a Thai red curry with veg!  Yumm!  I used zucchini, summer squash, baby yukon gold potatoes, Japanese eggplant and Chinese broccoli in this one.  With chicken, of course.  I drank the broth.  Shexy…