The Gamble Life

What We've Been Up To

and lots and lots of book reading, by all of us.  More on that another time.  Fall is here and the weather is amazing so we're spending as much time as we can outside, walking, in the hammock, biking.  I hope your fall is as nice.

Hat Wars

I just participated in a knitting Hat "War"...very fun, although I already know that my hat (and therefore my "death") is in the mail on its way too me.  Because of the way it's organized there is not really any skill or effort involved in living longer or winning, it's really all luck as to who is trying to target you and the post office!  Oh well, I had a great time knitting my target a hat as fast as I possibly could and then mailing it off to her.

And I can't wait to get my hat.

Here's Abe modeling the hat I knit for my target.  It's a great pattern, and free, that I'll definitely make again.

Plastic Bags

So I've noticed something at the grocery store.  Even though at least half the people who shop at my Whole Foods bring their own reusable cloth bags in they all still use the free plastic produce bags.  I can't think of a more useless one-time plastic except for plastic packaging on things you buy.  Also I hate putting my delicious produce in plastic! 

About a year ago I bought these organic cotton produce bags in the gallon size.  They are fantastic.  I wash them between uses with the rest of my kitchen linens and they are holding up fantastically well.  I really encourage you to get some, or make some, or just let your produce mingle in a larger shopping bag! They would have been very easy to sew myself but at the time Abe was still very young and I didn't want to have to hunt around for the right cotton fabric or any of that.  Here they are waiting to be taken out to the car with my grocery bags:

My other kitchen linens are kitchen towels and bibs/washcloths and placemats/napkins.  I have huge stacks of all of them.  We've used maybe one roll of paper towels since I started actually using my kitchen towels instead of just hoarding them.  I've found the after-Christmas sales at places like Crate & Barrel are really good times to get nice kitchen towels for only a few dollars.  Want to see the stack?  Sure you do!

And since I'm showing off all my fancy kitchen linens, why not a glimpse at the bib/washcloth pile?  Actually, I am about to sew a whole bunch of new bibs that are much BIGGER than the plain terry ones I'm currently using because they are quite inadequate for a determined self-feeding 16 month old.  I'll definitely show you what I come up with.  I knit all these washcloths using whatever free patterns take my fancy (there are hundreds of them out there) and I love them.  Nothing works better for getting Abe, the highchair, and the table clean.

More of the same

Yup, more socks.  I don't think I've shown you these yet...I finished them some time ago.

This is an up-close picture of a triangular-shaped shawl I knit recently.  The entire shawl is the same pattern, but only the border has the beads.

These were actually Mother's & Father's Day presents that FINALLY got mailed out.  The idea is straight from Handmade Home, but I didn't actually follow formal directions, just got the gist of it from looking at the pictures.  Gus made all creative decisions and I merely did the labor.  We actually made four more that aren't pictured, they'd been given away (to Meremere and his teachers) before I took pictures.

From left to right:  "Gus and Mommy", "Gus and Daddy", "Gus Working on Grandpa's Trailer", "Gus as a Tall Giraffe", and "Jack in a Box...Gus in a Box" (Gus sometimes plays jack in the box in our clothes hamper).  For his Meremere he drew another self-portrait and for his teachers he drew pictures of them.  I really wish I'd gotten pictures of them because they were great.  One teacher playing the didgeridoo, one making a funny face, and one helping a child.

I've finished some more books and have spending a lot of energy on helping Abe adjust to our new one-nap-a-day schedule and sleep later in the mornings.  We have a birthday party to head to this weekend and the weather is getting cooler.  Yay!

My Sock Obsession Continues

I finished the socks I showed you the beginnings of a few weeks ago.

The color is accurate in the second picture, but I just love the close up of the detail on this sock.  Ravelry link here.  These socks were a real pleasure to knit--if there weren't literally 100 sock patterns I've already identified that I want to knit, I'd cast on another pair right now.  I'll keep knitting new ones for awhile instead.

 
Please ignore the carpet!  These poor socks for Chris have lots of problems.  There aren't many sock patterns for men, especially knit toe-up, which is how I like to knit them because Chris likes his socks long, so I have been just sort of "creating" as I go.  I am getting better every time at least.  He said they felt great and honestly, no one really looks at or even sees his socks.  Ravelry link here.

It's so odd to me, twenty years of knitting and all of a sudden all I want to knit is socks.  And lace.  Two things I've never had any interest in before.

More Knitted Socks

I am really enjoying knitting socks right now.  I've got several pairs in the works, including these.  A pair knit from the top down, Meida.  I've actually finished one and need to start the second, this picture is from a couple of days ago.  I'm knitting this in a Knit Picks yarn, Essential, which is so economical.  I can't wait to see how it wears.  It has a great feel for knitting and the price just can't be beat.  I enjoy the fancy sock yarns as much as anyone, but I've joined a group to knit 52 pairs of socks over a year, and frankly, if I spent $20 or $30 a pair on yarn that would add up really fast!  So some $6 and $7 yarns from Knit Picks is very welcome.

A friend I made through my knitting club here in Durham gave me the yarn I'm using for a pair of socks for Chris.  It's called Soxx Appeal and has elastic in it.  Consequently it knits up very differently than yarn with just wool and nylon.  It's very stretchy and springy and the resulting fabric has a very compact and think feel.  I think I probably could have knit these on a larger needle, but as I'm almost finished with the foot (this picture is also a few days old) I'm just going to continue and not worry about it.  Tighter knitting lasts a lot longer in socks anyway.  These will have a plain foot and then a patterned cuff since Chris wears work shoes over his socks.

If it clears up later I'll get some pictures of another pair I have started, plus a couple of shawls.  I have one finished one that I need to block.  I can't wait to see what it's going to look like!

Socks!

I am really interested in knitting socks these days.  I re-knit these grey socks for Chris and this time they fit perfectly.  I also prefer the knitting of cables to plain stockinette although next time I knit socks for Chris I'll leave the foot plain as the pattern is both wasted and probably uncomfortable inside his shoes.

Ravelry link.

And I finished two more pairs for me.  These socks, kiila, are fabulous!  They are knit toe-up, but with a gusset which makes the heel very nice.  I knit these in Knit Picks Essential, which is a very nice yarn, especially for the price, although my two skeins were not exactly the same color.  Oh well.

Ravelry link here.

And finally these butterfly socks.  The pattern and yarn is from Knitters Brewing.  I liked the yarn a lot and the pattern is nice, but a little frilly for my tastes.  This was a "mystery" pattern so I knew I was knitting socks, but no other details about the pattern.  I like the beads too, that was fun. 

Ravelry link here.

Sweater Vest for Baby James

I actually had to open the package and hurriedly take this picture because I forgot to get any record that I'd finished before I got it ready to be shipped to baby James for wearing!  So, not the best photo.  But, didn't the vest come out really cute?  The pattern is a free one, from here.  I used Rowan's CashSoft yarn which is a merino, cashmere, acrylic blend and very, very soft.  The colors are not quite true in this picture, the blue is brighter and the cream is whiter.  I enjoyed this and it was very fast, just three evenings.  I hope James likes wearing it!

Unnecessary Plastic

Plastic is so ubiquitous that it is really easy to not even notice it or think about whether a particular use is worth it.  I've talked before about my own personal awareness awakening and how I now see plastic waste where before I never did.

I recently ordered some yarn and forgot to ask for no plastic packaging.  The yarn is lovely, from Knitters Brewing Company, and it is going to turn into some awesome socks, I am sure of it.  And actually the packaging wasn't bag...paper envelope, paper bag, paper label for the yarn, and tiny plastic purse holding beads. 

I've already strung the beads onto my yarn, ready for knitting.  But what to do about that plastic purse?  Cute?  Sure, sort of.  If you don't think about it too hard.  So I'm taking a page from Beth's playbook and mailing it back with a sweet note pointing out how it's cuteness is hardly worth it's existence for all eternity and suggesting that she switch to a cute paper or fabric bag in the future.  I'll let you know if Knitters Brewing writes back.

Isn't the yarn gorgeous?  I'll be knitting a pair of socks, but I don't know what they'll look like because it's a mystery knit-a-long (a bunch of knitters knitting on their own version of the same project at the same time).  I'm very excited because it's fun to see it take shape without knowing what's coming and because I've wanting to do some knitting with beads for years now.

Things are rolling along here.  I had an anxious day yesterday during which I completely freaked out that I had probably missed the T-Ball registration deadline.  I mean, really freaked out.  I've since decided that there are such big worrisome things going on right now (swine flu anyone?) about which I have zero control that I compensated by going a little nutso over the things I do have some control over.  Anyway, I talked to the T-Ball folks and it's no big deal, Gus is in.  It should be a fun summer.  Abe is going to be night-weaned this weekend, I'm 95% sure, so I'll be a sad zombie for a few days.  Wish me luck.

Beautiful Spring Day

Yesterday was just one of those spring days when you do everything you possibly can outdoors because it is just impossibly beautiful; warm with a nice breeze, sunny but not too so.  It was glorious!

I finished another baby girl sweater, this one for Harper.  I hope she likes it!  Funny, both of these new baby girls live out in San Francisco.  This pattern is Elizabeth Zimmerman's February Baby Sweater and I used 1824 cotton.  Ravelry link here.

In other springtime news, I started up the grill for another season.  My in-laws gave me this grill as a kind of new-baby present after Abe was born and when I cooked last summer, it was on the grill.  My favorite thing is to make the entire meal on it, like this:

Yup, that there is a fresh loaf of bread baking in my grill!  It works great.  You could bake it on a pizza stone in your grill, but my pizza stone doesn't fit along side my pan thingy (I cannot remember what it was called; I bought it at Williams-Sonoma but a quick search of their website did not turn one up.  It is essentially a very heavy pan with a trough for oil drippings for cooking veggies and other things that don't work so well on the grill itself.  I love it.).

As you can see, baking the bread there worked perfectly.

My bread recipes (all of them these days) all come from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.  Last night I just used the "master" (basic) recipe. 

Today looks to be another fabulous spring day and Gus has the day off from school so we are off to do projects while Abe naps, then lunch with Chris, and then lots of bike riding.  I hope everyone else has as fun a day planned.