Joyce Makes Art

Everyone Should Have An Auntie Gail

Really, if you don't have an Auntie Gail, you want one!  Ollie got socks in the mail from her yesterday and he is overjoyed.

Very boyish, very soft.  He was in love from the minute we opened the package.  Her sister, Ollie's Auntie Ann, knits too and has just started blogging.  If you want to see some Kaffe Fasset and other amazing knitting, you need to go and look!

Thank you Auntie Gail!  You made Ollie's weekend!

We got a little bit more knitting in this week than usual, starting with inaguration day.

I finished off my 5x5 scarf.  I've got a picture of it blocking, and need to take one of it on -- I've worn it all week.

Ellie begged some of my silk/cashmere yarn off of me to start a little lovey for a friend's baby, and she sat in front of the fire knitting all day.

I'm close to finished with a couple of baby sweaters that were languishing for a bit of final details, and hope to get the finished up this week and pick back up with my Manos Shrug.

Fantasy Knitting

I know a lot of you have been wondering if I gave up knitting for the holidays  (I say that tongue in cheek because, of course, you know I would never give up knitting).  It has been sort of busy around here and I've been doing a lot more thinking and ready about knitting that actually knitting, but I do have a few things to show you.

This is my 5x5 rib scarf, knit from Cascade's Quatro.  I'm knitting it on much smaller needles than recommended to get a very dense fabric and I like it a lot.  It's very skinny and is taking forever, but I think the final scarf will be very satisfying.  I've done a felted purse out of this same yarn and thought it would be fun to wear them together.

Short row ballet slippers -- knitted from a bulky weight Blue Faced Leicester that I dyed.  They're knit on two circulars and it's quite a fun pattern.

I think the yarn looks prettier in stockinette than the garter stitch sole.

This next yarn is a bulky weight cotton, purchased to knit *something* for a friend who is newly pregnant.  It's a July baby, so I'm thinking either a 6/9 months size sweater or perhaps a baby sack or dress once she knows the baby's sex.  I love the soft, pale green yarn from Blue Sky Alpaca. 

This

is some yarn I've dyed for my favorite fantasy project.  For over a year now, I've wanted to knit myself socks using mismatched hand-dyed yarns.  I patiently compiled yarn from the end of cones and have two and three ounce skeins of soft different merino plies, but all knit to the same gauge.  I'm going to start in on a pair of socks, mixing the yarns up, although I haven't decided yet exactly how they will be done.  It seemed like a fabulous idea in my mind as I dreamed about it over the months, but now that I see the yarns dyed up I wonder if I haven't made a terrible mistake. It will be interesting to see what happens!

Finally, there is yarn I have just sent away; back to school with my eldest.  This yarn:

a beautiful BFL, has gone with him because his girlfriend wants to knit him a hat.  Can you say perfect girlfriend?  I sent along some sock yarn, a faux fair isle yarn, some dpns for socks and a basic pattern because a girl never knows when she's going to feel the urge to knit socks.  Really.  The perfect girlfriend.

On that happy note, I'm off to make chocolate pudding and cast on some socks of my own.

Accessories!

Belinda's book in the In The Studio round robin is very, very cool.  She has this amazing style that is uniquely her own and has done wonderful things with color and lettering.  It has a Project Runway theme -- I've never seen the show but have heard people talking about it.  I decided to play along.  I wish I had had time to catch an episode or two, but I'll have to put that on my list of shows to watch this year.

I was drooling over some Kate Spade purses on online, and my theme for this book came from that pursuit.

Inca

The newest yarn I've been dyeing is called Inca.  It's a blend of Silk, Alpaca, and Merino.  I had been searching for just the right Alpaca yarn -- I love it's sheen and it's softness, but, in the deep south, an aran weight Alpaca can be too warm for wear most of the year.  Then I stumbled upon this blend.  It's soft, it has the most incredible sheen, and it's nice and warm without being too warm.  So I fell in love.

Forgive the washed out, early in the morning pictures.  I just had to share this yarn with you.  Yarn love.

I haven't decided what to knit with it yet.  I think it would be divine for a Clapotis (I've had that pattern back on my brain again lately). It would make a wonderful vest, especially in a sort of subdued palette, I'm thinking maybe something with gray and pewter and brown.  And scarves.  Ellie, who has a thing about gauntlets, thought gauntlets.  I'm completely undecided, but the possibilities are wonderful.

Here are some up close pictures of the colorways.

Crayon

Cleo

Pop!

Guppy Creek

An Unusual Dinner

We have post-grandma holiday visit syndrome in our house.

Grandma bakes with children -- one kind of funky new cookie each day for the first three days she was here.  Meatloaf.  A meatloaf so good the kids ate thirds.  No one cooks quite like Grandma.  And no one is as good at letting kids do things Mom is usually in too much of a hurry to slow down and let them do.

So this afternoon, we slowed down.  Ellie wanted to bake.  Cake is something of a no-no in our household because our littlest one is allergic to wheat, but I told her we would make one.  I pulled out one of my favorite baking cookbooks, Butter, Sugar, Flour and Eggs.  A recipe I had never noticed before jumped out at me:  Vanilla Souffles with Chocolate Sauce.  We had all the ingredients (thank you for those wonderful bars of chocolate, Ann!)

Aren't they pretty?

The Judge helped Ellie pour the chocolate sauce on.

And, here's the best part.  We ate them for dinner.

Yum.  Official New Years Diet starts, um, tomorrow.  Or maybe Monday.  I'm off to see what other recipes I haven't noticed before.