Stefan, bread

Here's the second Esbensen doily, Stefan. No trouble with the charts, a nice quick knit!

I picked up a great book at the library over the holidays, Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. Lots of great reciped for bread that doesn't require kneading or living by a lengthy schedule dictated by rising times. It's nice to have fresh, real bread every day. We've had a different type of bread every week since Christmas and there are plenty more recipes left to try.

Veronika Ripped, Lars

I had a streak of bad luck once I got around 62+ rounds in on this one. I dropped a stitch that ran down about 4 rounds, started tinking back and  dropped another one after about a round and half, then dropped a third one right over (and down into) one of the k9togethers. So I ripped it! I'll probably start again sometime soon, but for now I need to work on something simpler with larger thread.

I started knitting a few of the doilies from Sonja Esbensen's book Kunststrik 2. Lars had a couple of errors, but it was easy to spot them and easy to fix them.

Corrections:
The cast on instructions tell you to cast on 12 and knit 1 round. To get the look in the picture, though you need to knit 3 rounds before you start the chart.

In round 36, omit the last yarn over to get the correct stitch count and maintain the pattern lines. It should read “yo, knit 1, yo, double decrease, yo, knit 4, yo, double decrease, yo, knit 1, yo, knit 1, double decrease, knit 1”

Veronika

Just had to cast on a lace piece! I've been knitting simple things (socks, domino scarves, JMS) over the holidays, now I'm ready for some complexity. Someone in the Niebling Lace Knitters yahoo group mentioned this free pattern Veronika and we decided to do it a knit-along. I cast on last night with size 80 tatting thread and size 0000 needles. The first round was tricky, increasing every stitch to 4 stitches right off the bat with nothing to hold on to. Took me 45 minutes. The third round was a bit fiddly, too, establishing the twisted stitches that form the central flower. The rest wasn't bad at all. I made it through round 17 before I decided it was bedtime.

Listening to The Specials lately, need a little ska to get me going. Finn starts dancing every time I have it on in the kitchen. Gotta start 'em young........

Back to work!

Truth be told, I did get a lot of knitting and planning done over the holidays, but not a lot of documenting. Plus the internet has been fickle, only letting us on for a while at (very) odd hours. So, no pictures, no blog. But lots or fun, and lots of rest.

It was great spending big chunks of time with Kevin and the kids. It's quite rare for everyone to be home at the same time any more. Over break, we all went to Solabration and danced, all went to the movies, all went to Christmas Eve dinner with Kevin's parents. We even hung around the house all day more than once. I must say that the kids are shaping up to be very interesting human beings. It was nice to have the time to talk with them at length about what they're up to, what they're thinking about. Now that the girls are in high school, it doesn't happen much.

Kevin has another few days before he goes back to work, so I'll have him all to myself, at least in the daytime. When we're all running around doing stuff, sometimes I forget how much I enjoy his company. Since he's been working less, and been off work for 3 weeks, he is much more rested and relaxed. I am too.

This week I'd like to finish weaving the silk noil shibori warp and wind a warp for the towel exchange that's coming up. I'd like to block a few things that I finished in December, but that may not happen until next week. I do need to cast on some lace for a show I'd like to enter at the end of the month, a Niebling design called Veronika. If I have time before the deadline, I'll do a smaller one as well.

Our new front door has a lovely, large window in it that's just begging for a lace curtain. I do need to dig out the linen yarn I put in the shed to make room for the Christmas tree and see what kind of pattern to use for the design. It's supposed to get very cold and snow again in the next few days, so I guess the trip to the shed is a "today" thing.

Back soon, with pics!