HairyAss TARDIS Socks

That is EXACTLY how I feel about this project, right now. Knitting the socks themselves is OK. The @#$$%^^ glow-in-the-dark yarn is something else. The yarn in question is Nightlights. It is a long-filament, 100% nylon sliver/roving. It won't hold a twist. As a result, the fibers form a hairy-ass hot mess unless you use them exactly right.
My first attempt was NOT right. Damn, I had glow-in-the-dark spew all over everything. It tangled and snagged and $$#@!@%%^& all over everything. Much frogging and some rather nasty language resulted. I spent yesterday re-knitting, slowly, but with a better result. Now on to the next sock. I hope to post the next photos under UV light so you can see the glow. Supposedly the yarn glows for 4 hours on it's own. We shall see.

Socks TARDIS

Totally forgot to post this. I am working on my first pair of real socks. The last attempt turned out as giant Technicolor mittens.
These will be a gift for someone and will feature a TARDIS theme.
Made of KnitPicks, Palette in deep blue. I am knitting both socks together on separate sets of DPNs. This gives me the best chance of finishing the socks and having them match.

Rare Gilding Sighting

Rare photos of myself. Every once in a great while I will get in front of a camera. One problem is that I take terrible pictures of myself. Candid photos are best. My family members are uniformly terrible with a camera. In this case, I am showing off a new hair cut. I usually wear my hair bound up.
I must admit that I am totally enjoying this. I grew up with a grandmother who had very strict ideas about what was proper. I was raised to be a lady according to standards that came from, oh say 1900.
At any rate, Grandma's rules kinda got shot to pieces.

This is me at work, wearing the scarf. I love the scarf, but I need more practice in wrapping it just so. This is also why I am camera shy..... I make faces.
Anyway, I love the scarf. I'm going to make at least one more. The red and black version was knit with sock yarn. The next version(s) will be knit in sport yarn. I want a faster result and a bigger scarf.
This scarf came out to at least 60" wide by about 16" in depth. It took quite awhile to knit. Sport yarn will be faster. I want a really capacious shawl next time (I think).
My current project is for the feet. I am just finishing up a pair of footie socks in worsted weight yarn. This is the learning project for a pair of socks for a birthday present. Nearly ready for photos.

Looooong shawl

A process shot of the Chadwick Shawl. It is just, just, finished and in blocking. It took me a long time to knit this one, partly because the last rows were more than 300 stitches and 5 feet long before blocking. Once I figure out how to wrap it, I'll put up a photo. For once, I will try to put up a rare shot of me wearing a knit.
Another reason that this shawl took so long is that I got a virus for the holidays. I'm still feeling pretty bad, but going to work, anyway. I've been too sick to knit or even, really, read. For me, that is a terrible thing. I am definitely still sick. I've edited this post several times for typos.

Treacle Tart Experiment

This is an interim blog post. I am knitting, but the pace is a bit slower. I've been working in fingering or sock yarn. Takes time to finish a project.

The dessert at left was made for Thanksgiving. Every holiday I like to try some new item, just for fun.

Treacle tart was mentioned as Harry Potter's favorite dessert. A few months ago, I bought a tin of Golden Syrup out of sheer curiosity. The taste is sort of buttery. Treacle tart was the most promising recipe I could find to use it. Note- Black Treacle is a syrup that is essentially molasses. The British tend to use the word "treacle" to denote sugar cane syrups in general. I had to discover this on my own. My Scottish in-laws have been utterly incapable of providing any meaningful conversation on the topic. My curiosity drives them nuts (in a long list of grievances).

Treacle tart consists of a short crust pastry, the top crust must be latticed or may be omitted and a sugary filling. The recipe that I used. called for Golden Syrup, fresh white breadcrumbs, ginger and lemon. The mixture is then baked. My kids really liked it.

There seems to be a lot of variation in the recipes for this dessert. There are lots of versions online. I am not posting the recipe that I used because my results were very different from the recipe description. The recipe stated that the tart would be "cookie-like". I mixed the ingredients, weighing them out according to the recipe. The mixture I got was very dry. It could not be poured into the crust. I ended up adding more syrup and also some evaporated milk to get a moister filling. I did this because some modern recipes call for cream and sometimes eggs. After I filled the crust, and assembled the lattice top, the tart still didn't look right. The filling still looked too much like a pile of crumbs. I cover the tart and left it in the refrigerator overnight. In the morning, I baked the tart, with good results. The breadcrumbs broke down overnight and I got a smoother, homogeneous filling. It was sweet and a little bland. The next time I try this, I will increase the amount of lemon and ginger. I would also prefer to get the "cookie-like" texture mentioned in the recipe. Possibly, leaving out the dairy would produce that. I will research more variations of this dessert before I try again. It's and interesting variation in the family of sigary pies such as Shoofly, Chess, and Pecan Pies.

European Mandrake, knit

This was a LOT of fun. I started out to knit a mandrake root, as mentioned in Harry Potter (book 2). As I was looking up reference material, I learned to distinguish between the two varieties of plant commonly called mandrake. Mandrake is also fascinating as a medicinal plant on it's own. My project was knit to resemble a European Mandrake, which has purple flowers and an orange fruit. The North American variety, looks like an umbrella, with a white, waxy blossom.
The root/body was knit of a worsted taupe yarn from my stash. All knitting was done on size 6 DPN. I knit a5-inch long cylinder of 40 stitches around. I cast on with waste yarn so that I had live stitches at each end of the cylinder. For the legs, I divided the stitches evenly and knit two tapered tubes, ending with about three stitches. I purposely made the tubes different lengths. For the arms, I picked up stitches on either side of the body and knit irregular, tapered tubes. The arms and legs were threaded with pipe cleaners and stuffed with a bit of fiberfill if it fit. For the head, I decreased a few stitches to suggest a neck and shoulders, then knit straight up on about 30 stitches to form a head. The leaves were knit from groups of 3-5 stitches, all around the head. The flower and fruit were knit separately and sewn on. I added extra strands of yarn to suggest smaller roots on the ends of the appendages. There is at least on published pattern for a mandrake available on Ravelry. I developed my own so I could avoid sewing up. I also wanted to focus on botany rather than the cartoon aspects of the project. I specifically did not want to "anthropomorphise" the root by adding a face.

Brandywine Shawl

Brandywine Shawl is done. Finished about two weeks ago. I did not photograph it until a few days ago. This one needed some time to grow on me. It was knit in a double strand of alpaca laceweight yarn. I've decided that (for now) I don't like laceweight yarns. I put a lot of effort into this project and it came out the size of a kerchief. To be fair, perhaps I should knit this pattern in a sport yarn and see if I like it better. The color is nice and I've worn it once.
Since the weather has suddenly turned cold, neckwear has decided benefits. I have recently discovered that a wrap around the neck/shoulders can feel wonderful, particularly if one is prone to getting a stiff neck. I also happen to work in a drafty office. Finally, it gives me something to fidget with when needed. I'll be playing with shawls/stoles for a while longer. I'm excited about the work of Stephen West and will link to him in future posts.