Studio Marlowe

As I have the past couple of summers, I’m again trying my hand at gardening this year.  I’ve had very mixed success with gardening the past couple of years–our community garden plots are very accessible to a large population of rabbits, squirrels, raccoons, and other wildlife who feel they’re entitled to share the gardening bounty, usually well before it’s actually in any sort of fruitful stage (try explaining to the rabbits that they are welcome to take a few tomatoes in August, if they will just stop. eating. the. whole. darn! plant! in April).  Amazingly, this year has been relatively critter free–it appears my relentless applications of cayenne pepper and hair trimmings are finally doing the trick and my plants are all (so far, knock on wood) un-nibbled.

However, to counterbalance that, this year I also got a really late start on my garden (was out of town until mid-April), so it’s nearly the end of June and my tomatoes are still looking pretty puny:

The weather here is pretty mild year round so I’m hopeful that these will eventually yield some fruit despite my slackness early in the season.  And if not, that’s okay too–I enjoy the process of gardening almost as much as the finished process, so even in a year with limited yields I feel like I’ve gained something!

And finally, one thing that is doing really well, basil!

(although I confess its success is partially due to the fact that I purchased it as a plant rather than growing from seed…)

 Recently I was visiting my parents and I noticed these gloves out on the dresser in my old bedroom:

I knit these gloves in 2003 and gave them to my mother as a Christmas present.  They’re pretty basic, 100% wool, no fancy stitching or colorwork.  Just gloves.  Since I’ve made them, I’ve seen my mother wearing them numerous times when I’ve been visiting over Christmas, and she’s mentioned in phone conversations how nicely they match a scarf she acquired later.  I tried them on as soon as I noticed them and found they were still warm, cozy, and in good condition.

I know when I take stock of my knitting I can see a lot of projects that were ill-conceived or that simply refused to work out.  My knitting drawer has lots of these kinds of reminders: half done projects, yarn that may never get used, and so on.  They’re all right there.  Good projects, however,  don’t always present such a constant reminder.  They get given away, or worn so often that they’re eventually beyond repair.  So it’s really nice when one pops up unexpectedly to remind you that yes, you do knit a lot of great stuff that balances out the pieces you aren’t so fond of.

Finding these gloves also got me thinking about starting another pair for my mother.  Since she likes (and uses) these so much, maybe it’s time for an upgrade.  Hmmmm….

Lately I’ve been taken with the idea of projects that are fairly simple in their construction, but with a few original details and a lot of attention to fit.  The simplicity concept is appealing because I’ve been finding the rest of my life is pretty crowded with work and people and my knitting time is sporadic and often not of the highest quality.  Intricate color or cable charts, while fun, seem a little less alluring if you can often only knit: in 10-15 minute stretches, while on the phone with your mother/father/sibling/friend, at the very end of the day when you’re dead tired.  An added bonus is that simpler pieces often tend to be more versatile, so I can get more wear out of all those hours spent on garment construction.  Hopefully one of these days I’ll get back to the more complicated things, but for now, simple is it:

I’ve conceived this latest project as a fairly straightforward short-sleeved stockinette cardigan, perfect for cool spring mornings, or layering over long sleeves in slightly chillier weather.  A few of my favorite all purpose sweaters have finally started biting the dust recently (and after years of hard wear, I can’t say I’m too surprised), so it’s high time to work up replacements like this one. The yarn is a Berrocco 50/50 wool/alpaca blend, in a gorgeous purple color that I am currently unable to get the camera to capture properly (oh well). It’s super soft and I can tell this is going to make a great layer for keeping my core warm in chillier weather.

A while back I posted that I was working on a navy wrap cardigan.  Then I dropped off the radar, blogwise.  With regards to this particular project though, that’s not such a bad thing.  Dark colors are nearly impossible to photograph so I would have been boring you, dear readers, with a lot of shots of a dark knitted mass.  Not so hot.

However, I am now returned from my blogging hiatus (I hope) and guess what?  While I was gone, I finished that wrap:

Apologies for the weird angle and grotty mirror, I will rig up a good self-timer set up again soon, promise!

This cardi is definitely one of those projects that turned out just as well as anything I was envisioning in my head during the design and early knitting phases.  It fits like a dream: nice and form fitting without being too tight, and the fit is really perfect pretty much everywhere.  If I were making it again (and I plan to), I would not change a thing.  This is also definitely an example of how if you pick the right yarn and take the time to figure out the perfect gauge for what you want in a finished sweater, the hardest work is pretty much done for you.  As far as knitting skills required go, this cardigan was very simple, even mindless to knit.  But the merino/angora blend and the slightly loose gauge combined to create a soft fabric with just the perfect amount of drape. It also goes through the delicate cycle of my washing machine with no ill effects.  I took a lot of notes and am thinking I may be making another in a lighter color as soon as I can identify some appropriate yarn.

Details, such as they are:

Pattern: My own, general style is top-down raglan

Size: Technically designed to have a 32″ finished bust, fits my roughly 36″ bust perfectly

Yarn: Colourmart UK 4/16NM DK weight 75% merino/25% angora, 660 yards/150g, in a navy color

Gauge:

Needles: US 5 for everything except the ties, which were on a US 1.

Once again, long time, no blog.  Things have been busy!  But, I have still been knitting.  See?

Yes, that’s my tetris scrap afghan that I started a year or so ago.  No, it isn’t finished.  It is, however, starting to look more afghan-like in its proportions (as opposed to misshapen and oversized washcloth like).  I’ve run into a bit of a snag with regards to color balance, though.  While I still have loads of different purple yarns, I’m running thin on both browns and strong pinks.  No good.  Fortunately, I’m taking the train down to my parents’ this weekend, where I have a fair amount of stash in semi-permanent storage.  I know there are a couple of balls at least kicking around down there that will be perfect for this project.  And my mother will be thrilled that some of my yarn is leaving the house! 

I don’t know about you, but I have been hearing a ton of buzz about green smoothies over the past year or so.  As always, I am reluctant to be at the cutting edge of any trend, so naturally I did not try them for a while.  However, I’ve recently been experimenting with incorporating more raw foods into my diet so I decided to give the green smoothing thing a try also:

The big summer fruit season is mostly over so I’ve been keeping mine pretty simple: soymilk, an apple, an orange, and a couple cups of raw kale or spinach.  Yes, it looks like space alien slime. But! It is really pretty delicious and the taste of greens is not overpowering or really strong at all.  I’ve been drinking these for breakfast for the past couple of weeks, sometimes with different fruits (last week I was lucky enough to score a pomegranate!).  With the soymilk, they have a nice balance of carbs and proteins and really keep me going until lunch.  As an added bonus, I’m noticing that my skin is much clearer and has a bit of a fresh looking glow to it that only seems to come when I’m loading up on the raw fruits and vegetables.

Well, clearly this posting every day for a month thing is going nowhere fast.  I’ve been busy!  But, some of that busy has been knitting, finally.

My current project is a pair of sample hats for a class I am teaching in December.  This weekend I took a train trip to San Francisco, so I had loads of time to work on them on the way up:

The pattern is one of my own, and you can find it in the 2009 Gifts issue of Interweave Knits.  For the class samples, I’m using the recommended yarn (Canopy fingering), but we’re mixing up the color schemes a bit. I am really loving working with this yarn so I think I’m going to have to find more reasons to use it in the future!

And of course, I eventually had to come back from San Francisco, which meant another round of knitting (unfortunately every time I thought to take a photo we were bumping like crazy, so apologies for the blurring):

Believe it or not, I have actually found some time to knit while working on the chaise lounge.  My main project at the moment is the navy wrap I mentioned a few posts back:

This is a very simple, top-down pattern with just a bit of cabled edging to add some visual interest.  Overall it’s been pretty simple and mindless knitting, which is about all I’ve been able to handle since I had such a huge other project ongoing.  I’m loving the way it’s coming out and the yarn is still incredibly soft–I can’t wait to finish and wear it!

Yesterday kicked off November, which, it is starting to seem, is National Everything Month.  I think NaNoWriMo was the starter, but I’m no way writing a novel anytime soon.  I thought I could, however, try to blog everyday.  Although I’m off to a flying start with having missed the 1st.  Ooops.  But, for the rest of the month, I am going to try to post on a daily basis, at least during the week.

And I’ll kick things off by announcing that I am finally FINISHED with my huge sewing project!  That’s right, I am now the proud owner of one espresso brown corduroy couch:

Final verdict: It is awesome and I love it and I’m not sure I’ll be doing it again anytime soon.

And now that’s finished I can get back to knitting!  More about that tomorrow.

This was the project that dragged on forever.  Parts of it were stolen (!), then I just stuck it in the back of a drawer for a while, and then finally I dragged my feet on the embroidery.  But!  I finally finished:

Totally worth it. I love this top and I’m getting lots of wear out of it (and now that the weather is getting a little cooler I’m planning to get even more wear out of it, awesome).

I really love how the embroidery turned out, don’t you?