My DC - Week 36

Today I've got another of the monuments from Lafayette Park. There are actually monuments in each corner of the park and fountains and canons within.

The inscription on the monument reads"

Erected by the Congress of the United States to Frederick William Augustus
Henry Ferdinand Baron von Steuben in Grateful recognition of his services to
the American people in their struggle for liberty

Born in Prussia September 17,1730
Died in New York November 28, 1794

After serving as Aide-de-Camp to Frederick the Great of Prussia he offered his sword to the American Colonies and was appointed Major General and Inspector General in the Continental Army.
He gave military training and discipline to the citizen soldiers who achieved the independence of the United States

MCMX

Walking through the park after taking lots of pictures and feeling pretty satisfied with them I came upon a different angle and saw some elements in shadow. The helmet on the seated figure with its serrated edge really struck me so I took yet one more picture of it.

I hope that you all have a great weeked full of all the things you love.

NaKniSweMo Prep

The knitting frenzy continues. Both the Noro Scarf and the Helena baby sweater are nearing completion and I'm maintaining a respectable pace with the kippot so until last night I was in a really good position for NaKniSweMo. Then startitis struck again. One minute I was sitiing on the couch happily working on the Noro Scarf and the next minute there was the start of a blue mitten in my lap. I really have no excuse. It just kind of happened but it's ok because it's just a pair of mittenns and they're a nice, portable project. A knitter should never be without a take-along project.

Before I sat down to knit last night I did one last check of my NaKniSweMo supplies. I'm planning to knit the Tangled Yoke Cardigan for my grandmother. If I succeed in doing this during November it would be really cool since she asked for the sweater last Thanksgiving. I'd love to be swatching this project but I have no clue what gauge will actually be. The yarn I'm using, Plymouth Tweed, is not what was called for and Aylin, the owner of the shop I bought it at worked out the math for me to make it come out right. She told me to knit it as written, according to the instructions for the smallest size and it would work out to be the size I need which is a bit larger. Um... ok. My math sucks so I'm going to have to trust that hers is good and knit on faith. Wish me luck.

I'm really looking forward to NaKniSweMo and challenging myself. I'm not sure that watching the progress of one simple sweater will be great blog fodder but never fear. I'm still suffering from startitis so I'm sure that there will be other things in progress. I have at least 2 more baby sweaters up my sleeve and my holiday knitting has only just started. Full speed ahead.

Scarves and Cowls

I cannot believe how cold it is this week. Out doing errands on Sunday I saw kids wearing shorts and t-shirts (not mine because I'm a mean mom with an aversion to sick children) and Monday I broke out my warm winter coat. It was windy and rainy and cold. Perfect weather for wool.

Fortunately, I finished my handspun cowl on sunday night. How's that for timing? It's about 9 inches tall and it fits around my neck loosely but not too loosely. It slides on really easily, doesn't feel constricting, and it won't mess up my hair - all good things.

I wear it kind of slouchy so that it provides a nice barrier between my neck and the wind. There's a lazy, rustic feel to the piece that is complemented well by the yarn which is also lazy and rustic with it's thick and thin texture. There's still a bit of yarn left too so I may be able to make some mittens to match.

Happily I won't be the only one sporting warm, new neckwear from my needles this year. The Noro Entrelac scarf that my husband covets is nearing the finish line and I've found a pattern to make a scarf for another man on my list. This is Backyard Leaves by Annie Modesitt in KP Andean Silk. Admitting that the first pattern I tried, Forbes Forest, wasn't going to work was hard and frogging all that work... double ugh. Talk about painful. However, now that I'm 4 repeats into this pattern I feel pretty confident that this will be a winner.


Looking at the chart for this pattern scared me a bit at first. It's not the kind of pattern that you can commit to memory and just cruise along with but, after a few repeats it gets a little more intuitive and moves surprisingly fast. There is enough going on here to keep a knitter interested but not so much that you can't work on it while watching your shows.