This Site Has Moved!

In case you haven't found it, my new blog is here, and has been for several years. I unfortunately had to turn off comments on this blog, but if you have a comment on any of my old projects or posts feel free to post a comment at my new blog! I love comments, but I hate spammers. Boo on spammers. Hope to see you at the new site!

So Darn Fancy!

The new Pensive Frog site is up and running, and I figured out how to post pictures, praise Jeebus.

New and Improved

New Year, New Blog

Hi everyone! Pensive Frog has a new home, so please go to pensivefrog.com for future posts. All the old posts are there, but it wil take me a week or so to get all the photos posted. I hope you like the new fancy site!

Finally Found It

My camera has re-emerged, so here's a pic of the finished Coronet hat. The color is wildly inaccurate - it's actually a dark teal color. The pattern worked ok, but I had to do three fewer repeats on the cabled band to get the required length. That meant fewer available stitches to pick up around the band for the crown of the hat, but I think it turned out nicely. Did I mention how soft it is?

Coronet!

Questions, Questions

Well, still looking for my camera, so no new pix. I know it made it back from vacation, because we scavenged its batteries to use in the TV remote just the other day. So we'll have to make do with some verbal artistry. Cough. Anyway, I tried to get a start on the Clapotis, but it ended in disaster. I had completed about 50 rows, when I suddenly had 3 stitches where there should have been one. I ripped back a few rows to try to get past the mistake, and then a few rows more. I thought I was on the right track, but the column of twisted stitches was offset by one stitch from my previous work. Three TiVo'd episodes of Gilmore Girls later, I was back at the begininng. I'm not very good at ripping back and picking up my knitting in the middle, it's definitely something I have to work on. This piece is especially challenging, with its yarn overs, twisted stitches, and steady stream of increases. I'll give it a rest and start again later. So that brings me to a question posed by a reader a few weeks ago - what does the name "pensive frog" have to do with cooking, crafting, and the other things this blog is supposedly about? Now, many of my favorite blogs have titles that are utter non sequiturs, but there is no such thing as a dumb question (I suppose). While a pensive frog could be a thoughtful amphibian, it also describes the process of thoughtfully considering the horrible mess one has made of one's knitting, then slowly, reluctantly, perhaps even hopefully ripping the completed work into its constituent yarn. And, for the uninitiated, "frogging" is knitting jargon for "unraveling" (rip it, rip it = ribbit, ribbit). I didn't make it up, so it is what it is. Next question: someone else asked me for tips on the lined and zippered Kureyon pouch. I think I cast on 30 stitches on 10.5 needles, and I knitted until I had a loooooong rectangle (like a mini-scarf). I then folded it over and sewed it into a pita pocket thingy. The procedure of adding the lining and zipper consisted mainly of eyeballing, holding in place, cutting, re-cutting, and sloppy basting stitches. I'm not a seamstress, but if I can do it, anyone certainly can. Soft focus pictures also help a lot.

Back from away

I'm back from vacation, and I ended up abandoning my plans to tackle Clapotis on the road. I'm not very good at working complicated patterns while carrying on conversations, and that's what visiting family for the holidays is all about. I did complete the cashmerino Coronet, photos to be posted as soon as I unearth the digicam from the wreckage that is our condo. In food news, last night we made bubble tea at home! We made vanilla Earl Grey milk tea with rainbow bubbles, it worked quite well. Okay, this is dull without photos, so I'll work on finding that camera!

Knitting on the Run

Now that I'm finally done with finals week, I'm taking a few days off blogging as I travel to the nether regions of America for Christmas, also known as the land of very few LYSs. I leave you with a photo of what will be my holiday travel project, a version of Clapotis worked in cost-efficient Lara yarn from Elann. I was banking on winning a poetry contest that would let me buy enough Silk Garden to make a very special Clapotis, but then I realized that my poem was... eh. Happy Holidays to all!

Clapotis-in-Waiting