some finished objects, and a language lesson

These are socks for my niece, who wanted some new socks when she saw the pairs of socks I made for her Mama and Papa for Christmas. They are a simple K2 P2 rib, using the formulas and measurements from Charlene Schurch's books, and I knitted them on a pair of addi turbo circs, size 0. The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, and the color is Watercolor. Although they've been finished since Thursday, I was prevented from getting them to the post office three times. On Thursday, I had to make an emergency trip an hour north on the interstate to jump start Joe's car, which was dead when he arrived back from a Florida business trip. Friday, we had an ice storm. Saturday, we were embroiled in a major project, details to follow.
And here are her mittens. I love these, love the yarn, love how they knitted up. I made them out of Avanti merino, quite firmly on anonymous double pointed needles from my vast collection, size 3. The yarn calls for a 5. Question: Why do I prefer to knit socks on two circs, but mittens on double points? Another question: where do you suppose my darling niece lives? She wanted wool socks, and specifically requested mittens from me, for her morning trip to school. She probably lives some place chilly, I imagine you're thinking.

Silly, silly you. She lives in, and on, Hawaii.

The island of Hawaii is a volcano, as are the other islands. You probably knew that. What you might not know is that the interior of the island is a mountain, and that it gets cold enough on the mountain to snow. The exterior of the island is, as everyone knows, a beach, and it's summer there, all year round. There is a main highway encircling the island, approximately equidistant from both the mountain and the beach. If you live on the mountain side of this road, you live mauka, or toward the mountain and inland. If you live on the beach side, you live makai, or toward the sea.

My niece and her family all live makai, but her school is mauka, and there is enough difference in altitude between these two locations that it is uncomfortably chilly for my sweet small niece to arrive with bare hands.

Hope you like them, sweetie!

Long overdue...
I've been a little long on the speechifying lately, and a little short on the projects, particularly house projects. So I am happy to report on a huge project, all but finished. We have lived in this house for four years, and for a series of uninteresting reasons, Little One's bedroom was the tiniest room in the house, a room scarcely deserving of the word, more of a closet, really, as well as the only route to the attic. We've been planning to move him to a larger room for some time, but we were sleeping in it. And the room we wanted for our bedroom has been our office/studio/storage space/catchall.

But this weekend we played musical rooms and put everyone where they belong. We were ably assisted by our friends Alison, who raised the tone of the whole project by mopping the floors, and AK, who made soup and salsa and hung out with the kids downstairs.

Here is my new office, Little One's former bedroom.








Here's Little's new bedroom, formerly ours.








And here is our bedroom, with some past projects on display. First there's the blanket on the bed, which you may recognize.







And then there's the lamp from this post, now rewired and with a shade, which has finally found a home befitting its loveliness.







And finally, here is my collection of knitting books, right next to the bed, right where they belong. I can't tell you how many times I have padded across the hallway in my pajamas to get one of these books for some project I'm planning while sitting up in bed. Most of my yarn stash found a home in this room too. I may never leave this room again.