That’s what my husband’s family used to call the end-of-the-week, use-up-the-leftovers soup his mother would make. And that’s the kind of post this is going to be. With the official Blue Garter photographer out of town, I have no new documentation of the vest or the armwarmers–we’ll try later this week if the gloomy light of a rainy Portland March permits. It was a busy week of evening meetings and extra choir performances for Ash Wednesday, but I did squeeze in knitting time. Want to see what happens when you let a riot of only-possibly-complementary colors loose on a swatch cap?

This might be the ugliest thing I’ve ever knitted, or it might not. I can’t decide. Sometimes I look at it and have to look away; other times I think it might be kind of awesome. I think it’s the chartreuse green causing the conflict. If I’d gone with a soft salmon pink, a paler cousin of the first background color in the OXO motif, the whole thing would have been more harmonious. But I like those peerie bands in hellebore colors in isolation. Ah well, it’s a swatch cap, and I don’t believe these colors have a future on a sweater of mine, but the hat kept my head warm when Lark and I went out on a singularly blustery walk with Katherine and her husband and their Sheltie, Merlin, this afternoon. Which is the point of a hat, right?

It was a wet and wild day out at the Sandy River delta, made more memorable by the presence of a number of dead fish cast up on the shore. One was quite a ways from the river and rather fresh; the doggies examined it with interest but refrained from eating it on command. I picked it up with a poo bag and lodged it in the crotch of a tree (Daniel took a cell-phone picture) because I didn’t want anyone else’s dog snarfing it down–there are nasty and even lethal parasites to be got by the consumption of rotting fish. Then there were more fish on the river bank, but Lark was busy doing her high-speed wave-herding and swimming after sticks and Merlin was intrigued enough by Lark’s behavior that we avoided them.

Once home it was time for a big mug of cocoa and Sense and Sensibility on Masterpiece Theatre. And a Tomten sweater! I cast on for the March Tomten KAL that’s kicking off among the Zimmermaniacs on Ravelry. I have a giant bag of inherited Cleckheaton Country Naturals 8-Ply, the yarn I used for Asa’s Twisted Tree Pullover (see Patterns tab), in a soft and manly blue tweed that wasn’t earmarked for any particular project, so I dove in. It’s a DK rather than an Aran, so I’ve altered the numbers a bit, but I think it will turn out well. And that’s not the only thing I started this weekend. I began to mess about with my big stash of Raumagarn and Hifa 3, experimenting for the 1920’s-style Fair Isle pullover I want to knit. But this startitis was balanced by virtuous completion of the Manlified February Sweater for my getting-himself-born-any-minute nephew (okay, it still needs buttons and a couple of ends woven in, but I’m close) and further work on that languishing Baby Bog Jacket I started last summer. It’s EZ Central around here!

For the literal aspect of the post title, I did make Garbage Soup for supper. After a scan of the refrigerator, I settled on parsnips, potatoes, and leeks, then added garlic cloves, a nubbin of ginger, bay leaves, a chili pepper, a pinch of saffron, a splash of milk that needed using up, and salt and pepper. Let it all simmer away while Marianne was pining for Willoughby, and then when OPB took a pledge break I gave it a squiz with the Soup Squizzer (which isn’t really called that except by me). But you know, it’s a sort of electric bowling pin with a wee blade at the business end, and you plug it in and stick it right in the soup pot and it squizzes away and purees your soup without any sloppy transfers of one portion and then another into the blender. Genius. This one is rather ancient and came from my grandmother’s house, but it works just fine. It’s my new favorite kitchen implement. I had a bowl of soup and heel of bread ready for supper by the time Edward was free to declare himself to Elinor. (I love this story. And I must say the Masterpiece Edward is superior to Hugh Grant’s interpretation in the Ang Lee version. That movie is great, but Hugh Grant was miscast. I like the two Colonel Brandons equally.)

That does it for Garbage Soup. Wish me sunlight so I can bring you details of the newly finished and newly begun projects!

Hello, I am blurry.The weather gods don’t care about your paltry FO’s.

We’ll call this a preview of two Blue Garter knits to receive more thorough blog coverage soon: sock-yarn-stash-buster-supreme Confectionary Vest, based on Deborah Newton’s Confectionary Tank from Interweave Knits Summer ’08, and slightly fancy alpaca armwarmers of my own unvention. When I can get a better picture of them you can have a look and tell me whether I ought to bother scribbling down a recipe for them. Anyway, both knits fit! And it turns out they also match. This is coincidence; I didn’t think, “Hmmm, I should really knit some detachable sleeves for my vest.” Because it’s not like there wasn’t enough sock yarn still left in the stash to make actual sleeves and call it a Confectionary Sweater.

A shout-out to the Monday Morning barista at Urban Grind Pearl – the same guy who praised my Amanda cardigan when I first wore it out on an excursion. This time he said, “So now I have to ask, do you make all your knitted items? Is it a hobby or do you do it professionally? That’s the most professional finishing I’ve ever seen.” You rock, barista man. Urban Grind is totally going to be my first stop anytime I have a new handknit to display. You’re great for the ego.

I really did mean to show my Madrona speed swatch on the blog last week, too. We had some higgledy-piggledy internet at home, unfortunately. Here it is now:

Pretty wild, right? For the sake of the exercise, I intentionally chose colors outside my usual palette, colors I wasn’t sure could work together. I loved the transition of rust to dark blue-green and the russet against the ice blue, rejected the forest green against the pinky-beige, and wasn’t sure what to make of the top end where the dark blues/greens start to play against the sea foam green and hot pink-orange. I thought it was dancing on the edge of ’70s Fugly. But Janine identified that very section as the part where the swatch really lifted off. So I set myself the challenge of editing the swatch to include all the colors in that section. I was supposed to continue the swatch, playing with the post-edit survivors in a motif. But I could hear Elizabeth Zimmermann in my head, and she was whispering, “Just make a swatch cap, dear! You have just enough yarn! Who cares if it doesn’t come out beautifully? It will keep your head warm at the very least.” Stay tuned to find out what happened next.

A good way to start a weekend is to have friends over for Saturday breakfast. If said friends are in possession of a squeezable seven-month-old, so much the better. And if possible, he should come wearing a sweater you knit in celebration of his birth.

Clearly, River has worn his little Spiral Yoke a lot, even though it’s just now fitting him perfectly. The Dream in Color Classy has pilled all over the place. There are extra pills on the arms, probably from the kind of calisthenics he’s demonstrating here. Structurally the sweater is in fine shape, but he’ll probably grow out of it before the weather turns warm, anyway. So it’s not too soon to start planning something new for him to wear next fall. Maybe a Tomten? I’ve yet to knit one…

As a knitter, I take it as the highest compliment when a garment gets worn to death. My mother only likes to wear her handknit socks around the house in her slippers for fear they’ll wear out and she’ll have spoiled something I made. I say if you love it to bits, you’ve proved yourself a worthy recipient and I’ll make you something new. Remember how the Velveteen Rabbit could only become real after he’d been worn all shabby? The best handknits get to live on in family memory after they’re full of holes, too. River’s next sweater will be in sturdier wool–presumably it won’t be weathering as much spit-up and won’t need such frequent washing–so it can last for his hypothetical brother or sister, and maybe later get folded up in a box in the linen closet, too precious to send to the thrift house, the way my best sweaters from childhood did. There’s a gray sweater with a lupine-blue horse my aunt knit for me that I wore until the sleeves were six inches too short. I hope my own kids will wear it some day. I’ll be a happy knitter indeed if, ten years from now, River’s family remembers that little brown sweater with the interesting blue design on the yoke.

You know a new sweater is a success when you can’t even wait to put the buttons on before you start wearing it. Happily, Amanda is a versatile girl who looks as well elegantly fastened with a pin.

You also know you’ve got a hit when the presumably non-knitting guy about to brew you a delicious latte tells you it’s a great sweater before he even takes your order. Compliments in Amanda’s first five minutes in public? Yes, please. And my husband was standing right beside me, so I think it’s safe to assume it really was the woolen garment he was admiring. Amanda is the flatteringest heavy wool sweater in my collection, though. Thanks to some waist shaping I added to the pattern and the fact that I knit under gauge to aim for a sleeker fit, she’s a svelte little piece.

I love, love, love the Bellwether Wool Co. Wensleydale, which is, on the practical front, toasty and not maddeningly itchy at the neck (I’m not very susceptible to wool-itch anyway) and ought to last a lifetime and, on the aesthetic front, lustrous and gorgeous and perfect for this waffly stitch pattern. I think Lois is out of this natural dark color until the summer, but if you let her know you’re interested I’m sure she’ll contact you when there’s a new batch ready. I’m delighted that I have leftovers enough to do a yoke pattern with them… perhaps Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Aspen Leaf pullover.

Meanwhile, I’m going to be wearing Amanda in heavy rotation while the cool weather lasts. She’s my new favorite sweater. Exterior edition to come when the buttons arrive and I figure out how to make the cufflink fasteners. I’ll be undoing the bind-off row on the solid buttonband, dropping down three stitches and working a buttonhole in seven places to match the other band, and then hooking the stitches back up and redoing the bind-off. Stay tuned…