Flippin' Mittens

First, and most exciting, I got a shiny new job at at children's specialty hospital and rehabilitation center in town! It's a nice, clean, friendly workplace, with a large selection of therapy materials & toys and an emphasis on evidence-based practice. Yesterday I worked from 7:30am to 5pm. I'm following another SLP, whose Friday case load, I will be taking over.

One of the most striking things is that I'm introduced to parents and coworkers as "the new speech therapist," compared to my previous title, "my student." My badge even says "Beth W., Speech Language Pathologist." (It's weird that nobody at my new job knows my old name, and it makes it difficult when I forget and initial "BR" by mistake.) It's hard to leave the perception of being a "student" behind and to realize that I'm responsible for having the tools necessary to treat or find out how to treat a wide variety of disorders. Luckily, the therapist that I'm following provided some words of wisdom on treating children with language disorders: "No matter what you give them, it will always be more than they had before."

This week I put down my current herringbone scarf in order to work on mittens. Honestly, I no longer remember what prompted me to make mittens, but I started them on a cold day after investing in a new bright green, wool winter coat. Furthermore, I'm not interested in trying to knit gloves at the moment.


The trouble with mittens is the same trouble one would have with gloves: They are not so amazing if you need to answer a touch-screen phone, or text, or take a picture, or use the internet, or... However, the beauty of being a knitter is the ability to make custom items, in the colors you want, size you want, style you want, fiber you want (wool, alpaca, musk ox...), and added features you want. These are knitted with Lamb's Pride bulky wool/mohair in stockinette and 2x2 rib edging, with a moss stitch cuff.


-吴碧芙

My So Called Jewel Scarf

My newest finished project is "My So Called Scarf," which actually uses the offset herringbone stitch. It's a hard stitch to figure out, but once learned, the scarf is a fast knit. This is the best video for learning the stitch: http://www.loopknits.com/2007/12/11/herringbone-neck-warmer/


The diagonal effect is part of the magic of Patons Classic Wool variegated yarns. The wrong side of the work looks like a bunch of purl stitches.


-吴碧芙

Vegetable Couscous with Moroccan Pesto

We are having a kind of "cook the book" week with a Food Network Magazine Great Easy Meals cookbook, which we received as a wedding gift. We've made two delicious meals on Sunday and Monday nights. Today, we thought to take a picture and let people know what kinds of truly great and easy recipes this book has in it.

Today's meal has vegetables, including carrots, zucchini, mustard greens, onions, green olives, and tomatoes. The vegetables are spiced with cinnamon stick and raisins, among other things. All is served on a bed of giant couscous. A pesto made of flat parsley, garlic, cilantro, and cashews. Mustard greens are our new favorite ingredient.


-吴碧芙

Reception Pics

-吴碧芙

"I Got Married (if you can believe that)"

We got married on a beautiful day in October in a small ceremony with our close family and friends in attendance. The weather was cool, but sunny. The leaves on the trees had turned to a range of yellows and reds. Vows and rings were exchanged. The congregation sang "How can I keep from singing?" Everyone in attendance posed for a picture in the sanctuary before we greeted all of the guests, and we took pictures until the reception.

The guests enjoyed a social hour with local seasonal beers, red and white wines, fresh fruit and caprese hors d'oeuvers, and mixed nuts/pretzels/party mix snacks, all hand-picked by the bride and groom. A salad course of romaine lettuce with pear and olives was served, followed by a main course of late summer vegetable succotash. Small cakes were placed as centerpieces on each table--white cake or champagne cake with cream cheese filling & buttercream frosting.

From the whole day, the only amateur photography I could find so far includes a few iPad pictures (first), which were shot in low resolution, so some of the details are not very clear, and a few from my uncle (second). My foster brother's wife helped with my hair and make-up--the hairstyle is a cascade or waterfall braid around the crown of my head. I opted for the veil for the wedding and the shawl for the reception.


(The title is a nod to Jim's Journal.)
-吴碧芙

Double Happiness

The Chinese character for "double happiness" (literally "joy joy") looks like two people holding hands.

The people are wearing long robes or dresses and TV antennae on their heads. This is how I describe most Chinese characters that I recognize:
1) xue - "study": A student standing on one leg with a headband and three crazy tufts of hair (学）
2) cha - "tea": A house with a cross and fireplace inside and leaves on top of the roof (茶)
3) zhong - "middle": A rectangle sliced down the middle (中)
4) guo - "country": A drawing or painting of roads like a map (国)
5) nü - "female": A curvaceous person running (女)
6) nan - "male": A person with a big, quartered head and only one arm (男)
7) mei - "beautiful": A caterpillar (美)
This system is probably part of the reason why my knowledge of Chinese writing and ability to learn new characters are quite limited.

At any rate, I bought a "double happiness" pendant a while back, and I have been trying to figure out how to attach it to a heavy chain or beaded necklace without looking weird, and without having to attach it permanently. In this design, the pendant is completely removable.


The necklace is made of three connected strands, which are embellished all the way around, so that the pendant can be removed and the clasp placed at the back of the neck for a plain beaded look. (click to enlarge)


-吴碧芙

Adventures in Sock Knitting

I never thought I would actually make socks for men's size 13-14. I finished Sock 2 over a three-day weekend trip to Illinois. I knit from the beginning of the gusset to the cuff in two of the three days.

The gusset and leg portions of both socks seemed like they would never end. The magic of knitting socks is the triumph when one finishes the first sock--the success that it fits and looks nice--drives one forward to duplicate the same masterpiece for the other foot.

Knitting the second sock proves that the first sock was not a fluke and brings out the reality that the knitter is capable and that the knitter has skill, instead of a single strike of luck.


Knitting socks is an achievable goal. After telling yourself, "I could never knit a men's size 13-14 sock, let alone two; And how much yarn would that take, anyway?" finishing one of the socks feels like accomplishing the impossible, and beginning work on the second suddenly is within the realm of possibility.

Socks take a long time, and they're tedious at many points. Yet, when I finish a pair of socks, I don't know what to with myself. All tied up in sock knitting is the satisfaction of finishing the first and the anticipation of starting the second. It seems like such a large project (actually two large projects) that it seems like you will never have to think about the project that will come after. Until both socks are done too soon. I must say, I'm feeling ambivalent.

(And although I had 4 skeins of this yarn, it only took 2.5 skeins, with just enough left over for a "hers" pair that matches.)

-吴碧芙

I figure it out...

...So you don't have to.

I decided to make socks in men's size 13, using the toe-up construction. I've had some yarn set aside for this project for over a year, a very nice Patons Kroy Jacquards called "Country Jacquard" of browns, blue, and grey & white. Here is the formula:

1. Knit a gauge swatch in the round or observe the gauge on a sock previously knit using the same needles, yarn type, and stitch pattern as you intend to use.

2. Measure foot circumference. Look-up number of stitches needed in a chart, such as the one in Charlene Schurch's More Sensational Knitted Socks. Note that an online Sock-u-lator originally told me to cast-on 90 stitches, but Schurch's chart said 72 stitches. I cast-on 72 stitches, and the sock fits quite well.

3. Choose a toe from Tiptop Toes on Knitty, which includes good directions and pictures for three types of toe-up toes. I tried the Short Row toe, but eventually frogged in favor of the Figure Eight toe. Note: When the pattern says "k1, make 1" or "make 1, k1," I did "kfb (knit front and back)" instead, since I find make 1 to result in larger holes than I prefer. I also disregarded the dpn business and just did kfb at the beginning and end of two circulars.

4. Knit the length of the foot to "the front of the ankle." It is about 2/3 of the total length of the foot from toe tip to the back of the heel. This video is useful.

5. Knit the gusset increases and heel "patch" from Fleegle. Note that when the pattern says "k2, increase 1" or "increase 1, k2," I knit "k1, kfb" and "kfb, k1" instead.

6. Knit the leg of the sock as long as you desire.

7. Bind off using Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind off. Toe-up socks need a good stretchy bind off at the cuff, and this one is easy to follow. Note that you should "keep things loose" somewhat, otherwise you will have problems passing the stitches over one another.

-吴碧芙

Lovable Socks

With more time on my hands, I decided to take on another round of socks. This time I used my favorite top-down basic pattern, with XO cable added on the outside of each sock. I worked the pattern myself by parsing a single XO cable from a scarf pattern and knitting it on the right or left edge accordingly.


They are a gift, so I only modeled them for pictures. I also apparently can only make socks for people with the same size feet as mine, but I'm planning to add more sizes soon.

-吴碧芙

Owl done...

I have been looking for an owl cookie jar, having seen them basically everywhere except in stores lately: (1) in a collection of American Bisque cookie jars in the Waverly Bakery, (2) on the show Modern Family, (3) American Bisque, again, in a patient's apartment (right there on top of her fridge). These owls have been taunting me. Vintage owl cookie jars sell on Ebay for $40-$180, and the non-freaky, non-ugly ones happen to be more expensive.

A week ago, we were in the mall, on official wedding business, when something caught my eye in Macy's. At first, I just saw a rather cute owl-shaped serving tray...then some salt & pepper shakers...then a piggy bank...then a COOKIE JAR! On top of that, there was some kind of sale starting a few days later, and they would pre-sell it to me, to be picked-up on the sale start date.

Now, if you have an owl cookie jar, what kind of cookies would you put in it? I thought so too, but owl-shaped cookie cutters are (1) generally only vaguely owl-shaped, and (2) probably only available at specialty stores and online. An exhaustive search revealed some very cute options: one person used frosting to decorate cookies that she cut out with a tulip-shaped cookie cutter, but I can't find a tulip cookie cutter either. Other options are focused on shaping the dough. As soon as I saw one of those options, I remembered my Grama making them when I was little. Seeing the picture of them took me back to my exact feelings about the cookies when I first saw them: I refused to eat them because they had one cashew, standing for the owl's beak. I was convinced that the cashew meant that the whole cookie would taste like nuts.

The cookies are actually made with vanilla and chocolate dough, rolled into a cylinder and sliced. The eyes are peanut butter chips, although I considered using light-colored M&Ms. The beak, as I mentioned, is a whole cashew.


Having finished my last exam on Saturday (hopefully, provided I pass), this is how I celebrated the end of my academic obligations and my birthday, free of exam stress.

-吴碧芙

Official Graduation

My official graduation was anti-climactic. I finished my internship and moved north. The day after the end of my internship, I received a letter that contained the results of my comprehensive exams. The letter stated that I had passed the written portion of the exams, but that I was "required to email 3 instructors for phone interviews regarding 2 topics of the exams."

So when the last instructor agreed to fill-out the paperwork saying that I passed, during the last phone interview, I suppose that around that moment I officially graduated, having completed all of my academic obligations. The department must complete some paperwork, papers must be signed, and then my diploma will appear in the mail someday soon.

And so, on the day of my official graduation, last Thursday, I had a cupcake...


-吴碧芙

3-Day, 15-Hour Hot Mess

One of those academic obligations of my symbolic graduation is comprehensive exams, which ended today. A 3-day, 15-18 total hour ordeal, in which we all try to prove that we know enough to be competent clinicians. The heat of these past days, the lack of sleep, and the stress on both mind and body have taken their toll.

Hopefully all of the studying and hours of stress have paid off...

Symbolic Commencement

...In no way signifies the successful fulfillment of my academic obligations. But it was fun to get dressed up and walk across the stage with some of my classmates and over 1,000 strangers, from every program offered at the university.


The difference between this MA commencement and my previous one was that this university uses hoods.



-吴碧芙

Self-striping

These are my first socks with the amazing self-striping variety of sock yarn. I keep buying colors I like, thinking they will stripe, and they turn out to be variegated. This yarn, however, had a repeating pattern that was easy to solve and line up when making a pair of socks.

I was determined to make socks that match, identical socks, not fraternal. My plan would have worked, too, if it wasn't for a little extra white, green, and blue on the toe. The heel and gusset match up almost perfectly, with one skinny pink line along the edge of each heel flap. As my knitting friend say, no one will notice because it's down in your shoe anyway.


-吴碧芙

Sock it Up (Part 2)

I finished my second pair of socks! I made the first pair over a year ago. I started the first sock of this pair on Jan. 16, 2011, and I finished the second sock today. The first sock took about 2 weeks to finish, and the second took 4 days. Thanks to a snow day, I had time to bust out the last few inches and the toe. The pattern has a short-row heel, which is quite nice, and check out the beautiful gusset. (click to embiggen)


I'm a little disappointed that my genius plan to make matching socks was thwarted, since it appears that this yarn has random color changes. Note how the cuffs and toes nearly match, but the rest of the socks are completely different. Now I'm back to attaching I-cord to all those felted potholders I'm making.

-吴碧芙

Sock it up!

I got the sock yarn that I had been eying for some time, called "clover colors" from Patons. I cast on with US #1 needles, made a gauge swatch in the round, and did the math to find out how many stitches to cast on for my actual sock. I finished ribbing for the cuff, but I wasn't interested in any of the sock patterns I'd found.

I was looking for something else when I saw a simple sock with one cable on each side, a pattern written by Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Pearl McPhee. After looking a little more, I finally settled on Aquaphobia Socks from www.knitfreak.com. The designer wrote that the pattern is intended for variegated yarns to prevent color pooling, which disturbs some knitters. Luckily, the pattern is written for US #1 needles, with exactly the number of stitches I had already cast on.


There is a baby cable (repeating 6-stitch, 4-row pattern) on the sides of the sock. The front and back sections are done in a slip-knit pattern, which makes a strong, heavy, stiff cloth. So far, I'm quite pleased with myself for how far I've gotten and how the yarn looks with this pattern.

-吴碧芙