And We’re Off...

It’s been a busy but fun holiday season here at Nana’s. 

On Christmas Eve, I got the best gift ever when DH arrived in Milwaukee to begin his final leave before finishing up in January.  We attended the service at church and then snuggled in front of the fireplace at home, having exactly the kind of Christmas we’d both been dreaming of.  On Christmas day we headed down to Central IL for Christmas with my parents and brother.  My Brother was also on leave after preparing for a year of Army service and imminent departure to Iraq (he returned to base the next day and departed on the 30^th – prayers will be appreciated!). 

Both I and the kitties are very happy to have DH home.  Zelda is having a hard time figuring out which lap to sleep on. 

For New Years we headed to MI to see our daughter there and catch up with the MI grandkids.  My how they have grown!

And knitting?  Well, there was some scheduled and some unscheduled projects.  I’ve made too small of progress on the sweater to take up space with a picture.  I did finish the left squirrel mitten:

If you notice the thumb is on a holder still.  I love this pattern and am enjoying getting the two handed stranding technique down.  This pattern is extremely well written and I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a nice Fair Isle mitten pattern (except of course the Yarn Harlot).

The only problem I have actually encountered so far is with the thumb.  My fault not the pattern; I am finding it tricky to get the tension right at the needle change point.  I’m magic looping and perhaps should have switched to dpns for the thumb, but a) I was being too lazy to find my matching dpns for the project and b) stubborn, so I continued to knit the whole thumb even after I realized that I was not being consistent in making adjustments.   

 (can you tell?  The bottom is tight and the top is loose... ugh!)

So realistically, I will probably frog this thumb and reknit it once the right mitten is done. 


In a little unscheduled knitting, I decided I needed something simpler than the mittens to work on while I waited for hub’s flight to arrive and something less complicated than the sweater, less boring than the plain white anklets I already had on the needles…. So I cast on for a pair of Noro striped socks (this time for ME).  Just enough happiness with the color changes but nothing so complex that would succumb to errors caused by the distraction of excitement and anxiety that I was feeling that day.  I got through the heel of the first sock while knitting at the airport since I arrived early (it was rainy and blech and I get nervous driving in those conditions so I allowed myself plenty of drive time).  No biggie when you have knitting to keep you company.  I worked on these off and on and finished two socks, but the colors are so different that I immediately started another pair which I think will end up being totally mix and match. 

I’m using colors S233 and S102 this time.  I’m up to the toe shaping on sock #3, since these knit really quickly and make excellent travel knitting. 


So 2010 is off to a good start and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens as this year unfolds.  I’m also looking forward to many fun planned and unplanned knitting projects. 

I’ll leave you with this shot of Zelda taken shortly after the New Year dawned:

Happy 2010!

May your knitting adventures take you many places this year and may the detours be just as fruitful.
Happy Knitting!  

Nana

The Joy of Nana-hood

(do I need to say anything?)

There will be a return to knitting content soon…

Nana

Nana-a-go-go

That’s me.

I feel like I’ve been on the go for several weeks now. Having some quiet time here in TX with DD1 while we await the birth of her daughter is a real blessing and necessity. I won’t be able to recap everything, but needless to say it has been a very busy couple of weeks.

My brother and Niece spent about a week visiting me and we did a quick weekend trip to WI so he could attend a friend’s wedding. We had a little extra time after arriving and he graciously took me to this shop where I enjoyed meeting the owner and checking out her shop. The night of the wedding I hung out in the hotel watched baseball on TV and knitted, mostly getting this going: (another pair of Noro Skinny Stripe socks)

Last week was mostly a normal schedule for me while my brother reacquainted himself with our area and found fun things to do with his daughter. On Weds we went to Stitch-n-Pitch with the Chicago White Sox (Sox 6; Angels 2). It was my first time at the new Sox stadium and we all had great fun, here are a few of the pictures from the game: Thursday Mom and Dad picked up my brother so they could visit with him for the rest of his trip and Friday I got in the car and drove the first leg of my trip to TX. I arrived on Saturday and installed myself and the kitties in the guest room / nursery at my daughters house. The kitties are still adjusting to meeting their “nephew” kitties. It’s been an interesting process to watch.

This is what Saucey and Tony have been doing mostly...

Since there is still a day or so before the baby is due, DD has taken me to some of her favorite places here in TX we visited the Fort Worth Stockyards (sorry no pic), the delightful Fort Worth Zoo where we enjoyed a very pleasant morning and saw several great animals as well as the flamingos on parade and we also visited Jennings Street Yarns , but mostly we have just been enjoying each other’s company. She’s as prepared as she can be for the baby’s arrival, so it’s just waiting time now. I’m nearly finished with the baby blanket (just two more octagons): So I’m about as prepared as a Nana can get. If I finish the last two octagons before she goes into labor, I still have a couple of pairs of socks I need to work on. Well hopefully the next post will be pics of my new granddaughter (with the finished blanket of course!) Happy knitting Nana

I Am Loved

Seven years ago today I had the great fortune to marry a wonderful man. Since we couldn't celebrate together today, he sent this:(some close ups of the individual blooms)

I am very loved by a good man. I miss him a great deal. Hurry home honey!

Memorable Weekend

I went down to central IL for part of the weekend and got to see a little parade in my folks town; Dad got to ride on one of the veteran’s floats, unfortunately, I was slow with the camera, therefore too late to get a good picture. Then later that day we all had the privelege to witness my niece Stasi get married…

The wedding was beautiful and moving with a radiant bride escorted by my brother resplendent in his dress uniform despite the tears as he gave away his daughter, then a beautiful tribute song written and performed by my nephew in honor of his sister and new brother-in-law. Many tissues were needed. Then, I had a enjoyable time at the reception catching up with friends and family.

Even though it was a short, pleasant trip, I'm still happy to be back home (and the kitties are twice as happy!)

In knitting news; I was almost to the toe shaping of the second Uptown Boot Sock when I realized that I was knitting on the wrong number of stitches. Epic pattern reading fail (again). Sigh, frogged back to the gusset pick-up. These might take another day to finish. Please ask the knitting spirits to be kinder and gentler to me on this project. Nana

Alone Again

It’s back to just me and the kitty girls. I had a lovely visit with my daughter and got a few things done while she was here. We kept it really low key due to her fighting a virus and still having the challenges of early pregnancy. On Wednesday we took the train down to Chicago to visit the Shedd Aquarium … we saw all sorts of interesting creatures there… the aquarium features amphibious and aquatic life from the marshes in IL to the Congo in the Amazon. The centerpiece is a large Caribbean tank which features a team of divers (at set times) who answer questions about the inhabitants. There is also another exhibit featuring the larger sharks, etc which we didn’t see due to time constraints, but we thoroughly enjoyed our visit there. We also ended up seeing the remains of the winter festival in one of the downtown parks. DD took all of the pictures since I forgot my camera that day. Here’s a glimpse of our day: Then we did a lot of hanging out at home and spent a thoroughly lovely morning on Thursday baking banana bread and watching Roman Holiday on TV. The cats approved of that sort of activity as seen from the lap waiting queue. She also got to come to knit night with me and see the store and meet some of the knitters and crocheters I hang out with. And just in case that wasn’t enough, we had an inventory to do on Friday and DD got the honor of helping with that and with the One Skein Challenge event on Saturday. She was enchanted by the shop and satisfied that I’m happy with my work. And I wasn’t the only productive one while we were hanging out. She finished this cute little guy being inspected by Saucey: I’ll have to save my knitting accomplishments for the next post because this one is getting longish. I had a great time with my daughter and am looking forward to our next visit in August.

Still Struggling (warning: Longish Post)

So, the knitting pace has improved slightly, but I’m still struggling with finishing things. Just for the record though, the last week or so, I finished the Bye Bye Baby Bunting: [Pattern "Bye Bye Baby Bunting" by Dorcas Sokalow, available only at Prarie Arts and Fibers, Yarn Claudia Handpaint in Turquoise Jeans and Copper Pennies; Size 1 needles.] This was a “test” pattern I was working on for another knitter at the shop. It took me far too long to knit and seemed to be the source of some of my knitting frustrations. I just couldn’t stay motivated to work on it. I really liked the yarn choice for it, but due to my dislike of working things flat, combined with a very simple pattern repeat, I just couldn’t “love” working on it. Don’t get me wrong… It’s a cute pattern and would be a nice gift for someone expecting in colder climes or the winter months.

And I finished my Unbiased. I really like how it came out. This was sort of a whim to knit and the only problem I found was I just had too many other things going to work on it.

Pattern: Unbiased by Frabjous Fibers

Yarn: Frabjous Fibers Recycled Sari Silk

Size 9 Needles

It really shouldn’t have taken as long as it did.

Of the two pair of socks I’ve been working on, well, progress has been entirely too slow for my happiness. I am almost done with the first sock of the Bavarian that I’ve been doing for my advanced class. I really like this pattern, love the yarn choice and again, find it’s the distractions, and other knitting projects that are really keeping me from making progress. One thing about these though, there was a part of the pattern that just didn’t seem to be looking right to me. I just wasn’t sure and had to rip a couple times to make sure I wasn’t doing something wrong. I was knitting it exactly the way the pattern/chart was written, and still, something about it just didn’t seem to look right. I checked the errata for the pattern, no errors listed. Okay, I kept knitting. But that little voice just wouldn’t be quiet. So, I paid closer attention for a couple repeats and “click” the light went on. The chart is wrong. I tested my theory… yup! After 9 repeats of the pattern, I figured out why it looked wrong … the twist on the left should mirror the twist on the right… instead it is identical, which means the crossing comes out looking like a tangled branch instead of a smooth crossing the way it is on the right. Since I was in the 10th repeat and that error was done on the front and the back of the leg (15 times if you are counting) and nearing the toe shaping, I decided this is one time to “love the result” anyway. So I’ll knit the second sock with the same pattern error. But I made a note on the pattern for future reference, because I’ve decided I’d like a pair in another color as well.

The other pair of socks I’ve been doing has been pattern and size resistant. I swatched a couple different patterns before actually casting on, because I couldn’t find a pattern I really liked with the yarn. After settling on Undulating Rib, I worked about 2 inches of the pattern but didn't like the way it looked, ultimately, I ended up going with the Jaywalker pattern. So far I am happy with the result, but I’ve had to do some adjustments for the sizing. I’ve decided to name this project “Goldilocks on a Fall Walk” The first time I cast on they were too big, the second time (I knit almost the whole leg!) they were too small, third time they are just right (so far). The striping is beautiful though…. Fortunately, Jaywalker is an easy pattern to memorize and knits up quick once you figure out the sizing. These should hopefully behave now.

In addition to these projects, the swallowtail shawl is waiting patiently for me to find some knitting time for it and I started on a little class sample for a class I’m hoping to do in December, the Heart Sachet by Vicki Sever.

It only needs four more squares. This is actually a really quick project if you can clear your knitting decks and work on it exclusively.

Besides knitting, we did a little traveling over the weekend and got to spend Halloween with the Michigan kids. We went trick-or-treating and had a nice visit. Here are a few of the pics we took: I tried, but really couldn't get all four costumed kids together in one shot. The twins were dressed as Count Dracula (Aidan) and a Knight (Braylen) the baby was Marie (from the Aristocats) and Jason was a Transformer. We had fun and it was much more satisfying than the trick-or-treating we had here at home last Sunday when only three kids rang our bell.

And finally, I think the biggest distraction of all the last couple of weeks is that our sweet kitty girl Saucey was just diagnosed with feline diabetes. She is not the first cat we’ve had with this problem, so I’ve been a little down. She’s still a youngish kitty, so it is just really hard to accept that she may not live as long life as we’d hoped. She and I have been through a lot together so we have a very strong bond. I just don’t want to think too hard on it right now. We started her on insulin injections yesterday after we returned from our trip. It’s too early to say if she is responding or not yet. I’ll have to take her to the vet for follow up later in the month.

Catching Up is hard to Do…

Playing off a refrain from an oldie but goodie (come-a, come-a down, doobie doo, down, down…) This is the part where I tell you about the rest of my vacation and catch up on what has happened since I got home. Well, that’s what I planned this post to be about anyway. So, I have managed to download all of the photos I took while I’m away. I even uploaded them to flickr and updated my ravelry with the knitting related pictures, whoo! Things have actually been sort of busy. I didn’t get much time to regroup before jumping right back into my regular schedule, so I’ve been trying to squeeze things in here and there. I think it’s Tuesday already. Yikes! That means tomorrow is October! So, the rest of the vacation was spent wandering around San Francisco (seeing some of our favorite places) with my youngest daughter Monday and my oldest daughter and her husband on Tuesday, finishing off with everybody meeting up at Giants stadium (aka AT&T Park) to see the Giants play the Colorado Rockies. Let’s just say it was a good night for baseball and the Rockies looked better than the Giants, whose starting pitcher Tim Lincecum had a rough night, but ultimately pitched well enough to set a new team record. The cool thing about the outing was it was my Grandson’s first Major League baseball game which was a fun thing to be a part of. Too bad “Papa” (DH) couldn’t be there too. He was extremely jealous back at home. DD1 and I made up our own stitch-n-pitch event during the game too. I got more of the spring forward sock knit between strikeouts. The only other Giants game I ever attended, despite living in the Bay area over three years was one of the last played at the old “Candlestick Park” so it was also fun getting to see the new stadium. The next day was my departure day, but we managed to pack in plenty of fun before I headed to the airport by going to the Oakland Zoo. I’m not sure who was the most excited to go to the zoo, DD1 or my grandson. Either way, despite many exhibits with animals hiding out from the warm weather, we had a nice time and all too soon I had to go to the airport to come home. I wish I could show you every picture I took, but there were so many! Here’s a quick montage to give you an idea of how much fun we had together… Oh, and did I mention that I finally finished Spring Forward between flights home? Here’s a quick look at the finished pair Since I’ve been home, DH has been naturally needing my attention (and the cats have been a little on the clingy side too). We went and saw the movie “Miracle at St. Anna” and checked out a local “Octoberfest” over the weekend. Since I have several projects in limbo due to various issues, I chose to work on baby gifts and finished this cute set and another blanket buddy for babies born last month to church families. I also attempted to read the book I was supposed to have read already for the book club meeting tonight *sigh* it’s not a good read for me. Monday was sock class and I was having a bad reaction to the latest change in weather and had a little trouble focusing, so my class project sock needed several times of being frogged… it’s currently sitting in time out. No picture as it is a bad knit and does not deserve to be called a sock… Today was catch-up on housework and time to start the project for the class beginning on Thursday afternoon. More on that in another post, as I need to get going and I’m sure you’re ready to go read someone else’s more fascinating blog!

Actually, here's one final picture that is probably my most favorite of all from this trip... god bless little boys! Oh, yeah (GO CUBS!)