You Read it Here First!

Gosh, I think I should be knitting right now. But there’s so much to do! You see, I have been sort of putting together a little event for the shop. Well if by little you mean that it’s going to be held at a nearby mall and includes a fashion show, contests, demos, lessons and possibly even a book signing or two. Whew! I haven’t mentioned it before, because until yesterday’s meeting, it wasn’t real for me. But now that a contract has been signed and the date is going to be announced by everyone involved… it’s REAL… And it’s only six weeks away, and, I’m in charge (yikes!). The event is the North Suburban Knit-out and Crochet event 2009. We’re going to take over the Northbrook Court Mall in Northbrook, IL for a whole day on April 18th and show the world what knitters and crocheters of the new millennium are all about. Please keep your fingers crossed for me that everything we’re planning works out! I’m pretty sure I’ll go through all sorts of crazy before the event gets here, so send good yarny vibes my way too. So maybe I’ll just take a wee break from all this planning right now and go knit a few rounds on my sock. Happy Knitting!

Off Schedule

Things here at Chez Nana were a little wonky last week. I ended up “working” every day. Three days at the shop as normal and two days away from the shop doing work related activities… not that I’m complaining, just ‘splaining why I haven’t’ be online lately. I had a lot of catching up to do over the weekend, and I was knitting, knitting, knitting whenever time allowed because I really wanted to get my “cover girl” sweater done by this past weekend. I almost made it; but, since the "sleeve fairy" didn't visit last night, I still have one sleeve left to do: Which is okay, because temps have been in the 40-50 degree range and I wouldn't have gotten to wear it right away. My favorite forecaster promises there's more cold on the way, so hopefully it will be ready to go when that front arrives.

Sunday during the superbowl, I succeeded in finishing the Horseshoe Cables socks, (despite an unfortunate need to tink back 5 rows due to last minute touchdown). It just took me three days to take sock #2 to work and take a picture of them together. They are both hanging out at the shop now. (the right hand picture is more the actual color)

Then, I cast on for a new pair of socks from the Knitting Socks With Handpainted Yarns book. I cast on for one pattern on Monday, but I ended up frogging that one and then casting on for a different pattern on Tuesday. I’ve knit about one half of the leg so far. The construction on the sock is unusual and a little fun; you knit a garter strip, seam it, pick up stitches around the edges, work some ribbing, then work another garter strip after the ribbing. I’m not really sure how long it will take me to knit the pair. I might have to cast on a plain Jane pair as a back up for my SAM socks. This is what it looks like so far:

The pattern is called Color Collision Socks and the yarn I’m using is Berroco Alpaca socks in color 1862 (reds, orange and pinks). There are also a couple of smaller projects lurking in the bottom of the knitting bag that I plan to knock out this week. Linda wants me to do a vest and a baby sweater as samples for the shop and I’m thinking I can do that, but I should probably get a few of my personal projects out of the way first. We’ll see how that goes! Might wait on the baby sweater until a certain DD#1 comes to visit because she might want to claim it after it has been in the shop… so I think she might get to pick the yarn for that one. I think I touched on getting good news from TX a few weeks back, but it is official that DD#1 is expecting her first baby this summer, so there is some baby knitting to be done. I have a few ideas, but I’m going to let her look through some patterns while she’s here to get a better idea of what to make.