Alaska Highlights

Wow, the time here is really flying by. I guess the fact that the sun is shining most the day makes the passage of time hard to track! DH and I have been having a great time just hanging out, eating great food and exploring some of the area in and around Fairbanks. Unfortunately a couple of the things we had on our list had to be scratched because the official “summer” opening isn’t until this week or next week, but there has been enough else to do. So here are a few highlights of my trip so far. My DH was sweet enough to take me on a “yarn crawl” on Weds and we visited all four of the yarn shops in Fairbanks. Each one had something unique to offer and I enjoyed them all. I’ll have to do a separate post about the goodies I found which will be coming home as “souvenirs” Then that evening, I was fortunate enough to find and join a group of knitters for the weekly meet up at the Alaska Coffee Roasting company coffee house. The Group is the Fairbanks Fiberistas and I found them on Ravelry. Gotta love that resource! I also love the fact that it was so easy to join right in. They like to make up their own KAL’s so some of the ladies were doing an entrelac scarf and some were doing the Cat Bordhi’s Spring Thaw sock (Knitter’s #91, Summer 08). I was working on the Lily of the Valley sock and everyone had nice comments on it. We continued our explorations the rest of the week and through Saturday. Some of the places we went and things we saw: North Pole AK (Santa’s House); The Silver Gulch Brewing and Bottling Co (Yummy food and great microbrews); the Museum of the North (at University of AK, Fairbanks); and on every corner… a coffee hut! I suppose if I had to live here that would be the one thing that would make it more bearable for me (besides the four great yarn shops)! On Sunday, DH took me to the church he has been attending and after services we went to the Alaska Salmon Bake at Pioneer Park, the food was again yummy and the park, even though not quite up and running for the season was charming and we enjoyed the pioneer museum there as well. So here are a few pictures I took: Hopefully the next post will be more fiber and knitting related. Mo Jo to Go! Nana!

Flight Log May 4, 2009

Warning: this is a longish post, but not nearly as long as the flights it describes. (Times are mostly approximate) 730am Arrive at Milwaukee airport, check in, locate gate, read tribune while waiting to board 814am Board flight, settle in; text DH with status update, pull out sadly neglected brown sock (Uptown boot sock), begin knitting. Knit two rounds, begin cable round, and realize at end of first section (sock now being knit on magic loop for plane knitting) that section is short 1 stitch. Count all stitches on both sides of needle, confirm shortage. Pause for flight attendants announcement and safety briefing. Recount; check rows below for mistakes; identify ‘funny’ stitch on last cable round that could be inappropriate k2tog; rip 4 rounds. Take off announced, put stitches back on needle, begin knitting with previous cable round, count stitches upon completion, knit 3 plain rounds; start next cable round and realize halfway across needle that I’m doing wrong cable round (round 7 not round 3); stifle curse. Tink back to beginning of round; knit cable round successfully COUNT stitches, continue knitting uneventfully for duration of flight. 927am Arrive at Minneapolis/St. Paul airport. Locate restroom; do what I gotta do (sweet relief!). check gate info, locate nearby Starbucks. Wait patiently in line while person at counter has entire menu explained in detail (apparently it’s her first time ever at Starbucks – How is that even possible?)Exchange incredulous looks with three other people waiting in line. Finally get to counter to order, coffee is still being brewed, wait for coffee to be ready, nice (patient) barista upgrades size of coffee (woohoo) in thanks for waiting. Hike 17 miles to next gate; pass another Starbucks without line enroute. 1001am Settle in at gate, have snack, enjoy big coffee, knit a bit. Enjoy pleasant chat about Alaska, kids and other random topics with lady carrying small Chihuahua in fanny pack 1125am On board to Anchorage. Text status update to DH. Full flight, seats filling quickly 1127am Yikes; young mother with toddler approaching aisle (not this row, please not this) Dang, she snags the middle seat. Cross fingers that baby will not be awake much of flight. 1140am, wheels up. Baby happy and content, Mom battling gag reflex as plane ascends; this is already a long flight, could feel much longer. Attempt to knit while protecting project bag. Plane levels off without incident. Focus on knitting. 1208pm Flight nicely underway, begin cable row. Ack! Drop cable needle. Perform ridiculous contortions in attempt to locate. Determine it is somewhere under seat against wall of plane. I cannot reach. Sigh, seat-belt sign still illuminated. Proceed to finish row doing cables without needle. Progress is slow. Thank goodness cable only happens in 2 of 8 rows. 1249pm Break for in-flight beverage and snack service; resume sock, seat belt sign still illuminated. Arrive at next cable round; abandon attempts to cable without needle after dropped stitch runs. Fix stitch, fish out darning needle from project bag, and attempt MacGyver method of cabling with darning needle. Sadly it is doable, but extremely slow. 1pm-ish Have now crossed several time zones, watch and reality no longer in sync. Captain announced time 20 minutes ago, but paid no heed as intensely concentrating on newly discovered cabling option. Baby still happy, Mom seems to have fully recovered after snack. 11 or 2ish Depending on the time zone. We are about halfway through flight time; reset watch 3 hours back in estimation of appropriate time; no help. Body and watch are now hopelessly out of sync. Aisle passenger, baby and mom now napping; Attempt to set up stitches for heel flap, after three attempts, get it right. Sort of feeling sleepy myself, decide to give in and close eyes for a bit. Sleep for 15-20 minutes (concept of passage of time now only concept). 1140 am (Alaska time) Start heel. As experienced sock knitter, assume what is written in pattern and forge ahead with standard heel. 1215pm – start heel turn; refer to pattern to determine ending stitch count. Whoa! Go back and read instructions from start of heel flap through turn. Ooops! Not even close to heel I’m making. Decide to proceed with “my” heel version to forgo further ripping out and gnashing of teeth. No need to frighten other passengers with knitter’s angst. Continue knitting standard heel in defiance of pattern. 1235pm Pilot announces arrival in Alaskan airspace. Approximately 1 hour 45 minutes of flight time remain. Scenery will be visible soon! Seatbelt sign has been off for a bit. Turn around and ask passenger in seat behind if it would be possible to locate stray cable needle. Search and rescue successful; gusset shaping complete, cables rounds now much less stressful. 119pm Snow capped mountains visible through thinning clouds; Capt. announces approach to Anchorage. 205pm Arrive in Anchorage. (text hubby of course) Tour concourse and check gift shops in attempt to stretch out legs. Not quite ready to sit at gate yet. Immediately notice Qiviut display advertising Oomingmak Musk Ox Producers Cooperative (in Anchorage). Resist urge to break glass in order to fondle knitted items and yarn. 242pm Report to gate area. rest, then update log. Chat with very enthusiastic lady from Juno who is affiliated with the boroughs (county) program. She is going to Barrow to administer grants. Knit some more of sock after snack while awaiting boarding. 342pm On board plane to Fairbanks, preparing for take-off. (Send text) Continue knitting on sock – very close to start of toe shaping I have high hopes of finishing soon. Get to within ten rows of finishing toe before flight is over. 510pm Arrive in Fairbanks. Greeted by very happy DH! Stay tuned for Alaska stories and pictures later this week. I’m off to plan our shop tour. happy knitting! Nana

I did it, I did it, I got it done!

Yeah, I know really original post title. Well it’s been hectic, creativity is a little on the short side today. But I finished Delve, project name Desire. Yay! I did a little happy dance even though you can’t tell from this picture. (Maybe I should have let Saucey take the picture instead of Zelda... she never holds still! I’ll try to get a better, less-blurry modeled shot when I’m up in Alaska.) So just the facts today: Desire; Pattern Delve from Rowan #43 Yarn: Rowan Summer Tweed Color 546 Loganberry Size 6 needles

I thought this might knit up a little heavy because the yarn is a worsted weight, but the silk saves it and the finished sweater is light and airy. I hope to get much wear out of it. I ended up using smaller than the recommended needles to get gauge, but as you can see it was worth it to get it to fit! The yarn is actually really nice to work with and I was almost a little sad for the knitting part to end. I totally want to knit something else with this yarn again… maybe color 548 (swirl)… hmmmm.

Happy Knitting Next post from Alaska! Nana

I Get By With a Little Help from My Cats

I had drafted a post earlier in the week, but didn’t finish it… and it really doesn't seem relevant any more, so according to the cats they said I should start over. (Starting over has been a theme lately)

I did, however, finish the knitting on my sweater: Here’s Zelda helping block the sleeves:

(I’ll hold it down, mommy)

All I have left to do now is sew it up and weave in ends.

I also finished Sock #1 of the Scallop socks. Even though I had to rip and reknit the toe three times, I’m not sure I am completely satisfied with how my experimental pattern turned out. The transition between the lace and foot just doesn't quite seem right. I may tweak the design when I knit Sock #2 - I have an idea of how to fix it. If I like it, I'll have to frog sock 1. Otherwise, I guess I’ll make sock #2 match sock #1 since there will be way less frogging at that point (not to mention that I already grafted the toe on sock#1!) Here’s a peek at what I’ve done so far:

Also, Saucey was a very big help this morning hunting down a vicious spider and almost catching it – that is ‘til it went under the cat bed. At that point she sort of lost track of it and didn’t know what to do next. Then Zelda came over and wanted to help at the last minute. I tried to capture it on video it might not be you-tube worthy, but I thought it was cute...

Have a great weekend!

Happy Knitting

Nana

CSI Nana

Late Friday afternoon our team received a report of an attempted assault. Upon arrival our team carefully photographed the victim and collected evidence for processing… an eyewitness was still at the scene.

The victim:

The victim appears to have been dragged away from it’s home and roughed up, but was not seriously injured during the attack. After interviewing the eyewitness and getting a detailed description of the suspect, our fine force was able to track down and apprehend the perpetrator who was then taken in for questioning. The alleged perpetrator:

Although the suspect refused to respond when questioned, we believe there is enough hair evidence (which will be confirmed once full forensic testing is completed) to prove that the suspect is indeed guilty. The eyewitness has already made positive identification from a lineup….

The prosecutor has been notified.

This, That and the Other Thing

I started two new pair of socks. One pair is for knitting at work and one is just because I really wanted to use the yarn. The first pair is a pair of anklets I’m doing up in Summer Sox (5560 - Mandarin Mix) which is a new yarn we got in the shop this spring. I thought it would be nice to have a sample pair and it gives me a pair to use for demos during my sock class. I’m about halfway thru the first sock and it’s not too bad. The yarn is a soft cotton blend and the colors are striping fairly nicely. I’m sort of making this pattern up as I go based on the basic 7 stitches to the inch pattern in the Ann Budd Getting Started Knitting Socks book and one of the lace patterns from the book.

The second pair is from yarn I bought at Stitches two years ago. It's called Celestial Merino Dream by Lucy Neatby and the colorway is Bittersweet Chocolate. It’s been calling my name for a couple of months, so I thought it was time to make some socks with it. It's just as yummy to work with as it sounds . This picture is pretty close to the actual color:The pattern for these is Uptown Boot Socks by Jennifer L. Appleby from Favorite Socks. So far I like them.

I also finished the second baby sweater I was making, but still need to sew it up and add buttons.

And... yippee cayaay... I finished the front of Delve and actually have a picture to show. Here's my solution to not having a big enough blocking board; a set of these interlocking mats costs less than $20.00 at the hardware store and the size is adjustable!

I got started on the first sleeve and I was going to work on it at knit night, but forgot to bring the pattern, so I’ve only done about 2 pattern repeats so far. It will probably be my main project this weekend.

I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been in and out so much lately or if I did something else suspicious, but I’m a little concerned about what the cats were discussing yesterday morning when I walked in on this:

Not that I'm paranoid or anything, but this definitely looks like a conspiracy ... any thoughts?

Oh well, have a great weekend,

Happy Knitting! Nana

They Came, They Shopped, They Knit

North Suburban Knit Out and Crochet, Too 2009, went well…. I’ll let the pictures tell the story today!

I think I must have walked about 50 miles just keeping things on track, coordinating with mall management and talking with the different participants, volunteers and so forth. It was a lot of hard work, but in the end, I'm really pleased with the result.

Doing this makes complicated knitting seem a whole lot easier... Maybe there's hope for the swallowtail shawl yet!

Happy knitting... and back to project updates in the next post

Nana

Knitting And Not Knitting

I have been busy! Some knitting has been done, but mostly I’ve been finalizing the details for the North Suburban Knit Out this Saturday. Wow, I can’t believe it’s finally happening. I’m really excited about the schedule we put together and hope that we have a great turn-out. If you’re curious about it, go here. If you live in the area, come and join us! As far as the knitting goes, I needed to do up a few quick baby things; so far I finished another Blanket Buddy (pattern from 101 Designer One Skein Wonders) / Velvet Touch Yarn.

and a Last-Minute Sweater (my pattern - this is actually the "test knit" and it's a good thing I kept my original notes, because I found a few errors in the pattern I had typed up!) Knitpicks Shine Worsted in Grass. These are both for members of my church who are due very soon. I’m working on one more Last-Minute Sweater for a knitting friend. I need to finish it soon, because I’ll miss one of the May meet-ups and she may have her little one before the other one!

Before I started those, I finished the Falling Leaves socks!

They turned out pretty well. I decided to try the afterthought heels after all. I guess they didn’t turn out too bad for my first go at it. I’m not sure that I love the technique, but having done it at least I understand how it works now. I can also see why it could be useful in some patterns. Here they are: Falling Leaves Socks by Angela Kreutser an exclusive pattern from A Swell Yarn Shop, done in XXL Duet Sock Yarn. The pattern and yarn was a gift from a swap I did last year. The only pattern modification I mad was to the length of the leg. DD#2 wanted the shorter leg (thankfully) and not the knee-sock length the pattern is written for.

I’m also still plugging away on the Delve front and should hopefully get into the lace pattern today or tonight.

Consolation Prizes!

Since I’m probably the only sock knitter anywhere who won’t be going to Sock Summit this August (too close to new grandbaby’s arrival)… I took full advantage of Knitpicks recent sale on sock books… I got The Eclectic Sole by Janel Laidman And Knitted Socks by Anna Tillman AND Sock Innovation by Cookie A (woohoo!) Not quite as good as being there in person, but lots of good reading and knitting inside! (I suspect a certain person will expect a certain pair of socks now, though) I’ve been super busy putting the finishing touches on the Knit-Out event for next week. I can’t believe it’s almost here. But I am getting pretty excited. I’ve also had house guests for most of the week. C and M who are students at St. Louis Christian College and are doing their Lab week here at our church have been staying with me. They have been pretty easy guests for the most part they get up have breakfast, then head out and aren’t back until late in the evening. C is a pretty awesome crocheter and we’ve had a lot of fun doing needlework together and visiting when they return in the evening. I think I’ve convinced her that she needs Ravelry (hee, hee, hee). So I have had time to do some knitting. I’m almost done with the Falling Leaves Socks and have made forward progress on the Delve front. Hopefully I’ll have some knitting pictures to post soon. We have had two sunny days in a row which is really nice. (The curbberg is no more, yay) Happy Knitting Nana

It Helps to Upload the Pictures First

I’ve been meaning to get a new post up, but for some reason I keep forgetting to upload the pictures from my camera… I mean really, how hard is that?

Maybe I’ve just been kind of lackadaisical lately?

So, with out futher ado and unnecessary apologies, here’s what I’ve been up to knitting wise:

I finished the little striped socks for my grandson Improvised pattern using Poems Sock yarn (958) done in 2x2 stripes using both ends of the ball; size 2 (2.75mm) needles

I also finished the Blue Honeycomb Mittens, which are practically unneeded now.

Pattern: Honeycomb Mittens by Jean Newstead from Homespun-Handknit (one of my “workhorse” books) Yarn: Lambs Pride Worsted in blue magic and Twilley’s Freedom Spirit shade 506 Needles: Size 7 dpn I could have knit these in two nights instead of the two months it actually took. I just had too many other things on the needles in between. Oh, and just in case you needed to know… Curbberg day 7 (And there’s snow in today’s forecast… hmpf!) I’m off to try and finish another something. Happy Knitting Nana

Important Announcement

This website is being redesigned and will be debuting on April 13th, 2009 as “Papa and the Cubs” content will include detailed play-by-play analysis of every Cubs baseball game home and away. Highlights will include but not be limited to commiseration with fellow Cubs fans when one or more of the following occurs: · Inexplicable seventh inning collapse after leading the previous six innings · Inexplicable use of closer who cannot find plate in must-win game · One or more runs scored due to pitcher / fielding error combinations in should-win games · Anytime, Lou Pinella, Carlos Zambrano, or any Cubs catcher is thrown out of the game for kicking, spitting, name-calling or hitting another coach, player or game official Additional topics will include: · Rumors and scandals involving current and past Cubs players, managers, coaches, owners and Illinois state officials · Debates over lead-off hitter and general line-up problems · Details of potential trades, up-and-coming farm team players and status of pitchers on injured reserve · Open forum on Jeff Smaradzija’s hairstyle Stay tuned as we develop this new and exciting site! (Just kidding…!) Hope you got to do something foolish today (Regular knitting and Kitty content will return soon)

When I Put My Mind to It

I actually can get things done. Here’s one FO finally! The Triangle Scarf… now called “My Favorite Scarf” finished while there is still snow on the ground. LOL!

Pattern: Triangle Scarf by Ginger Luters Yarn: Poems Worsted in colors 556 and 558 Size 6 circular needles

This is actually a really quick pattern to knit; but it took me longer because I was working on other things.

I also made progress on some little socks for my grandson:

Annd the bad front to delve has been sent to the frog pond. Hopefully I can get it restarted today. What’s in your knitting basket? Happy knitting!

Un-Done

I suppose there are plenty of Chicago area bloggers who posted today about the Snow or March’s definite lack of lamb-ness in it’s almost departure. So, I won’t go there today. I’ll just say that I’m feeling a little housebound.

All you knitters out there are probably thinking, ‘sounds like a perfect excuse to knit’ and you are probably right! So why am I sitting here in front of the computer?

Good questions? Could it be that the un-done-ness of all my projects is making me feel a little like procrastinating even more? Probably right again!

Sigh….

There’s nothing I’d love to do more than post a finished FO, except that I don’t have any. I took a quick trip to see my parents this weekend (cut shorter than I had hoped to ensure getting home ahead of the nasty weather). That kept me from working on much for the last two days. I made a little progress on the scarf, the little striped socks and the falling leaf socks, but the Delve sweater front ended up in time-out and probably won’t come out until it’s ready to be frogged. You see, I’m off by one stitch and it’s only been two repeats of the eyelet row; seems like the best course of action is to frog.

Here’s the kitties thoughts on visiting ‘grandma and grandpa’s’ (there was a dog and a three-year old in the house)

"we are not moving from here"

Oh, and it’s baaack…. (okay so I went there anyway)

Evil Snow Mound I certainly hope it won’t take another three months for that thing to melt!

Be Square

Linda got a few samples of Kollage's new circular and double point square needles in at the shop yesterday. Of course, I couldn’t help poking thru the pile. So I’m standing there with the square size 2.75mm dpn’s in my hand and she asked me if I’d like to test them…. Silly question! So I brought them home and cast on a little pair of socks…. The square needles are made of coppery brown aluminum and are very light. So far I don’t notice much difference from working with regular round needles. They seem just as comfortable as round needles. I like the tips. Not too pointy, but not dull either.

My assessment is that if you are looking for 5” dpns in a smaller size but don’t want to worry about breaking the thinner wood, these might be for you.

I’ve been slow with my knitting projects this week. I finished the back of the Delve sweater and started the front. Here’s a peek…

I need a bigger blocking board if I’m going to keep knitting sweaters! The falling leaves socks are taking a bit longer than I’d hoped. I’ve had to do a little bit of ripping again, since I seem to have a bit of trouble following the pattern. For some reason I do fine with the first half of the pattern repeat, but keep messing up the second part; especially if anyone even looks in my direction while I am knitting. Probably shouldn’t be trying to work on this one in public. I’m also at a decision point about the heel; do I do the afterthought heel the pattern calls for or forge ahead with a flap heel? Either way; I doubt I’ll get them done before the end of the month, sigh.

Old Socks, New Socks

Green, red, and blue socks…. Presenting the finished Couplet Socks:

Yarn, Poems Sock Yarn color 958 Size 2.50mm dpn needles Basic 7 stitches per inch pattern by Ann Budd; eye of partridge heel Started: March 2, Finished March 17

These were a really quick knit even with a whole weekend of ripping and re-knitting to get the colors to combine nicely in the stripes. You can see the effect I was trying to avoid a little bit on the blue / purple heeled sock, right before the start of the heel where the two reds were starting to get really close in color. Despite that little issue, I might have to do more of these.

And on to the next pair;

After reorganizing and taking stock of my sock yarn stash, I decided to stick with my previous plan for the next pair and I cast on Weds for these:

The Falling Leaves Socks from the Lucky Lurker Sock club 2007 by A Swell Yarn Shop. The pattern and yarn was a gift from a swap I did last year. So far the socks are working up nicely. They are eventually going to go to DD#2 who has been waiting somewhat patiently since September when I promised that I would make her another pair of socks to replace all the ones that were worn out or tortured in the laundry by her boyfriend. So they are on the needles.

Overall, yesterday wasn’t a very good knitting day. During my pre-work knitting I wrestled with the start of the diamond lace pattern on Delve. It took me about 24 rows to get the 12 row pattern right. Then I went to work, but it was too busy there to do any knitting (between the shop having a sale and giving a private lesson). But, I did give it a good try at knit night. I pulled out the triangle scarf thinking it would be a good thing to work on with all the conversations that go on. Nope! I couldn’t get my brain around how to start a new triangle … that took two attempts. I did manage to finish one triangle but decided maybe I should put it away and not tax my brain further by attempting to do the other triangle with reverse shaping. So I pulled out the falling leaves sock to work on. I finished a couple rounds and noticed the pattern wasn’t looking right, tinked back, restarted then it was time to go. Got home, “finished” the pattern repeat… still not right, tinked 7 rounds and decided I was done knitting for the night. I had a little better time with it today and was able to make up for all the lost rounds. Just for fun, I might try to get these done by the end of the month and make March a record 3-pair month. (March madness indeed!) We’ll see. (The colors are more accurate in this pic) And on the subject of things that are nearly impossible to do… One thing that is almost impossible to do around Chez Nana is to get a really decent picture of Zelda with her eyes open. She has shutter sense like crazy and almost always waits until the second the shutter closes to blink. Because of her black face, this usually results in a picture where she looks like she has no eyes. Today she was camped out in the office looking really cute so I fooled her. I used the shutter delay setting and called her name and got her to look up at the camera right before the shutter closed, but before she realized that the first click wasn’t the real deal. So here she is eyes and all, looking totally sweet: (Oh, hai mommy... are we going to post the blog nao?)

Have a nice weekend!

You Might Have a Sock Yarn Problem …

IF You check your stash on ravelry and more than half is tagged as “sock”. . .

You knit one pair and buy yarn for two more then queue three patterns. . .

AND

Your storage system is labeled like this:

And looks like this: AND

(there are still more skeins in another basket)

AND

You can’t decide which yarn to use for the next pair you plan to knit…

You might have a sock yarn problem

(Sigh...and I thought the sock-a-month KAL would be my twelve step solution!)

Next post, the finished couplet socks!

Pile o’ Undone

I had so wanted to post a picture of the finished back of Delve. Not. I had also planned on finishing the couplet socks over the weekend and having a post about that. Not! After driving myself crazy over the color combinations of the stripes and frogging back to the cuff (or beyond) four times, I finally managed to get to the start of the heel on the second sock. If I’m a good knitter girl, maybe they’ll be done in a couple of days. Sigh Between recovering from an ear infection and aforementioned stripe obsession, very little progressive knitting actually occurred this weekend… I think this sums it up best:

For those of you who are of Irish descent like me or those who just wanna be…

May the road rise to meet you, May the wind always be at your back, May the sun shine warm upon your face, And the rains fall soft upon your fields, And until we meet again, may God Hold you in the palm of his hand.

…. And may all your WIPs be happily finished! Happy St. Patty’s day and happy knitting

I’m a Very Busy Knitter

I finished the Celtic Knotkins! I liked this pattern pretty well, but wanted to put my personal stamp on it. In addition to the picot edge, I also modified the heel and toe to use the more traditional style just because that’s what I prefer over the short row heel. I also did the eye of partridge version of the heel flap because I thought it would be pretty with this yarn. I like how these turned out. Pattern: Nutkin Sock; by Beth LaPensee Yarn: Knitivity Down Home Sock in Shamrock Size 2.75 dpn needles

These will be perfect to wear on St. Patty's day!

The Knit Out event is coming together; but it’s still a bit of a bumpy ride. I have a feeling that it’s going to keep me busy and make me crazy all the way down to the very end.

Somewhere during last week’s craziness, I succumbed to the siren call of some skeins of Poems I had sitting out in my work room, (I think they were there to be photographed, because they weren’t in my stash on ravelry) and cast on for a scarf. Here’s the result so far:

Triangle Scarf (pattern by Ginger Luters) Poems Worsted in colors 556 and 558.

This project barely escaped tragedy last night when Saucey unceremoniously deposited all of her (previously eaten) dinner on and near the ottoman that most of my knitting lives on. I was mid-row on Delve and trying to count (because I thought I missed a decrease) which is not a very good thing to be doing when the cat decides to explode very close to your knitting. I’m happy to report that having your various in-waiting WIPs safely tucked into knitting bags and baskets is a good thing. The bag got a little soiled and ended up in a nice luxurious soak after I rescued the safely contained knitting. WHEW! That was a close call… (Note to self; might need to re-think keeping knitting projects on and around ottoman)…So after a little initial yelling, a lot of cleaning and apologizing to the not-feeling-so-good cat, my knitting is safe … and I actually have the right number of stitches. I’m almost to the yoke part of the back so I need to re-read the pattern to figure out the shaping before I start the rest.

There’s also a new pair of socks in the works. I think I might have mentioned that we got the Poems sock yarn in the shop, and, I started a new class this week, so I needed some plain socks to work on for demonstration purposes… nobody said that they couldn’t be striped! I’m using both ends of one skein of Poems sock in color 958 to make the two row skinny stripes…so far …. I like!

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!

Oh, My Goodness!

It’s March…. and this is what greeted me when I looked outside this Morning:(there was some across town yesterday, but none here) oh, and it’s also 18 degrees out…. I had to put my boots on to get the newspaper for goodness sake! BTW, that mound at the end of the driveway has been there since Christmas. It's much smaller now, but still there! I am officially complaining once I figure out who is responsible for this. (“Miss Golightly… I must protest!”- Mr. Yunioshi) Sigh… weather rant over.

Since the last post, I have knit, frogged and re-knit the same section of sock #2 of the Celtic Knotkin socks twice. A couple of factors came into play. In comparison to the second sock I realized that the cuff on the first one was sort of a disaster and the leg was too long. Then I made a mistake on the pattern in the second sock, so I decided since I was going to end up re-knitting sock one anyway, that I wanted to tinker with the pattern a little bit. I had one of those flashbulb moments at knitting group on Thursday and so I ripped it back to the cuff and started over with my revised pattern. Well, I ended up going back to the original pattern because although I liked the result of my experiment with the pattern modification, the leg was coming out too tight and rather than waste more time tinkering and trying to resolve that problem, I decided to just get the pair knit. So, I ripped back to the cuff and started over a third time. I have turned the heel and am halfway down the foot, so I feel like some progress is being made.

I plan to revisit the ‘new” pattern variation at some point; I kept good notes and have a pretty good idea of how to fix it… I just didn’t want to play with it anymore on this pair. Did I mention I really love this yarn? It seems like I didn’t have to play with starting points or any of that other trickery to get a consistent patterning. Maybe I just found a really good pattern / yarn combo, or maybe the stitch count is perfect for the color repeats… whatever it is, I like the way the colors are playing nice. I also forgot to post this:

This is the yarn my DD#1 brought to me when she visited and the potholders her girlfriend sent. They are trying to spoil me! Well, I need to go get ready for work. I hope your March is less snowy than mine!