Knittinggarden

Mystery Socks

2012-02-01T10:09:00.000-08:00

There's a group on Ravelry called Sock Knitters Anonymous and they have challenges each month. Every so often they have a mystery sock and I've knitted them several times. You get one clue a week, usually three or four total, and at the end of the time, you have socks. I like to knit the mystery socks two at a time so there's more chance they'll be finished. The ones for January were designed by Carrie Sullivan (irishgirlieknits) and had a flower pattern.

The first clue was the cuff:

The second clue was the leg:

The third clue went over the heel and down the foot:

The fourth clue finished them:

This is the first time I've made socks that had a lace pattern down the heel flap, so it was interesting.

I needed some semi-solid sock yarn, so I found a pretty ball in my stash that was dyed and given to me a few years ago by my kind twin, Cathy. Thanks again! The yarn, which is Knitpicks Gloss, has a lot of subtle variations of color, some shine from the silk, and was generally nice to work with. I don't think any of these photos show the color very well. As I mentioned before, I'm going to take a class on photographing knitwear, so maybe next month I'll have more technique!

I've knitted a couple of other mystery sock patterns. The last one was by Janel Laidman and had an artichoke design and beads. I knitted it out of Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere, which was a wonderful yarn, but I wasn't too thrilled with the way the socks came out and how they fit.

I also made a mystery pattern by Nancy Bush. I liked this pattern and the yarn, which had a lot of silk in it, but these socks seemed to come out two different lengths. Even when I do them two at a time, it's no guarantee that they'll match!

In other news, I got tired of looking at the brown spots on my face, so I had a MicroLaser Peel yesterday. I'm supposed to be back to normal-looking in 7-10 days (as opposed to the 2-4 advertised in the brochure) because the Doctor went deeper on me. It wasn't horrible but it wasn't that much fun, either, and today I look like I should be in a horror movie. So my last week in the desert this time will mostly be spent inside.

I've invested in a quantity of SPF 50 sunscreen. I'm thinking I don't want to do this again.

Final One Legal

2012-01-28T11:13:00.000-08:00

The Princess turns 21 today. She lives in Vegas, so I'm sure it wasn't hard to find something to do to celebrate! The first legal trip into the casino happened after midnight last night.

I must sound like a broken record, but I can't believe my baby is all grown up.

I met this tiny girl with all the black hair on a Monday morning in late January, 1991. She grew into a beautiful little lady with huge brown eyes and gorgeous dark curls. She was bright, funny, and opinionated from day one.

Our Mother-Daughter trips mostly involved shopping, but here's an adventure that I'll always remember.

The coming year will bring college graduation and possibly marriage. We look forward to welcoming Prince Charming into the family and seeing what the next chapter will bring.

We wish you health, happiness, and love in the coming days, months, and years. You are our Princess and we love you immensely. Happy Birthday, Baby!

Wow

2012-01-22T14:53:00.000-08:00

It doesn't take much to impress me, but look at the size of the lemon I picked off one of the trees in our complex today. It's as big as my hand!

The lemons and grapefruits are ripe and delicious, but the oranges are still sour. I have trouble getting a good orange here; either they're dried out from last year, or not ripe yet. My quest for the perfect orange from a tree continues...

In other news, I finished spinning a pretty skein of yarn. I had a batt from Butterfly Girl Designs that was merino, bamboo, and firestar that had been languishing in my fiber stash for quite awhile.

I brought some of my stash and a spinning wheel down here to the desert (can't live in a place without a selection of yarn and fiber, ya know) and started spinning this pretty batt the last time I was here. It was only 3.2 ounces, so I wasn't sure how much yardage I'd get. I didn't split it before starting, so I decided to just spin the whole thing and see if perhaps it would suffice as a single. It's pretty fine, but not too thready and I wound it into a ball and then onto my tabletop swift and it held together fine and didn't look too uneven. The colors are really pretty, too. I counted about 825 yards, it straightened out a lot when I washed it and I think I'm going to find a lacy pattern for a shawl and use it as is. Always fun to experiment!

I Know I'm Crazy

2012-01-18T21:33:00.000-08:00

but I really wanted to be home in Seattle today to see this

We don't get snow every year and if we do, it doesn't usually amount to much. Without anywhere important to go, I love being warm and dry and looking out as our big fir trees are covered with white.

On the other hand, it's not too bad where I am now.

News! I finished the first knitted object of 2012. DH managed to wear holes through his favorite bed socks, so I searched the stash for some heavy yarn and started another pair. I just make a standard top down sock with a short cuff. I found two skeins of Mission Falls 1824 wool, which I think is discontinued. Each skein is only 85 yards, so I wasn't sure if I'd have enough. Sure enough, I ran out right where I needed to start the toe, so I found some leftover Wollmeise Twin in the colorway Zenzi. I held it doubled and made bright toes.

Even though there's no snow here, we can still pretend that it's winter.

Everything Old Is New Again

2012-01-02T14:45:00.000-08:00

The great thing about knitting is that you can put something away for a few ~~weeks~~ years, get it out and finish it, and no one knows the history. I guess if it was some trendy pattern or fad of the moment it would be different, but in this case it isn't.

On January 1, 2008, I cast on a sweater as part of a Knitalong with my then (and now sadly closed) LYS, Village Yarn and Tea. We ordered a bunch of Peace Fleece yarn into the shop, everyone chose colors, and we started the Everyday Cardigan.

I didn't get very far on my sweater. At that time I was having trouble with my purling. It was too loose so the stockinette fabric didn't look smooth, it had obvious lines of looser knitting in it. I ripped it out and tried again using some type of combination knitting, but it still looked funny. So into the plastic bag went my red yarn and the first page of the pattern.

Lately I've been obsessed with sweater knitting, so I determined to get that yarn out and make it into something. I've also been trying to use up some of my stash, but somehow everytime I cast on something with a yarn I have I buy a sweater's worth (or two...Miss Babs was on sale!). But the stash isn't growing as fast as it would if I hadn't started something, right? Anyway, back to the story.

I looked at tons of patterns and decided to make a new pattern from Knitty, a plain raglan cardigan with some shaping. Of course, after I thought about it for awhile, I decided that I don't really like raglans, so back to the drawing board. I eventually decided to make the cardigan that I had started all those years ago, even though it's just plain and boxy. It should be nice to wear as a casual sweater and the yarn is fairly heavy and will be warm.

I cast on the new sweater yesterday and I'm alternating the plain knitting with the more involved sweater knitting that I cast on the day before. The blue one is the sweater I don't think I have enough yarn for, but I'm working on that problem.

So hopefully I'll have two new sweaters within the next couple of months and then I can start obsessing about the next one.

In the meantime, I'm going to cast on the January Mystery Sock in the Ravelry Sock Knitters' Anonymous group as soon as I can find some suitable semi-solid yarn. Why is it that no matter how much yarn you have, you never can find the perfect skein you want? I guess that's what keeps yarn stores in business.

I'm On Hannah Fettig's Blog!

2012-01-01T10:47:00.000-08:00

Hannah has been posting galleries of her patterns lately and I noticed the one for the Rocky Coast Cardigan yesterday. She takes the Ravelry photos of the completed patterns and puts them on her blog. If you scroll down towards the bottom, there I am in my red sweater! Kind of fun!

End of Year Wrap-Up

2011-12-31T14:17:00.000-08:00

I've finished a few things, started a few things, and still have a few things underway. Here's the knitting that I've finished since the last post. Maybe I'll get organized and post the spinning that I've done tomorrow.

I last reported on the hat and booties made for my banker friend's new baby. They were finished in time to give to him when he was just a couple of weeks old and I was happy to receive a photo of the baby wearing his new hat. As the youngest of four boys (!) I thought it would be nice if he had a couple of items made just for him.

I made a quick hat for a neighbor in the desert who was going home to the wilds of northern Canada for Christmas. He saw me knitting one day and asked if I was making him a hat, so I did. Sorry for the fuzzy photo; it wasn't stored on this computer and it fuzzed up when I imported it from Flickr or Ravelry. You get the idea.

I made some socks for my sister out of Madelinetosh Sock in the colorway Shoreline, since that's the city she lives in. Same problem with the photo, so sorry about the fuzz.

My last two objects were gifts; socks for my massage therapist and a scarf for the Princess. The socks were made from Vesper self-striping yarn in the colorway Sugar Maple. This yarn is fun to knit with and stripes up nicely, but there are little white flecks at the ends of the color repeats sometimes. I guess that's why self-striping yarn is hard to come by; it's hard to make. The afterthought heels continue the stripes nicely but they're not my favorite to make. Maybe they'll grow on me if I do a few more.

I made this scarf out of an Old Shale lace pattern and I used Wollmeise 100% merino sock yarn in the Lavendel colorway. It is the most beautiful deep purple. I tried to adjust the color so it shows correctly and it looks pretty close. I hope she likes it.

I'm enrolled in a class at Madrona Fiber Arts in February with Franklin Habit to learn to take better photos of knitwear. I definitely need to learn how to set up a shot so it looks attractive and also how to adjust color and focus. Maybe I need a new camera?

I started a sweater a couple of days ago. It was one of those things where I wanted to make the pattern with some yarn I had.....the fact that I'm not sure of my gauge and if I have enough yarn are two items I'll worry about later. Knitting magic happens sometimes, right? I'll start measuring, think good thoughts, and hope for the best. That's what we do, isn't it?

As the year ends on a grey day here in the Pacific Northwest, I look forward to a happy, healthy 2012 with lots of knitting and spinning. Best wishes to all of you, my friends and family; let's all be the best people we can in the coming year.

Happy New Year!

Better Late Than Never, Thanksgiving Edition

2011-12-06T13:07:00.001-08:00

I've had a request for Thanksgiving photos, so here they are. We had a lovely holiday with 19 family members and friends joining us for dinner. We strung together three long tables so everyone would feel included.

DH advises future SIL on proper method of setting up tables.

Big Bro and Little Sis enjoyThanksgiving eve.

AR needs to learn how to smile better.

Buddy's already looking for crumbs.

Cool turkey centerpiece made from bread that AR found at a local bakery.

Gram always closes her eyes.

Apparently purple was the color of the day.

Gram looks happy now.

Good looking kids, huh?

There's DH waaaay down there at the end.

A fun bunch, great food, a wonderful gathering. I'm thankful for family.

The fun and games continue into the next day and a good time is had by all.

DPNs Again

2011-11-29T13:34:00.000-08:00

What is the world coming to? I've actually used dpns for another project.

Baby items just seem to be more manageable on short double points than on circulars for me, so hence the break in tradition. Besides, it's good to be flexible, I think.

I learned of a new baby the other day, and since we'll be meeting with his dad on Tuesday, I decided to whip up a hat and pair of socks. I had some leftover Hazelknits Aritisan Sock in the Hometown Football colorway (Seattle Seahawks) and I thought this would be a good use for it. It's fun to be able to do a quick project now and then and hopefully the set will be a welcome addition to the little one's wardrobe.

I'll let a teddy bear try on the items when they're done, so you can see the result.

The Princess finds her Prince

2011-11-28T16:22:00.001-08:00

Congratulations, you two. We look forward to welcoming the Prince into the family.

Home Just In Time

2011-11-27T13:24:00.000-08:00

One thing I miss when I'm in the desert is the variation in colors and textures that we have in the Northwest. I returned to Seattle early enough in November to see the end of the fall colors. These last few days have been windy and rainy, so now the leaves are pretty much gone. I enjoyed them immensely while they lasted.

One thing I don't enjoy is the aftermath of the leaves from the large wisteria, which continue to fall for seemingly forever and insist on blowing into my kitchen.

Oh well, it could be worse.

Good Idea

2011-11-26T11:43:00.001-08:00

It's Another Day in Paradise

2011-11-02T09:08:00.000-07:00

I have to soak up as much of these colors and the amazing sunshine, for soon I will be back in the land of drizzle.

Did you jump onto this bandwagon, too?

2011-10-25T15:37:00.000-07:00

A month or so ago, I read about a new pattern book that was available for pre-order. It was called Coastal Knits and is a collaboration between Hannah Fettig and Alana Dakos. I listen to Alana's podcast, Never Not Knitting, and have planned to make Hannah's Featherweight Cardigan for some time. Somewhat unusually for me, I went to the website, looked at the information on this new book, and immediately ordered it. The pre-order came with advance copies of two patterns, and discount codes for each of the designer's websites. The pattern I liked immediately was the Rocky Coast Cardigan.

A KAL started on Ravelry in the Coastal Knits group almost immediately. This was in the first part of September, and the book wasn't scheduled to ship until October 15th. I joined up, searched the stash for some appropriate yarn, and plunged ahead. I have a bunch of red Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran yarn that I've been waiting to use. It tried to be a pullover sweater some years ago, but there was a problem with huge sleeves and it ended up back in balls in the storage bin. I decided it would be perfect for this project. I swatched and got started. The sweater has lots of cables, but it really isn't a difficult pattern.

The pattern calls for some positive ease, and as I knitted I found out why. The yarn I used combined with all the cables resulted in a lot of pulling in of the garment. The body was okay, but when I picked up stitches and started the first sleeve, it was soon apparent that it was going to be too tight. I ripped it back and picked up more stitches and knit it again. I didn't decrease as much as was called for and it worked out pretty well. The yarn is super soft and warm and it will be a great sweater if it stretches just a tiiiiiny bit more so I can wear it with a shirt with sleeves! I tried it on for the photos the day I left for the desert, and it's waiting at home for me.

The book should also be waiting at home for me by now, and I look forward to starting some of the other patterns in it.

In other news, this roadrunner was sitting on our patio this morning and the hummingbirds didn't like it at all.

Heated Up

2011-10-13T10:55:00.000-07:00

I flew into Palm Desert on Sunday to join DH for a few weeks. We had had a couple of really nice days at home (60 F!) but I was looking forward to a little bit more sunshine. Well, I got my wish and it looks like this is the warmest part of the country at the moment. Yesterday was 103, today will be the same, then we'll start to cool off into the upper 90s. Not exactly what I was expecting, but who am I to complain? At this time of year the sun goes down early and the nights cool off so it's much nicer than it was here in August or early September. Knitting on small projects by the pool was never better!

I had to fly in via San Francisco, which is always dicey due to possible weather issues. True enough, our flight was scheduled to be delayed due to cloud cover, then suddenly put back on track when the weather cleared. I saw a cool shadow of the plane in the bay as we approached.

I didn't have to change planes as we were scheduled to leave in about 45 minutes after landing. That didn't work out so well...the crew closed the doors and we pushed back from the gate, taxied a little bit, then waited and waited. Looking out the window into the bay as other jets approached and landed was exciting.

There was a long line of planes waiting to take off. We sat and sat and finally the pilot announced that we were waiting for the Blue Angels to land and then we could leave. They flew by, landed 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and we were able to leave.

Flying out, San Francisco looked like a fairy kingdom in the clouds. My photos don't capture quite how cool it looked, but I tried.

As I turned my camera to airplane mode, it gave me a message about not taking pictures on takeoff and landing. Oops.

I knit quite a bit on a gift sock I'm making on the flight. The handy tray table clips are nice for pattern holders if your pattern isn't too big.

I think my twin, Cathy, mentioned this idea in one of her posts awhile ago, too. Great minds continue to think alike!

I'm working on lightweight items here in the heat; the socks, the reinvented Pi shawl that I ripped out after the fair project disaster, and I started a couple of new projects. Surprise! The Pi shawl now is going to be the Gull Wings version of the EZ anniversary shawl. Of course, I already got distracted and made the 144 stitch section one repeat larger than the pattern calls for, but I don't think anyone will notice.

This is a skein of Wollmeise lace that came from the sale in the shop last summer. It's much darker than this photo shows; dark grey-blue and charcoal. It's an unnamed skein and completely beautiful.

I had a lovely skein of yarn that I had spun last year and I wanted to make a shawl that would highlight the color progression that I have.

I decided to make the Holden Shawlette and so far I like it. The fiber (nummanumma's Alpaca/Merino blend) is incredibly light and soft and I'm enjoying the knitting so far as I watch the subtle change in colors.

All for now. Almost time to go to the pool!

Lots of Photos, Not Many Words

2011-10-02T17:23:00.000-07:00

In looking back at my last few posts, I noticed that I hadn't documented finished objects since May or something like that. Yes, I showed my fair items, but some of those had been finished for awhile, and some of them hadn't appeared here. Since the reason I started a blog was to document my knitting, here goes.

Artichoke Socks: This was a mystery sock from back in May. I finished them, love the yarn, but wasn't too happy with the way mine came out...yarn over issue that made the holes differing sizes. I have since figured out how to fix this, but wasn't successful when making the socks.

Boneyard Shawl: Finished this with the Knitgirllls spinalong/knitalong.

Wendyknits Summer Mystery Shawl: I made this out of The Sanguine Gryphon Eidos, which is wonderful yarn.

My first crocheted potholder! I took a crochet class and made this and sent it to the Princess. I know she was impressed.

My handspun Pogona. This Juliespins fiber was supposed to be a sweater, but didn't really want to. It made a nice shawl and I have some left to make into something smaller.

My first crocheted dishcloth!

My Daybreak out of Wollmeise. I wore this at Sock Summit and had compliments.

My Earth and Sky (Stephen West mystery shawl). If I'd known how this was going to look, I probably would have chosen different colors, but it's growing on me.

Two pairs of socks, both self-striping. This one has an afterthought heel.

This one doesn't.

Whew!

Empty Nest for Real

2011-09-21T17:04:00.000-07:00

My son packed up his car and left this morning to drive to California, where he intends to live. I knew this was coming; he graduated from college last winter and came home for awhile. He had wanted to go to graduate school but unfortunately didn't get into the one program he applied to, so decided to move down to LA in the fall and "seek his fortune" as they say. He drove down at the end of August with DH (who relocated to Palm Desert again), stayed with relatives, and proceeded to look for internships, employment, and a place to live. He is interested in the film industry, graduating in film and video studies, and has done some local work as a production assistant and shot and edited a couple of music videos.

While he was in LA, he found an internship where he'll be reading and evaluating screenplays amongst other things and hopefully making contacts for future employment. He auditioned and was accepted into a pool of extras so he'll possibly get some work there. He worked on the X-Factor show when it was filming in Seattle and has contacted them about working when they film in LA in November. It's all exciting and new and a great adventure.

The problem is me. When he left for college in 2006, I was fine with it. I had another child still at home, I thought people who got upset when their kids left were weird, and he was only two hours across the state. He stayed there for four years and we saw him a few times a year and kept in touch via phone and email (mostly when he needed something). When he said he wanted to come home after graduation and stay eight months or so, I was a little worried. I have a tendency to nag and he has a tendency to collect all of the water glasses in the house in his room, sleep all day and stay up all night, etc. I didn't know how we'd get along.

Then DH decided to go to California to work last January. It worked out pretty well that Scott was here; I could go down and stay for weeks at a time in the desert and he could stay here to watch the house and the dog (and rabbit). When I was home, Scott and I went to the gym together, we ate dinner together, he worked part time for my sister, and we got along fine.

This morning after he left, I cried like a baby. It's not only that I'll miss his company, but I think it's the fact that he's starting on his grown-up life now. Sure, I'll still be supporting him for awhile, but he's moving to a big city on his own, finding an apartment and a job, and hopefully will end up with a career that he loves. These are tough times, and he's very lucky to have the opportunity to do something he's good at and he loves, even though he's not too sure how it's all going to work out at the moment. For his whole life, Scott's been the creative, funny guy. We always thought he'd go into some sort of entertainment as a career, and this is the beginning of that chance. In fact, my stepson was telling him the other day that he couldn't wait for Scott to be successful so he could quit his job and be his agent! They've been talking about that for years.

So I have to buck up and be brave. I'm proud of him and hope that things go well and he finds what he's looking for. I'll be spending as much time as I can with DH in the desert; I'd spend more time if it wasn't for the big house that we have here (not a good time to sell, ya know) and this guy:

and also the rest of the family that counts on me to do all the holidays. Which I wouldn't change for the world.

So keep your eyes open for this guy. It's only the beginning for him.

Slacker!

2011-09-15T16:16:00.000-07:00

I haven't really been sitting here doing nothing for over a month, but obviously I haven't gotten over here to the blog. There's lots of finished and in-process knitting to document, and a State Fair report.

I spent most of the last month in Las Vegas taking care of the Princess. She was hospitalized and when she came out, had a medication that she couldn't tolerate very well, so I ended up going back to help her again and stayed to attend follow-up doctor's appointments with her. So, I had lots of knitting time but not a lot of documentation capability. She's doing much better now, and I finally have a chance to catch up.

I entered some items in the State Fair again this year, as usual. Last year I won a beautiful rosette in addition to some blue ribbons, so this year I wanted to get another. Unfortunately, I didn't have a really impressive project.....it seems like my ideas and my execution didn't really match up this year. I had started a Pi shawl out of Wollmeise and that was going to be a showstopper! Unfortunately, I waited until the last minute to start and managed to mess the pattern up when I was almost at the finish line. And not just a small mistake - I had been fixing those all along - no, I managed to somehow turn the chart upside down and knit a couple of rows before realizing it. And this was when there were 576 stitches on the needles, knitting in the round. Laceweight yarn...no lifeline...impossible to figure out how to fix when you have to be done that day.

My other impressive project, the Sock Yarn Blankie, also isn't finished. Somehow it got wider than I thought it was going to be, so there's a bunch of length to finish before I call it quits on that.

So, I collected some spinning, some knitting, some knitting with handspun yarn, and entered some things anyway. I received all blue ribbons, except for one red on a skein of handspun yarn. Good results, but I was hoping for more (I know, I sound like one of those whining mothers and/or kids on Toddlers and Tiaras (a TLC show that I'm embarassed to admit that I watch now and then). "I got Queen but I really wanted Grand Supreme"). Here's what I entered:

My Cassidy cardigan:

My Summer Mystery Shawlette from Wendyknits:

My Citron:

My Boneyard out of handspun Tempted fiber made during the Spinalong the Knitgirllls did:

My Pogona out of handspun Juliespins fiber:

My Juerga cowl out of handspun fiber I blended myself from merino, alpaca, and our little rabbit's fur:

The two skeins of handspun yarn I entered aren't pictured. The colors are a bit washed out today due to cloudy weather which has returned to the Northwest with a vengeance.

Enough for today; I'll update my finished projects soon!

Sock Summit!

2011-08-06T14:25:00.000-07:00

There are lots of things that need to be covered on this neglected blog, but I will start with the wonderful, amazing Sock Summit 2011. My traveling companion had a slight glitch in plans and returned from a trip to Europe on Thursday, so we skipped that day and drove to Portland on Friday morning, July 29th. We signed up for one class Saturday afternoon and two one-hour classes on Sunday morning. The rest of the time was ample for shopping, eating, resting, drinking wine, and knitting.

We arrived Friday afternoon, checked into our hotel and walked over to the Convention Center to register. There was no line and it took only minutes. Nothing else to do then but check out the market! This is one amazing market; both times I've spent significant time shopping, only to return home and hear about wonderful booths that I missed. Of course, I actually have plenty of yarn and fiber here at home, but it doesn't hurt to look, does it?

I had to refer back to my 2009 Sock Summit blog post to see how my shopping compared this year. I think this year won. My acquisitions are divided up by day:

Friday's purchases included a beautiful gradient-dyed package of fiber from Fiber Optic Yarns. It's merino and silk and dyed in a continuum of colors ranging from black to purple to shades of blue. I had been wanting to get fiber like this for a long time, and was glad to get the chance to choose a favorite from a wide selection of colors. I also got a set of handmade glass circular needles from Sheila and Michael Ernst in a beautiful dark blue to purple color. (Should have taken them out of the box to photograph but they probably would have just looked black anyway.) Next was a lovely skein of yarn from Three Irish Girls in a one-of-a-kind colorway with the coolest spots of color. I had to get a new button and coffee cup to match those I got in 2009, and then we did some damage at the Bar Maids booth, where we found wonderful Lo-Lo Bars of hand lotion, foot-smoothing cream, and lip balm. The scents and textures of their products are amazing.

Saturday we went back to the Bar Maids so I could get a jar of special Face Pudding that had been sold out on Friday. It's wonderful moisturizer, full of anti-oxidents and vitamins. We also stopped back to see restocked yarns at The Amy Lee Show, as she had great self-striping skeins but was running low on inventory on Friday. I bought three of her beautiful yarns. Goth Socks sold out in minutes the first day, but I think these colorways are just as nice.

Look at the sparkles in this one!

After much hemming and hawing, I also bought a new yarn swift, since I was tired of my yarn tangling in the metal connectors of the plastic swift I had and this wooden one from Sweden looked sturdy and easy to use.

I took a class on Saturday afternoon. It was taught by Mary Scott Huff, who was very energetic and personable, and concerned two-color stranded sock knitting. It was helpful, but didn't really give me a definitive answer to my main question (maybe there isn't one!) and it was freezing cold in the classroom. All in all, I think the information I got from the class could've been presented in about an hour instead of the three hours allotted, but I did pick up a couple of tips and a cute pattern.

Saturday afternoon was the flash mob. There are videos on You Tube that show it, and it was a lot of fun. We saw me in a couple of them, but just briefly. I'm trying not to watch the videos in an attempt to get the song out of my head.

Sunday morning, we took one-hour classes. The first was taught by the incomparable Anna Zilboorg and was about making the perfect buttonhole. I will use this technique on my next sweater, but will have to practice it a couple of times before I get the hang of it. My attempt in the class was less than successful.

The second class was on a different shape of afterthought heel and I've already used the technique on a sock I had in progress. I like how it came out, although I decided to pick up a coupe of extra stitches on each side to avoid the gaping holes in the corners, and that seemed to work well.

Sunday morning was also the Fleece to Foot competition, which was really interesting. Yes, there were three sheep in the Oregon Convention Center. The sheep were sheared, the fresh wool was spun and plyed and then socks were knit. We didn't stay for the end, but the process was fascinating. And yes, there's Anna petting a sheep.

At the same time, finals were held for the Fastest Knitter. Contestants had to knit with sock yarn on a prescribed number of stitches for three minutes. Deb Barnhill won with a total of 57 stitches per minute. The first runner-up was close behind with 56. You could hardly see their fingers move. Here's a photo of Deb in one of the heats.

The video I took was not of the finalists, but of another heat of contestants. They were fast also!

And then, of course, instead of leaving as early as I'd planned, we had to take a last tour of the market. I ran into my spinning teacher who had some of her wonderful fiber for sale and I couldn't resist picking some up. I lamented to her my lack of ability when I had tried to spin a silk hankie, so she gave me a quick lesson. Then I had to buy a package of them to try again, along with some merino/bamboo/nylon. I also looked too long at the great fiber from Sunset Fibers and came away with a lovely bump of BFL. Oh, and then just because I had been thinking about it, I went back to Fiber Optics and bought some MCN. Her colors are so vibrant....unbelievable.

Oh, and there was the largest sock to knit on. I don't remember the details, but this "sock" has been travelling around and being knit upon by thousands of knitters. It's very large.

And that finished our weekend. We ate a late lunch since it was already about 2:30, then hit the road back to Seattle. We ran into a little traffic, stopped for coffee to keep awake, and made it home without incident. On the way down, I mentioned that I couldn't believe that it had been two years since we drove down to the inaugural Sock Summit, and now I can't believe that the second one has come and gone. Even though I have plenty of yarn, fiber, and tools and have taken lots of classes, I'm sure I'll be waiting on my computer for registration to open in 2013.

Two Down, One to Go

2011-06-13T19:46:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, we attended son number 2's commencement at Central Washington University. It was a sunny, cool day and we got up at 5:30 am to drive two hours across the state. The ceremony started at 9:30 am and the graduates had to line up at 8:45. The drive was pleasant and uneventful.

The commencement took place in the football stadium, so DH and I found seats in the bleachers. The graduates were sitting on the field in an orientation that had us behind them and looking directly into the sun, but despite these small annoyances, it was a lovely and meaningful ceremony. Our graduate even remarked on his enjoyment of the speakers, which says a lot right there.

The ceremony moved quickly and the gentlemen reading the graduates' names as they received their diplomas reminded me of the announcer on "The Price is Right" (come on down!). They livened up an otherwise somewhat tedious litany of names and entertained everyone at the same time.

We were able to get a few photos but the venue wasn't ideal for zooming in and finding one's child in the crowd. For one thing, the sun in my eyes made it very difficult to see through the screen on the camera, so my picture taking was pretty pathetic. DH got a couple of pretty good ones, though.

We drove back home right after the ceremony was over and stopped for a delicious brunch at the Salish Lodge at Snoqualmie Falls. There's a lot of water going over this year and the view was incredible. If you watched "Twin Peaks" you would recognize the scenery here.

All in all, an successful, enjoyable day. We have two of our three children through college now, and the third one is more than half finished. And in a brillian marketing ploy, the CWU Alumni Association bestowed a free one year membership on each graduate. Today in the mail there was the information, along with a card-sized laminated copy of the actual diploma. And there was this:

You can't have too much good press.

Congrats, Scott! We are extremely proud of you.

And, just in case you thought I forgot it was Worldwide Knit in Public Day, I did my part to represent:

I Don't See A Problem, Either

2011-05-29T08:45:00.000-07:00

Catching up again

2011-05-25T15:00:00.000-07:00

How many times have I used that title? I guess if I posted more regularly, I wouldn't have to catch up, but that doesn't seem all that likely. Anyway, since this blog is supposed to exist to document my knitting, here's what's been happening.

The spinalong fiber has been spun and mostly knitted. I'm making the Boneyard shawl by Stephen West out of it and it is not the most interesting knitting, so is taking awhile. I got about 650 yards of yarn, so the shawl will be a good size. The colors shown on the yarn skeins are more true to life than those in the shawl photo. While this is not a combination of colors I would ordinarily choose for myself, I'm enjoying the progression of shades in the finished project.

My Pogona (also a Stephen West design) is about the same size as it was when I last showed it. However, it has had some work done on it, just not all in the right direction. I decided I didn't like the striping I was getting while alternating skeins, so I ripped it back and continued with just one. Next I didn't like the way the yarnovers before the purl stitches were coming out much bigger than the ones on the other side, so I ripped it back and started again using a different technique. I didn't have a lot of success with my first attempts at the new technique, so I ripped it back again. Now I'm moving along and am happier with the way it looks, but I think it's actually smaller than it was in the last photo.

Continuing with the theme, I have a third Stephen West shawl on the needles. This one is the Daybreak, which I've been intending to do for some time. I'm using two colorways of Wollmeise sock and I really love the way it's looking. There's a long way to go on this.

I decided to knit the Mystery Sock pattern in the Sock Knitter's Anonymous group on Ravelry. This pattern is by Janel Laidman, is called Artichoke and has some knitted right into the cuff. I'm enjoying this pattern; it used some beads at the beginning, which was different for me for a sock. I'm using Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere which is a very yummy choice of yarn.

I wrote about the hat I made with dpns, but I haven't shown the matching booties. They're cute but I'm not sure how practical they'll be. I'm glad it's not my problem - the recipients can worry about keeping them on the baby's feet. The pattern is called Saartje's Booties and I've seen many of them in photos over the years.

I've actually made a couple of other things but photos aren't on this computer. I will immortalize them at a later date!

Wherever you are, I hope you are safe. The weather events here in the US have been miserable and scary lately and I thank my lucky stars that all I have to complain about is a little rain.

Adventurous Knitter

2011-05-14T18:27:00.000-07:00

These are double-pointed needles. They are size US 2-1/2 (3 mm).

They are pretty small, pretty sharp, and pretty slippery. I only have a couple of small sets of dpns, purchased a long time ago. Back in the day when I learned to make socks, I first learned from a book and that book said you had to use dpns, so I bought some and used them. I didn't like them very much.

Shortly thereafter I took a class on how to make socks with two circular needles and I liked that much better. The needles didn't poke me, they didn't fall out, they weren't as awkward to hold, and I didn't get the little ladders between the needles. Once I started with the circulars, I didn't look back and learned to easily convert any pattern written for dpns to circulars. This included finishing hats and doing mittens. I may have even said on occasion that I didn't use dpns and didn't know why anyone else would. That's me; never judgmental or anything!

However, when I was finishing my Geodesic cardigan and doing the sleeves in the round, I didn't like how the two circulars I was using were pulling the laceweight yarn and I had some issues with the "seam" area between the needles. So when I went to finish the child's pullover sweater that I recently made, I decided to try dpns for the sleeves. It was pretty easy because the needles were size 8 (5 mm) and were made from wood. Short, not too slippery, and quite substantial. It worked well.

I needed to make a quick baby hat to match the booties I made recently as a gift. I was using a cotton/acrylic blend yarn because the baby will live in the desert, so the yarn is pretty smooth. I had attempted a couple of hat patterns but wasn't getting the result I wanted, so I found another pattern and decided to use much smaller needles than I had been trying. I also decided (gasp!) to try it with dpns, since I thought this yarn would pull too much if I tried to use my usual technique. I looked in my needle boxes and came up with the aforementioned needles. I cast on and made my way up the hat with good success. The gauge was close and the size looked good.

The hat came out pretty cute.

So now what? Do I add dpns in every size to my collection? They were quite handy for this project, but it was small and quick. I don't think I'll ever go back to them for socks, since I had a few issues with pulling them out of the stitches, dropping the loose needle onto the floor, and having a needle just fall out on its own once the decreases were close to being finished. When you use two circulars, you pull the needle through on the long cable and let go after you finish each section. When you do that with the dpns, the needle comes out of the stitches and goes flying. Definitely not good for airplane knitting for me.

So, what did I learn? I can use dpns if I have to. They are useful in some instances. I need to practice in order to keep them in my hand and off the floor. Slippery needles and slippery yarns aren't a good match.

It's always good to learn something new.

I Guess I Did Something Right

2011-05-08T11:09:00.000-07:00

Thank you, Princess. I will enjoy this delicious arrangement and appreciate it very much!

Some Finished Objects

2011-04-09T16:16:00.000-07:00

I'm back home now in the cold, rainy Northwest, and am finally organized enough to show off some of my finished objects. A bit of knitting and spinning has been done amongst housework, exercise, and reclaiming my house from the twenty-something who's in charge when I'm not.

My Vellamo socks were finished at the end of March, and they came out pretty well. I learned a lot from this pattern and will do some things differently (hopefully better) next time. They are made from two colors of Wollmeise loveliness and feel wonderful.

Speaking of Wollmeise loveliness, I have to mention that the laceweight cardigan I showed before is incredibly soft! The fine gauge merino wool didn't feel especially soft when I was working with it; it was nice but quite thin and stringy, but when this sweater was done and washed, it became super soft. I look forward to making a shawl out of the same yarn in the future. Thanks to Lori's trip to Germany last summer during Claudia's sale, I don't have to worry about supply for a good long time!

I finished my Cedar Leaf Shawlette out of Madelinetosh Pashmina. This yarn is also very soft and great to work with. I haven't worn it yet, or even woven in the ends, but it's washed and blocked. I think I mentioned before that I had just inches of yarn left when I was done; it was that close. It was an enjoyable pattern to knit.

I finally finished these self-striping socks out of Vesper sock yarn. This skein, that I got from a Ravelry destash, has bits of white at the end of each color and I'm not too crazy about that. I'm planning to make a kids' sweater to send to the current afghans for Afghans campaign (sweaters are especially needed) and thought I'd tuck these socks into the box to go as well. I'm sure someone with cold feet won't mind the little white bits here and there.

I learned recently that my hairdresser has cancer, so I decided to make her a couple of hats. Here's the first one; the Amanda hat out of Malabrigo worsted. This yarn is so incredible I can see how people get hooked on it. Right...I need something else to get hooked on. Anyway, I had half a skein left from another project and it was just enough for a hat. I have another skein of the same yarn in a beautiful dark blue and I'm going to make another hat out of that and give them to her on Saturday.

The next project isn't finished yet, but I decided I didn't like the sweater I was making out of my handspun. The pattern and yarn just weren't happy together, so I ripped it out and started a Pogona. I'm a lot happier with how this looks.

That's about it for current knitting. I have another self-striping pair of socks started and I think I'll try an afterthough heel on them. I've never done one but I like the way the stripes match up when you do that insead of a gusset and heel flap.

Spinning: I finished another project before I left the desert, but haven't washed or photographed it yet. When I get back there at the end of the month I'll do that. In the meantime, I've been participating in a Spinalong with the Knitgirllls (check out their videocast if you haven't). I bought 8 ounces of the fiber, which was dyed by Tempted in a surprise colorway. It turned out to be purple, blue, natural, and pink.

I decided to spin and ply it randomly and hope to get sort of a tweedy effect. Here are the four bobbins; it will really be a surprise to me when it's done; I hope it really mixes up.

I'm planning to make a Boneyard shawl with it. I've spun all of it; just need to let it rest and then ply. I'd like to make one big skein and hopefully will have the 650 or so yards that I need.

That 's it for now. See you soon.

Just a cloud, or is it?

2011-04-08T16:10:00.000-07:00

Lemon Tree, Very Pretty

2011-04-07T16:09:00.000-07:00

I didn't know that lemon trees fruit and bloom at the same time. Very interesting......

I've had posts spinning around in my head like crazy but I haven't written them down. They're all very entertaining, too! I'll start with this photo so I can get the song out of my head, then hopefully catch up with a couple more posts for publishing later.

Filling in the Knitting Blanks

2011-03-16T20:45:00.000-07:00

I've been doing some knitting, but haven't been too diligent about keeping the blog updated, so here goes. It seems a little frivolous to babble about knitting when so many people have been devastated in Japan, so I'll pass on a small way to help that I learned about this morning. I went online to the Red Cross to donate and after I did that, I visited my forums on Ravelry. Little Knits is a yarn shop in Seattle with a large online business. There was a thread in the group today regarding Japan, so I read it. The owner of Little Knits announced that she would match donations for people who had no corporate matches and donate up to $10,000. So I emailed the Red Cross with the matching information and also advised Little Knits so my donation amount could be double checked. I know there are lots of worthy organizations to which to donate, but the Red Cross is a great one and doubling my money was a welcome opportunity.

So back to knitting. When last we visited, I was hoping to finish my Geodesic Cardigan. I did get it finished; there were a few issues but luckily the "problem" areas are hidden from general view, and I'm pretty pleased with how it came out. Here's my "set the camera up and run in front of it" photo.

The sock that used to be a mitten is coming along finally. I'm making the Vellamo Socks (Ravelry link) and they're a nice combination of colorwork and stripes. The first sock isn't perfect; this is my first attempt at a short row heel and I also haven't made a striped sock before (without using self-striping yarn.) I've successfully avoided the jog in the stripes, but am having a little trouble where I carry one color up behind the other. I'm using this first sock as an experiment and hopefully will hit on a successful technique to use for the second.

I finished spinning the nummanumma fiber and am pretty happy with the way it came out. I think it's about 500 yards and looks like I got a pretty good continuum of color. I'm thinking about what small shawl will be best for it.

A bit of startitis has happened. In addition to the sock, I've started a sweater and a shawl. I spun some BFL/Silk last summer and intended to use it all along for the Tappan Zee cardigan. I carefully three plyed the yarn to avoid striping but the way the two braids were dyed resulted in yarn that differed quite a bit in color. So I decided to alternate skeins to mix up the colors, which of course makes it look stripey, but I'm going to knit for awhile and see how I like it.

I bought some Madelinetosh Pashmina with a gift certificate I had to The Loopy Ewe courtesy of my friend Goatlady. For some reason I really wanted to start a project with this yarn and picked the Cedar Leaf Shawlette. I'm enjoying working with the yarn a lot; it's really soft and pretty. This pattern is using the dreaded wrap and turn short rows, though, and I think I've been doing them incorrectly. I'm hoping that when I pick up the wraps it will all work out. It's always something!

Tomorrow I'm off to Vegas with the Princess. She's been here for a few days and I'm going back with her to see her doctor. She's still having problems; we're hoping to get a handle on it this time.

One last thing - this morning I went out of the gate and saw the coolest flower on a vine growing up the wall outside out courtyard. I have no idea what this it (anyone know?) but I was fascinated.

Back in the Sun Again

2011-03-06T15:38:00.000-08:00

Yes, I've been back here in lovely Palm Desert, CA for a week now. It was a bit rainy and cooler when I arrived, but it quickly returned to sunbathing weather (at least for me!) When you're used to cooler weather, you tend to get the shorts out when it gets into the 60s (F) so 70s and lower 80s is all gravy.

Knitting since I last posted: I was sad to leave my Cassidy at home but knew I wouldn't need a worsted weight, cabled wool sweater here. I think I wore it every day after I finished it and I like it very much. Now I'm trying to finish up my Geodesic cardigan out of Wollmeise lacegarn in the Merlot colorway. I should be finished in the next few days and will post a photo then. I still like this project, but it wasn't the easiest thing to knit and working with the laceweight and following the directions given isn't always pleasant. I do love the yarn and will plan to make a shawl out of the substantial ball of leftovers.

Since I need some outdoor knitting and have been collecting skeins of Tahki Cotton Classic to make a mitred square blanket, I decided to send a box full of skeins down here and get started. Warning: it is addictive. You can make a square in a couple of hours (faster if you're not as slow as I am) and it's fun to combine the colors. I only sent one of each color, though, and I can only get three squares out of one skein if I use it for the outside color. Since I want to match the darker color in each set of four, I'll have to retrieve my extra yarn before I get this all finished. Here's my favorite square so far (unblocked).

The colors aren't quite true; it's a lovely deep purple and a lime green.

You might remember that I was working on some colorwork mittens last time. Well, they met an untimely end. This sad ball of yarn heralded the end of the mitten project.

They were too big for me and I was having trouble with the edges puckering and the decreases looking nice. I think I was pulling the floats on the edges too tightly because I knew the mitten was too big and it really didn't work. I do love this yarn, though, and will turn these unfortunate mittens into a pair of socks.

I got out my spinning wheel today and plan to finish this nummanumma fiber that I started at home. It's 50/50 baby alpaca/merino and called "Apricots and mixed fruit". She always has the cutest names! I'm trying to make the colors progress from brown through purple to pink but will two ply, so it will still be somewhat mixed up, I'm sure. I'll just try to get close and probably make a shawl.

A little eye candy: this morning we picked a couple of grapefruit to see if they were ripe. I've never been here in March before and whenever I tried grapefruit that looked ripe, they were really sour. Well, the key is to let them grow until March, I guess, because this one was delicious!

And we finally had a Roadrunner visit. I have a routine of sending a photo of the first Roadrunner I see to the Princess, so I was out in the yard chasing after this guy and trying to get his picture with my phone so I could text it to her. After that, he was still there talking to the hummingbirds, so I got a couple of better photos with my camera. I think they're just so cool.

All for now. Stay warm and dry and keep knitting!

Spoke Too Soon

2011-02-25T11:53:00.000-08:00

So, I guess making fun of the snowstorm that didn't hit my neighborhood wasn't a good idea. Not too long after I posted yesterday, this is what it looked like out my window.

Luckily it didn't last too long. It's quite cold, though, below freezing, but luckily no more precipitation is expected so the roads should be okay. Today the sun is out and the scene this morning was lovely.

Snow! Well, Sort Of.....

2011-02-24T14:30:00.000-08:00

I imagine all of you living in parts of the country where you can really tell that it's been winter were amused to see Seattle on the weather channel yesterday. Yes, we've had all our local news reporters out in their yellow jackets marvelling at the tiny bit of snow that has everyone in an uproar. To be fair, there was some significant accumulations in the surrounding areas and in the mountains, but here? Nah. News stories of kids sledding into muddy grass while enjoying a "snow" day are very entertaining. Doesn't take much to get us going here. Here's a photo of the sun glinting off the tiny layer of snow in the yard. It looked very pretty in real life!

In other weather news, though, I'll be heading back down south early Saturday morning, where it's been cooler and rainy (60s) but hopefully will be heading back up into the 70s shortly after my arrival. I've been wearing my Cassidy sweater as much as possible, since I know the worsted weight wool will not be necessary for me next week. Yes, I got the sweater done in time to wear it to Madrona Fiber Arts Festival and it worked out well. It was comfortable to wear (not as itchy as it seemed at first) and wasn't too hot for most of the indoor time. It's very nice to wear as an outer garment in the cool weather. I received lots of compliments and am very happy with it.

It doesn't have a hood because I ran out of yarn and my friend Jann gave me a great suggestion as to how to use the partial hood to make a collar, thus avoiding the dreaded ripping. I was a little hesitant as to my ability to make this type of alteration, but it came out great.

I've packed up yarn to take to the desert so I can work on some lighter weight sweaters. The way I packed, I'll have about 4 sweaters done, yarn spun for some shawls, and a blanket started in the next three weeks. Who's betting on that? Knitters are nothing if not confident.

I'm working my way through some mittens with limited success. They're called Elise and are a February selection in the Ravelry group, Year of Stash Socks. Here's my progress after trying to fix the problem of size (too large) and finally ripping back to the cuff, adjusting how I hold the colors, and starting again. I'm hoping this version will succeed, since I really like this pattern and am enjoying working with the yarn. (0f course, it's Wollmeise, so who wouldn't). My friend Lori offered me a skein of Natur from her sizeable stash, which I gratefully accepted. I was going to use some Knit Picks Bare for the light color, but it wouldn't have matched as well. The green is leftover yarn from my Norwegian Rose socks, so this is stash-busting (some of mine and some of hers!)

I'll catch you later from the sunny south.

Seaming a Sweater on Superbowl Sunday

2011-02-09T16:05:00.000-08:00

This report is a little bit late, but I liked the alliterative headling, so I'm sticking with it! I did spend much of Superbowl Sunday seaming up my Cassidy. I started this sweater with the Knitmore Girls' podcast Knitalong but have had a couple of delays along the way. I'm trying to get it finished so I can wear it next week to Madrona if I want to, so we'll keep fingers crossed.

The seaming: I do not like sewing and seaming is more sewing than knitting to me. No matter how careful I vow to be, the seaming never looks very good to me. So I won't enter the sweater in the fair...it looks like it will stay together and the sides are even and it fits! so that's all good. I picked up the stitches for the hood the other night (another job I don't much care for) and the hood is coming along. However, my ball of yarn is getting suspiciously small and I know it's the last one, so I'm hoping for the best. I did have a little more yardage than was called for (after a kind Raveler sold me a matching skein) so there's no reason I should run out. I just like to worry about things, so that's what I'm doing.

The progress after seaming shoulders, sides, setting in and seaming the sleeves:

And I finished a long-standing WIP! Reading the Yarn Harlot's blog recently, I noticed that she referred to a disease she had called "Finishitupitis". This is apparently the opposite of the more commom affliction of "Startitis" which I usually have to some degree. Anyway, for some reason I decided to finish up a small blanket that I had started soon after I learned to knit about 6 years ago. It's a pretty simple pattern with alternating squares of pattern that switch orientation every 18 rows. It's simple to recognize the pattern and you just have to pay attention to where each square of patterning ends and not mindlessly continue knitting the wrong design. (Ask me how I know.)

What I found interesting was that I remember having so much trouble keeping track of this when I started it originally. I counted obsessively, had tons of stitch markers in it, and couldn't figure out what went wrong when I got off track. I was happy to observe that now I'm able to read the knitting and can easily see when I get off track. (I'd be happier if I could say I don't get off track any more, but that would be stretching the truth a bit.)

So I pulled out this blanket a week or so ago and decided to finish it. I stopped one pattern repeat (36 rows) short of what was called for, but I decided that it was plenty big for a lap blanket. Too bad the loveseat I made it to match is now slipcovered in a different color, but the blue still goes in the bedroom just fine. It blocked out nicely and is lovely and squishy.

Success!

Happy Birthday, Princess!

2011-01-28T10:14:00.000-08:00

I don't have any teenagers any more. Whew! It sure doesn't seem like 20 years have gone by since my last baby was born.

My beautiful girl, you've had some challenges this past year, but you're learning to manage them and I'm proud of you. I can't resist sharing a few photos of your new year's trip to Cancun that AR helped me snag from your Facebook page. You've changed a lot in the last 20 years!

You're awesome; I loved our half marathon adventure and will remember it proudly always.

Have a super wonderful day, Sweetie. I love you more than you'll ever know.

This Is the Life!

2011-01-26T13:35:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure why I didn't want to spend the winter here; tiny condo, no yard, no pets....what's not to like? Now I don't want to go back to Seattle on Saturday to deal with the bills, yard, pets, kid, rain, cold, etc. I'm getting so much knitting done! Oh well, I'll be back before too long and while I'm home I'll get to take a spinning class and visit the vendors' market at the Madrona Fiber Arts retreat in Tacoma, WA. I didn't go last year and am looking forward to it this time. I'm sure I'll do some stash enhancement, but my thinking now is that if I'm going to split my time between two homes for the next few months, I'm going to have to divide up my stash a bit. I've ordered a few skeins of yarn that have come here, but it's not quite enough yet. When I come back I have visions of my suitcase being filled with yarn. Or I could just ship a box to myself. That would be easier. I have to have a variety of yarn available in case I feel like starting a different project, you know.

Here's what I've done since I posted last. I finished the bed socks for DH (my, they're long and skinny, aren't they?) He loves them since it gets cool in the evenings and we don't have the best comforter on the bed here.

I finished spinning the Zen String Merino/Bamboo fiber and it came out nicely. I think I'll make a scarf out of it.

I finished the second front of my Cassidy cardigan and started on the sleeves. I didn't take a current photo of this, but it's coming along nicely.

I got out my Geodesic cardigan that's being knit from Wollmeise laceweight. I had some trouble with the fronts matching, so I ripped back a bit, fudged the decreases, blocked the body and sewed up the shoulders. It has a little more fiddling needed before it looks really good, but I've done so much work on it that I want to finish. Here's a photo from before I sewed up the shoulders but after it dried. The stitches evened out some and I'm a lot happier with the way I think it will look when finished.

I'll start on the sleeves soon, but want to try to finish Cassidy so I can wear it in Seattle when I'm home.

I finished my Herbivore but need to take it home to block on my blocking wires. I love it, though, even if it does look like some sort of sea creature at the moment.

Wow, that's a lot. I'm still trying to walk, run, or swim every day but that doesn't take too long. I don't have a car during the day, so I just have to stay here and knit. Darn!

Is This What Summer is Like?

2011-01-17T11:57:00.000-08:00

Posting again from my vacation spot in Palm Desert, CA. The Weather Channel says that there might be a record high temperature today in this area. The old record was 87F. Not bad for January, huh?

This morning DH and I went for a nice bike ride. It's really flat here and there are bike lanes on some of the busy streets, so that's nice. There are also very wide sidewalks, meant for golf carts I guess, and no one walks here, so you can ride freely on them. I try to get a run or walk in frequently and it's truly California; everyone drives everywhere. You really have to watch out crossing streets since drivers aren't used to pedestrians.

Anyway, we were riding down El Paseo (the Rodeo Drive of Palm Desert) and I heard a woman ask, "Is this what summer is like?" (The temperature was in the 70s when were riding.) I wanted to answer, since I've been here in July and August a few times, "No, at 9:00 in the morning in the summer, it would be 110!" That's not my favorite time to be here.

I've been doing some knitting and spinning. One thing about being here at this time of year is that it gets dark early. The sun goes behind the mountains about 4:30 and it gets cool, so there's lots of indoor time to knit and spin. I started this beautiful merino/bamboo two days ago and have finished half of it. I'm doing a semi-woolen, supported long draw so it's going much faster than my usual worsted spinning does.

It's from Zen String (now Wildflower Whimsey) and is spinning beautifully.

I finished my plain vanilla socks that I was making for the YOSS group on Ravelry. To recap, they're made from Wollmeise 100% superwash merino in the Saami colorway. I think they look kind of like bright tiger stripes!

I'm working on DH's bedsocks still; they keep fooling me into making them too short, and I've started the Herbivore shawl by Stephen West. I took a class from him when he was in Seattle last year and fell in love with some of his designs.

I'm knitting this out of The Sanguine Gryphon Bugga! in the Fairy Wren colorway and love both the pattern and the yarn. I haven't used any of the Bugga or Skinny Bugga I've collected and now I'll have to. It's wonderful. Here's a photo from the other day before I had to go out and find some needles with a longer cable. I bought some Signature circulars but got 24" cables. I should have gotten 32" as they probably would have been more useful for more projects, but oh well.

Time to go to the pool!

I Promised

2011-01-14T19:53:00.000-08:00

So here's the photo of the yarn that came to christen my home in the desert. String Theory Colorworks Duality in the colorway "Event Horizon" and Continuum in the colorway "Blue Giant".

I think they're beautiful....and I seem to be having a little problem with self-striping yarns. I just might have ordered two more skeins of Vesper sock yarn from Knitterly Things this afternoon soon after getting the email that the shop had updated. Oops.

It Feels Like Home

2011-01-13T19:33:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I drove from Seattle to Palm Desert, CA with DH. We have a little condo here in the desert that we've tried to rent as much as possible during the past several winters. This year, DH decided that he'd had enough of the cold and wet and would come south for the winter to work. He explored some job possibilities, we loaded up the old Volvo wagon, and set out last Saturday morning. As we continued further south, it seemed to get colder and colder, which was not what we had in mind. We spent the night in northern California and had to scrape ice off the car in the morning. Hey, we could be at home and do that...

Anyway, we arrived to mild weather and sunshine and the days have warmed up nicely. It might be approaching 80 in the next couple of days! While DH has been organizing his work, I've been getting some knitting done. I'm working on two pairs of "vanilla" socks; one out of Wollmeise in the Saami colorway, and one out of Curious Creek worsted weight in a pretty blue for DH to use as bedsocks. (His feet get cold.)

So for all of you in the frozen north, west, and east, here's a couple of photos of my first completed sock. It's hanging from the lemon tree just outside out patio. Don't be too jealous, now!

I finished and mailed off a vest to afghans for Afghans right before we left. I guess that makes it the first FO for 2011. I used a pretty simple vest pattern and some worsted weight yarn scraps that I had. I think it came out pretty well.

And I got yarn in our mailbox! Just before we left home, I ordered some lovely self-striping yarn from String Theory Colorworks on etsy and had it shipped here. It's not a real home until you've had yarn in your mailbox, I always say. I'll show you the yarn tomorrow, as I haven't taken a photo yet and it's dark now.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T16:37:00.000-08:00

Here's to the first day of 2011. So far, so good. We had a lovely New Year's Eve at the home of some old friends, excellent food and company and a clear, dry, cold night in which to drive home. All good.

My first cast on object for this year is a pair of socks. I joined a group on Ravelry where we will knit a pair of socks each month from our existing stash. Not a problem for me and I probably do it anyway, but it's fun to be in a group! I started a pair of plain stockinette socks, cuff down, 1x1 rib at the top out of Wollmeise 100% superwash wool in the Saami colorway. This was a club colorway during the one year of the Wollmeise club and I wasn't sure I liked it right away. However, seeing some socks knit in it (Goatlady's!) made me change my mind and I can't wait to get mine finished.

I have a few things to finish up, of course. This week I need to finish and mail the vest I'm making for afghans for Afghans so it gets there in time for the current campaign.

All for now. Have a son and two of his friends coming for dinner, so must get cooking. I wish a year of health, happiness, prosperity, creativity, and of course much knitting for all of you.

It's My Holiday and I'll Reschedule if I Want To

2010-12-26T09:51:00.000-08:00

This year Hanukkah came at the very first part of December, right after Thanksgiving. No kids were home, I was in Vegas for part of the time, and we just couldn't arrange to get together for our family celebration. DH and I lit candles the nights we were home, and I put up some decorations, but in my position as Queen of Everything, I rescheduled Hanukkah.

The Princess and her devoted follower came home for a week, the filmmaker came home for a few days in advance of coming home permanently (!), and our gainfully employed son lives in town. We rounded up a few more family members and enjoyed our traditional family Hanukkah on Christmas Eve.

Despite the unfortunate burning of many of the latkes and the unusual runny-ness of the spinach casserole, we had an enjoyable and hilarious time. Our group may be relatively small, but we're still noisy! The hilarity and possibly the latke burning was probably due to the martinis and/or eggnog. But whatever....

A few photos follow. We didn't seem to get everyone included in a picture on my camera, so here's a representation. Mostly in the kitchen, as usual! I notice that DH is notoriously absent, probably cooking the meat outside on the barbeque, or just hiding from the crazy relatives.

I actually made two gifts: The requested black and white checkered scarf for the BF and fingerless mitts for my friend and massage therapist.

I hope your holidays so far have been enjoyable, relaxing, and relatively unburned.

Final Report with Apologies to the Credit Card Commercial

2010-12-13T10:11:00.000-08:00

Registering for the Las Vegas Rock and Roll Marathon: $145

Plane ticket to Las Vegas: $250

Co-payments at doctor's offices and physical therapy for knee pain due to deciding to be a runner at age 57: $250

Cool running gear: pants, shirts, jacket, hats, water bottles, waist packs, ipod shuffles, running watch: Not quite sure but substantial $$

Hotel reservation at Mandalay Bay so we wouldn't have to walk too far to get to the race and, more importantly, back to the place to lie down with ice afterwards: $350

Miscellaneous food and other shopping expenses: $200?

Spending the weekend with my girl and sharing an awesome experience:

PRICELESS!!!

We Made It!

2010-12-07T13:16:00.000-08:00

Thanks to my cheerleading, encouraging, energetic Princess, we made it the entire 13.1 miles and lived to tell about it. We're anxiously awaiting official photos from the race website, but in the meantime, I'll share the couple of pictures we took of ourselves (set the camera up and run to pose).

I arrived in Vegas Saturday afternoon and we had to go to the Runner's Expo to pick up our numbers, t-shirts, timing chips, etc. The t-shirts are pretty cool; nice running shirts with the words and graphics forming the shape of a guitar.

We had pasta for dinner on Saturday night and tried to go to bed early. The race began at 7:00 am, but we were in a slower group, so we didn't get going until about 7:40. The weather was good, a little cool, but clear. We waited around with a bunch of other people until it was time for our group to start.

There were over 19,000 people running the half marathon with us, and an additional 5000 more who ran the full marathon. You had to be vigilant to avoid running into people who decided to stop and take a picture or walk for awhile and didn't look behind them. There were a lot of people! You could tell the real runners, too. They just look different. They're the ones coming back toward the end of the half marathon when you're still working on about mile 3. (Of course, they had a head start!)

We did well. I'm happy with my results for this first time and hope that the Princess will do another race with someone her own age and get to see how well she can really do. My muscles were really hurting for a good part of the time (I think it's because I'm used to stopping and stretching every 3 or 4 miles and she wouldn't let me stop until mile 7!) She truly didn't even look tired at the end and she was so helpful and encouraging to me the whole way. I'm very proud of us.

We went back to the hotel room, glad to escape the huge crowds, and took photos of us with our numbers and our medals. We had matching shirts and hats, but I wore the vest so we had pockets to carry our energy chews and some tissues.

All in all, we had a great experience. I had dinner with the Princess and her boyfriend, then they left and I had a well-earned glass of wine and the first good night's sleep in a long time. Today I got to show off my t-shirt to my yoga class buddies and they were suitably impressed.

I'll post again when we get official photos. I'm glad I did it and I'm glad it's over. Will I do another? If you had asked me that at 10:35 am on Sunday, the answer would have definitely been "no!" Today? It's possible.

I Feel Great!

2010-12-02T15:56:00.000-08:00

I had a great yoga class today, physical therapy on my IT band, visited a yarn shop (yeah!) and just ran my last two miles before the race. I'm pleased that I can run up a gentle slope that used to have me out of breath when I walked up it, can run several miles without stopping to walk, and just generally have a much improved fitness level than I did a year ago. Finishing a half marathon will be the icing on the cake.

Thank you Kristi and A for your well-wishes. And thanks to the anonymous commenter who recommended the viagra. I'm sure he meant well. :) I like to get comments, but there's a limit!

In knitting news, I started my airplane knitting so I'm all set to mindlessly knit. This is another ball of Vesper self-striping yarn. I got it from a Ravelry destash just because I wanted to try self-striping, wouldn't have selected these colors if I had had a better choice, but quite like how they're looking knit up. I think this is an older base yarn because it's a bit thicker than the other yarn I bought directly from the dyer more recently, but again I like it. A nice top down vanilla sock will get me through the weekend nicely.

See you later!

The End of November

2010-11-30T15:39:00.000-08:00

Well, I made it to the end of NaBloPoMo and blogged every day. I don't claim to have said something worthwhile every day, or even many days, but my 30 days are up and hopefully I'll have rekindled the habit of blogging on a regular basis.

I was awake half of last night worrying about this weekend; I leave Saturday morning for Vegas and the half marathon is Sunday morning. I know I've done all I can to be in shape and ready but still.....I have to worry about something! I guess I'm tired, but I feel a bit melancholy or at least nostalgic for some reason. Time is marching on; my collegeboy mailed in his application for graduate school today. I'm so proud of him, but I can't believe my little boy will soon be a college graduate and then studying for his MFA. He's lucky in knowing what he wants to do and having the passion to go after it. I have to think that that's a rare quality, especially in young people. I wish him luck even though I have total faith in him and will keep my fingers crossed until we have an answer in April. Then when he gets in, we'll worry about paying for it!

So if I'm gone for a few days, I will certainly report back and let you know how the Princess and I did. I know the experience will be fun, even though we won't be dressed as Elvis or be getting married at the run-through wedding chapel.

Wish us luck!

Another WIP

2010-11-29T16:44:00.000-08:00

Inspiration is lacking here on the second to the last day of National Blog Posting Month, so I'll just show a project that I couldn't wait to start but has ended up languishing a bit.

It's the Undulating Scarf from Spin-Off Magazine, Summer 2010. I spun some Enchanted Knoll fiber when I was on a forced vacation (long story) in October and couldn't wait to cast it on. It's coming along fine but it requires me to watch the pattern and do this funny double increase thingy every so often which I don't like so much.

I do like how the scarf is looking, though, so perhaps I'll get on the ball and finish it. Hope springs eternal!

Pieces

2010-11-28T15:36:00.000-08:00

My Cassidy sweater is coming along nicely. I was worried about the gauge so I blocked the back when I finished it and it came out to the right dimensions. The first front piece looks so narrow, but I know it's due to the ribbing, cables pulling in, etc. so I'm going ahead and working on the second one and will block them together to match the back. I really like this color; a nice periwinkle.

I'm looking forward to finishing it and having another cozy sweater for the winter. I still have to finish the laceweight sweater I started and make the short sleeved handspun sweater, but I guess they'll have to wait. I have to cast on a plain pair of socks this week for my airplane knitting for next weekend. Why is it that it's always so much more fun to plan the next project than it is to finish the current one?

10.2 Miles!

2010-11-27T17:07:00.000-08:00

That's how far The Princess and I ran today. It wasn't easy or very much fun toward the end, but it was possible. Now, those last 2.9 miles that we'll have to do next Sunday? Not a problem!

The Aftermath

2010-11-26T15:07:00.000-08:00

Today is dark and drizzly but thankfully the snow is gone. My Collegeboy had to drive back over the mountains today in a snowstorm, but he had chains, said it really wasn't too bad, and made it safely. When I was up in the middle of the night and saw the pass was closed eastbound, I wasn't so happy. Only a couple more trips for him and then he'll be done over there.

We had a lovely and lively Thanksgiving. Fifteen people plus one small dog can make a lot of noise! The food was all good; I've definitely perfected my techniques and recipes by now. We've come a long way from the first Thanksgiving dinner I had to cook 15 years ago. No one complained, but the food left a lot to be desired.

A few photos; it seems I never get exactly the ones I want, but it's nice to have some. They seem to all be in the kitchen, since that's where everyone tends to congregate until I kick them out from the area behind the stove.

I hope your day was peaceful and happy and today you're resting, knitting, spinning, and/or shopping!

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T10:32:00.000-08:00

I wish peace, joy, food, and loving companionship for all of you. Or lots of football, whatever you prefer!

Enjoy the day and stay warm, dry, and safe.

Getting Used to the Deep Freeze

2010-11-24T17:14:00.000-08:00

Our high temperature today was well below freezing which is nothing to some of you, but to us wimps in the northwest, that's darn cold! Monday we had the snow which messed up the traffic in the whole region and since then it has just gotten colder. It's supposed to warm up and rain by tomorrow afternoon, which will be nice. I've been trying to keep the bird feeders filled and thawed out. I was worried about our Oldest Rabbit in the World, but he's fine. He burrowed into all the straw I put into his cage and made a little nest for himself which seemed to insulate him a bit. No wonder he's gotten so old - he's smart!

The Princess flew in from Vegas on Monday in the thick of all the traffic troubles; her plane was delayed until they were sure they could land here, so DH and I ended up leaving the house at 2:30 am to drive down I-405 which was frozen but mostly empty of traffic. We came back north on I-5, which was clear going north but was still backed up in the southbound lanes with people trapped there since rush hour. We saw a few busses and trucks sprawled across the lanes, which was impressive. We had a scary ride, but DH is a pro and got us home safely with our Princess about 4:30 am. Now I have to keep putting her in scarves and mittens because she's freezing.

Our Collegeboy arrived from east of the mountains, so everyone who has to travel from out of town is here. Cooking is started and I'm looking forward to a great day of food and family tomorrow.

The Return of Ice Gator

2010-11-23T13:51:00.000-08:00

As the snow falls, Ice Gator once again spots the young and tender Barbie, resting after a full day of snow surfing.

"Ahh, how peaceful it is here," she thinks.

Ice Gator approaches quietly, thinking of his Barbie-snack.

Watch out, Barbie! You are being admired.

Closer, closer.....

What's this? Tucked in Barbie's wetsuit was a freezer gun?

Barbie takes deadly aim.

She fires.

"Take that, Ice Gator!" Whoosh! Splat! Whoosh!

Drat, I've been iced!

"That was a lot of work....

but not as much as it's going to be to get the gun back inside my wetsuit."

If I can only get back to my pool.

I'll get you next time, my pretty!

Written, produced, directed, and gnawed by Buddy, who didn't get to participate in the adventure this year. No Ice Gators were harmed in the production of this photo essay.

Birds

2010-11-22T16:55:00.000-08:00

We have bird feeders around the house and I love to watch the birds. There are two seed feeders outside the kitchen window and a hummingbird feeder. There are two more hummingbird feeders and a suet feeder where I can see them from my office window.

It was snowing this morning, so I filled the feeders, then tried to take pictures of the birds through the window. We have mostly chickadees and finches, with some nuthatches and juncos, towhees, flickers, bushtits, and jays thrown into the mix. Sometimes we get birds we don't recognize and go to the handy bird book in the cupboard to try to identify them.

The birds were hungry today, and we especially had a bunch of them right before it started to get dark.

This is a little like "Where's Waldo?" There are brown birds and black and white birds sitting on the feeder perches and in the brown branches of the tree on a snowy background. It's hard to see them all.

The hummingbirds were much happier after I fixed the feeders. They didn't much like this.

I guess we're in for it

2010-11-21T15:31:00.000-08:00

The La Nina weather pattern is predicted for the northwest winter this year, and so far it seems to be right on. We've had deluges of rain, wind (our power went out yesterday just long enough to make all of the clocks blink) and look what we had this morning.

I'm not super at photographing weather, but I think you can tell that this was snow. It didn't stick, but came down for a couple of hours. The temperature's around 35F, which is cool for this time of year, and it's supposed to get colder tonight and tomorrow. We put the light on the rabbit cage today which keeps our little outdoor rabbit warmer and also keeps his water thawed. He always looks so startled by the light when it gets dark; he hops around like he's onstage with a spotlight. Since he's the oldest rabbit in the world, I guess it's keeping him young.

In other news, this week I feel like a real runner. Last Monday I ran 8 miles in the rain, and today I ran 6 in the snow. If my knee would just stop hurting, I'd be set.

The Story of the Tree

2010-11-20T14:35:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time, there was a little Windmill Palm tree that came to live at a house near Seattle. He was a little fella and seemed to like the sunny place where he was planted.

He grew and grew and after several years, seemed to enjoy blocking the view from the front windows and have an evil plan to take the roof off with a few more feet of height.

So the little palm had to go. An ad was placed, and a brave soul who lived nearby came over to take the palm home with him.

For awhile, it seemed as if the palm had other plans. The men dug, they cut roots, they dug some more. They rocked, they dug, they rocked some more.

Finally, the palm decided to go along with the plan and assumed a horizontal position.

But then the men worried that there weren't enough of them to take the palm captive and cart him off to his new home. This palm was heavy!

After fussing and straining and revising plans, boards were cut, ropes were attached, muscles were strained, and the palm made its way around the house.

The next challenge: getting up into the trailer. By now, the men had had enough of the palm trying to thwart their plans, and let it know who was in charge. Up into the trailer it went.

And so, after a mere two hours or so, the palm headed for its new home.

Good luck, big guy. I hope to see you again sometime.

On the bright side, we can see the back yard again!

Bored Buddy

2010-11-19T16:21:00.000-08:00

It's raining, it's cold, my mom won't let me bark at the wall, and it's apparently too early for dinner. I guess I'll just have to look cute.

Palm Tree

2010-11-18T16:18:00.000-08:00

We've had a palm tree growing in our back yard for a number of years. Yes, we live in Seattle and yes, it's possible to grow certain palm trees and cactus' if you put them in the right location. We planted a small windmill palm on the south side of our house right in front of the white brick wall and it liked it there. Recently, DH decided that we needed to move it, since we really can't see out of our living room window any more!

So we didn't know what to do. A couple years ago it seemed feasible for us to move it away from the house, but now - it's huge! What to do? Just cut it down? These palms only grow from the top so you can't really prune them, only cut off dying or unwanted fronds from the lower trunk. Then DH came up with an idea - sell it. We called a landscaper we know but he didn't have use for it or know anyone who did. So we looked on craigslist and sure enough there was another palm like ours (though in a pot) for sale. We listed ours and within a couple of days had someone interested.

He's coming with some guys on Saturday to dig and move it. Hopefully I can get some photos of that!

Rain

2010-11-17T20:23:00.000-08:00

It's a cold, rainy day here in Seattle. We had a little rain and wind storm blow through here heralding the beginning of our La Nina winter. It's supposed to bring snow. I hope it doesn't.

It was a good day to light some candles, watch a movie and do some knitting. I'm working on my Cassidy which is coming along nicely. The back is done and blocked and I was progressing up one of the fronts nicely until I got to the preparation row before the cables start and realized that I'd messed up the ribbing pattern. So I ripped out the 4 inches or so and reknit. Lucky I decided to do the fronts separately or I'd have had two sides to rip.

I'll get a photo up soon. It's a lovely color and I'm enjoying the economical yarn that I'm using; Valley Yarns Northampton from WEBS.

On another note, I got my race confirmation sheet today for the half marathon. I'm number 27230. I wonder how many people are going to be there?

Madrona!

2010-11-16T13:30:00.000-08:00

Registration opened today for the 2011 Madrona Fiber Arts Festival. I wasn't home this morning, but was lucky to have a friend who wanted to go with me on Thursday and was able to register for both of us! I got into a spinning for lace class with Janel Laidman. I've taken some great spinning classes here at my local LYS but this will be the first class I've taken at a fiber event. I'm excited - it's always good to get perspective from different instructors.

The dates are February 17-20 this year and it's nice that it misses Valentine's Day. The event is held in Tacoma, WA, which is just 45 minutes or so south of where I live, so it's very doable in one day. Drive down in the morning, shop at the marketplace (always great) and then take a class and come home.

I can't wait.

Finished Socks

2010-11-15T15:57:00.000-08:00

I finished my "carry around" socks the other day, so that means I have to get another pair going. I like to have a plain project available to take with me for waiting rooms, etc. so that usually means plain stockinette socks. I'm wanting to do some patterned socks, too, so perhaps that will mean two pairs of socks will be started in the near future.

For now, here are my finished ones. This was my first pair of self-striping socks, and now I know why they're so popular. You can just knit and still come up with a cool pattern. And it's fun to watch the stripes form themselves without any help from the knitter. All good.

These are made in Vesper sock yarn from Knitterly Things. The colorway is Domino. I learned about this yarn by reading some reports from the last Spring Fling, which I did not attend, but which apparently was overrun with Vesper sock knitters. Never one to be left out, I bought some from a Ravelry destash, and then hit an update for this yarn. I love these socks and can't wait to knit another pair.

I just might have a Halloween colorway that was recently added to the stash, so I'll be in fine shape for next year!

I tried to save a yarn store yesterday...

2010-11-14T16:47:00.000-08:00

but I couldn't. Sadly, our community is losing a much-loved yarn and tea shop, Village Yarn and Tea. The shop survived for 6 years, which is quite an accomplishment in this day and age for a small business. I have a special place in my heart for the shop and the owners and employees, so it was very hard to hear the news.

Six years ago, I decided to learn to knit. I heard that a yarn shop would be opening in my neighborhood, so I was excited. I also knew two of the owners from elementary school PTA (our kids' school, not ours!). It wasn't up and running when I took my first knitting lesson, so I had to go across town to the snooty store. I learned the knit stitch and began working on my first scarf. It was a challenge, but I finally succeeded.

By the time I was ready to move on, "my" yarn shop was open. I learned how to purl from Christy, I also learned how to make my first garment from her, a cotton tank top. I learned how to make socks on circular needles from Ellen, learned how to magic loop from Victoria, learned how to use a drop spindle from Joni, and how to use my wheel from Barbara. Sadly, I never learned to crochet from Deb.

A couple of years after opening the shop, one of the partners, Deb, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. At that time, I approached Victoria and asked if there was any way I could help. She asked me, "Do you want to work?" and I said sure. So began my very part-time career as a yarn and tea seller, and many fun afternoons playing with yarn and meeting nice people. That lasted for several months until they had people who needed more hours, and my job came to an end.

In a few short years, this shop became a mainstay of the fiber community in this area. The owners organized a spring LYS tour and got many other yarn stores in western Washington involved. They hosted great events, knit nite, spinning nite, knit fashion shows, trunk shows; they brought in famous teachers such as Ruth Sorensen, Stephen West, and Sivia Harding. They showcased wonderful local yarns such as Yarn Pirate and Abstract Fibers. They were the first shop in the area to carry Handmaiden and Fleece Artist. They brought in Kauni and thepluckyknitter sock and laceweight yarns. They sold spinning wheels and featured hand-dyed rovings from local fiber artists. The shop was always cheerful and bright with lots of samples.

They also served tea. The teas were interesting and tasty. At the old shop, the customers enjoyed tea from their own china teapots and hot scones. After they moved to the new shop, the treats weren't homemade any more and the tea was in paper cups, but the atmosphere was still friendly and welcoming.

Sadly, money troubles got to be overwhelming. Selling yarn is a seasonal business and when the shop partnership got tied up in probate after Deb's death, it was hard to keep the cash flowing. Throughout everything, the employees were great, the stock was inviting, the shop was cozy.

I am sorry that I don't have unlimited funds to invest in this wonderful shop. My friends and I did investigate whether or not the shop could be saved in time to take advantage of holiday buying, and the answer was no. For us, at least, the problems outweighed the opportunity and we had to step back.

I hope with all my heart that someone else can revive this community asset. Someone with energy, expertise, money, and love for the business could work wonders. Sadly, that's not me and I'm sorry. I feel good that I gave it some thought, some hope, and investigated the challenge. I feel blessed to have been associated with this good place and these good people, and wish the best for each and every one of them in the future.

A Milestone

2010-11-13T09:24:00.000-08:00

I was just looking out my window at the grey sky and thinking about what I'd write today. I logged into Ravelry as I usually do in the morning, and there was my answer.

1,000,000 Ravelers!

If you've ever had to defend your knitting in public, if you've ever had to explain why you enjoy crochet or spinning, now you can refer to the fact that ONE MILLION people worldwide are members of this crafting community.

I joined Ravelry when it was still necessary to wait for an invitation. I was a little hesitant to do so since I didn't use other social networks (still don't) and wasn't sure of the benefit. Well, there hasn't been a day that I've regretted my decision. The sheer volume of resources available makes it worth it, even if you never post a comment or make a friend. Being able to research a pattern, a yarn, or read someone's notes on a project while sitting at home (even in pajamas!) is invaluable. Making friends, seeing what's new, getting advice or help or being able to find that one skein or partial skein that you need to finish a project can't be beat.

Ravelry is a part of my day. I don't know how many times I've learned something completely unrelated to knitting. I've joined groups that talk about audio books, Mac computers, and running. There are people from all walks of life here who have a common interest in fibery pursuits but who also are willing to share expertise in other areas.

No wonder when there's charity work to be done, money to be raised, or encouragement to be given, knitters step up. We're everywhere and involved in everything. Maybe now when the next major event is being organized (Sock Summit '11?) and the IT people are told to make accommodations for thousand of people to hit the servers at once, they'll listen.

Abstract Fiber!

2010-11-12T15:12:00.000-08:00

Last night I went to Spinning Night at my LYS and met Susan, the dyer extraordinaire behind Portland-based Abstract Fiber. You may have experienced this yarn or fiber at a fiber event, or heard about it if you listen to the Knitmore Girls podcast, and if so, you know how beautiful it is. I sat and chatted with her for awhile and she is friendly, knows a lot about fiber and yarn (of course!) and is passionate about her colors.

She arrived in town with a ton of beautifully dyed fibers and yarns, and will take them with her when she leaves at the end of the weekend, so I thought I might as well pick up a couple of things. Hey, I've been pretty good lately! I asked her if she did much semi-solid dying, since the fibers piled on the table in front of us were mostly variegated.

I have lots of variegated fiber in my stash and, though I love it, was interested in spinning some yarn that was less stripy and/or barber-poled when finished. She told me about a red that she had done and pointed me to a back table, where there were some more bags full of fibers.

Well, that was a problem. Not only did I find the wonderful red in Polwarth, I also found a beautiful midnight blue in Merino/Silk.

Then she pointed out the small skeins of Cashmere and Silk.

Then she told me about the sock yarn with the cashmere in it.

Then I found the regular sock yarn. Hey, Twin, if you're reading this, I think you have a member of your family who might like this color. It's called Rockstar.

When I came home, my spinning bag was heavier, my wallet was lighter, but I was delighted with my purchases. Now to get some of this stuff going. I have to learn to use it, not just look at it!

Veterans' Day

2010-11-11T14:08:00.000-08:00

Today we thank those who have served our country. We thank and honor our veterans and thank and wish a safe return to those currently serving. We appreciate you.

And a very happy birthday to UT!

Orchid

2010-11-10T17:00:00.000-08:00

I've been growing orchids for over twenty years and when I say growing, I mean that I buy them and if they die I throw them out and if they look like they'll survive, I keep them and encourage them to bloom again. I occasionally repot them, spray or fertilize, but mostly put them in a likely window and neglect them. They seem to like this treatment.

The type of orchids I grow are Phalaenopsis (moth orchid). I have been successful in getting these to survive and rebloom in most instances. Whenever I've tried another variety, it hasn't worked out very well. I can't keep the big Cattleyas alive and while Dendrobiums will survive and grow new branches, they never bloom again for me.

So I stick with what I know. Phalaenopsis orchids are the ones you see in the grocery stores, at Costco, and at Trader Joe's for $13.00. They've become so commonplace and so affordable that you really can buy one, enjoy the blooms (which usually last for months) and then throw it away and get another when the blossoms are done. Or you can do what I do and endure the look of the green, leggy leaves and various roots which grow up into the air until you're rewarded (possibly) with a spike and another show of flowers. When a spike starts to grow it's really exciting because you know you did something right. If the leaves get very limp and/or yellow, you know you did something wrong (most likely over watered) and you might as well give up and toss it.

I have two orchids blooming in my kitchen window right now and they've intertwined their blossoms. I managed to get a photo last night. I think they're beautiful and hope that this show will last for another few months.

The Squishiest Yarn Ever

2010-11-09T17:24:00.000-08:00

About three years ago, I received some fiber in a swap. I was only learning to use a drop spindle then, so it went onto the fiber shelf. Now that I have my wheel(s) going, I took out this fiber and put it onto my Ashford and decided to make some sock yarn. Well, I think it was on that wheel for the better part of a year, and I finally finished it. During the ensuing time, I learned that it was better to make sock yarn 3-ply and this was divided in half and going to be 2-ply, so I just finished it and decided to see what it would want to be when it was done.

The spinning was worsted style and seemed to be pretty fine. I plyed it a week or so ago and skeined it up. When I counted the wraps on my niddy noddy, it seemed like I had something like 700+ yards...out of 4.5 oz of fiber. I will double check that when I wind it into a ball, but there's a lot of yarn, nevertheless. It's Allspunup merino and the color is a mixture of blue, gray, and brown.

It's what happened when I washed it that amazed me. I've spun and washed yarn before, but it always came out looking pretty much like it did when it started. This yarn fluffed up a lot and when it dried became the squishiest, fluffiest yarn I've ever made. Considering that it was supposed to be smooth, tightly twisted sock yarn, it missed the mark by quite a bit. Not that I'm unhappy; it will probably be a shawl or maybe a scarf now. It's soft and warm and...did I mention squishy?

This spinning never ceases to amaze me.

Happy Birthday, Big Guy!

2010-11-08T09:11:00.000-08:00

It doesn't seem possible that another year has passed. If this year goes as you have planned, you'll graduate from college, move home for awhile, be accepted to graduate school, then be off to the big time. You've grown up a lot over the past four years, and we're so proud of you. You've done very well in college, especially when you got to the classes that interested you!

You were the little kid who wouldn't do his homework, you were the guy who thought he'd draw comics for a living and didn't need college, and now you're going to be the kid with the Master's degree. I can't tell you how happy I am to be reading your application essay and seeing how knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and excited you are about your chosen career path.

We love you and wish you the best that life has to offer. Happy 23rd birthday, Scott.

You may look like a mountain man, but you're still my baby!

What I've Been Up To

2010-11-07T19:00:00.000-08:00

I've had a project going for many months now and since it's about to come to the time where I put my money where my mouth is, I've decided to announce it here (to my 2 loyal readers!)

One month from today, Sunday December 5th, the Princess and I will run the Las Vegas Rock 'n Roll half marathon. Yes, I said half marathon, as in 13.1 miles. No, I am not a runner. In fact, before I started training for this, the last time I actually jogged, my age began with a 2. And that was a long time ago, specifically, about 30 years ago.

Backtracking a bit, I actually began my quest to get into better shape last January. I was at our place in Palm Desert and it was raining. What else did I have to do in the rain than eat and knit? So that's what I did. When I got home, I was so disgusted with my weight, I started on a South Beach-type diet, began working out more with my Wii (lots of fun and actually a good workout, if you use the right programs and are diligent about it). I started losing weight slowly. All was good.

Then last summer, the Princess told me that she had signed up for the Rock 'n Roll half marathon. Her friend had done the Seattle half, and wanted to go to Vegas and do it again. I thought that that would be a good goal for me, too, so I looked up training programs and slowly started jogging. The friend later backed out, so now it's just the Princess and me.

Anyway, I took the 12 week training program and added a bunch of weeks to it. Of course, I had to buy all the running gear. And of course first my knee started hurting. Then my foot started hurting. I went to the doctor, I went to physical therapy, I went to the Podiatrist. I do exercises, I ordered orthotics, I stretch and do yoga. And as of today, a month shy of the race, I went 7.2 miles, right on schedule. My knee hurt a good part of the way, my time is quite slow, but in general I'm very proud of myself. I know that I can do the 1/2 marathon, finish in probably 3 hours, and live to jog another day. I've lost about 19 pounds since last January, I have more energy, I feel better, and I know that I'm going to accomplish this goal that I set for myself. At the ripe old age of 57, I think that's pretty good.

Wish me luck.

My Day

2010-11-06T21:32:00.000-07:00

This was a fun day. Our Collegeboy is preparing to graduate from Central Washington University at the end of fall quarter and he has a job filming some of their football games for a local tv station. So today DH and I decided to drive to Ellensburg to see him and see the game. Those of you who have been faithful readers of my blog (hi, Dear!) may remember that I documented a road trip to this same destination about two years ago. Ellensburg is a nice little college town on the dry side of the state.

We had a nice drive over this morning. I got a couple of squares done on my sock yarn blanket on the ride over.

We got to the stadium and found seats. It was really fun - a low tech stadium out in the middle of a field. The stands are close enough to the field that you can hear the smack and crunch of the players running into each other (that wasn't my favorite part.) The weather was cool but dry, the sun came out for awhile and it was really nice being there. Our team won big and that was nice, too. A few of the elements I liked:

My boy taking pictures:

The scenery just beyond the field:

The cheerleaders making a pyramid:

The boys with the flags running around after each touchdown:

The band:

Being warm because I was covered in knitted garments. Here's what I was knitting and how I kept warm doing it:

The cute mascot:

The beautiful fall colors.

No photos of it but a great dinner with our boy and his roommate. It's always a crack up to spend time with these guys.

The drive home wasn't so much fun. Pouring rain + darkness + mountain pass = nervous passenger. I'm glad to be home but I'm so glad we went.

Traveling Woman

2010-11-05T19:17:00.000-07:00

Another shawl I completed recently is the Traveling Woman (ravelry link.) I wanted to make a gift for my cousin and thought this would be a good choice. I used Wollmeise 100% superwash wool in the Rubin (WD) colorway and I think it came out very well. After having to cast on a couple of times to get going correctly, I really didn't have any trouble with this project. (I know, what a surprise!)

My cousins live in Las Vegas where the Princess is in college, and they have helped out when she needed something, had her over for dinners, provided a place to stay when I come to town, etc. The Princess had some health problems a couple of weeks ago and they again stepped up to drive her to an appointment and care for her, so I wanted to do something special.

She's doing well now; I ended up going there and spending a bunch of time with her, but all is going well at the moment.

So back to the shawl: I worked on it on the plane, while I was staying with the Princess, during the week I was there waiting for her follow up appointment, and on the way back. I finished it shortly after I got home.

Here it is: I made four repeats of chart A and could have done another without running out of yarn, but I thought it was big enough. It blocked out nicely and I hope it will be a pleasure to wear. I might have to make another one for me.

Knitting!

2010-11-04T21:46:00.000-07:00

Looking back, the last knitting I documented here were my state fair entries. Speaking of which, today I got a check in the mail for $38 as premiums (which I guess means prize winnings) for all of those blue ribbons I won. Boy, if I'd known you could earn that much money for knitting, I'd have started entering fairs a long time ago! Although if you translate that into dollars (or cents) per hour, most people would be better off keeping the day job.

Moving right along, the next project I finished was Annis, a slender, lacy shawl. I made this out of a skein of beautiful blue cashmere that I had purchased at Madrona Fiber Arts about three years ago. It came out nicely, although I don't know how I'll use it - maybe as a scarf, it's so soft - since it's so light and narrow and kind of dressy that I won't have much call to use it as a shawl, probably. I put beads on it instead of doing the nupps.

All was not smooth with the construction of this shawl, however. Partway through, I realized that I didn't have the right number of stitches or repeats, or something (the details have thankfully melted into the haze of memory) and so I ripped the whole thing out and started over. I've found that gauzy, lacy knitting isn't that easy to fix, even if you have a lifeline, which I didn't, so rip I did. The second trip through the pattern went more smoothly and victory was mine.

I do mess up my knitting a lot and even though it teaches me something each time I fix it, I just wish that once in awhile I didn't have to. Is that too much to ask?

The Garden!

2010-11-03T16:13:00.000-07:00

Knittinggarden has totally neglected the gardening part of the blog for ages, due to the fact that the writer has totally neglected the garden in favor of knitting. Also, we had no summer here in Seattle so our growing season was a little pathetic. We recently had record rainfall and wind, so some of the beautiful fall color is on the ground, but today must be close to 70F and after a lovely bike ride, I decided to document a little of the colors around the yard. One year I was obsessed with the fall colors, and filled up a few blog entries with them, but not for awhile.

So, here are a few of the trees that I think are pretty this year, photographed in the shadows of late afternoon. Enjoy!

The Tale of the Never-ending Blanket

2010-11-02T15:06:00.000-07:00

The photo I showed yesterday was, obviously, a blanket. The blanket turned out to be my nemesis for most of the year. (Actually it was more than a year as evidenced by the original email regarding the need for blankets which I received in June, 2009.) But I digress.....

My friend volunteers at a local hospice and gives beanie babies and other small stuffed animals to the residents and their families. Since the Princess and I amassed a sizable beanie baby collection some years ago, I've donated lots of them to this worthy cause. (Having never achieved my dream of making my fortune in the Beanie Baby trade, I was happy to part with them.) In June of last year, the hospice administration put out a call for lap blankets for the residents. Emails were forwarded to likely folks, and I decided to make some blankets. They needed to be 48"x48", which turned out to be bigger than I thought it was!

Anyway, true to form, I began to amass washable yarn, since they wanted easy care. Those of you who know me well will recognize my modus operandi here...why just get one ball of yarn (or candle or bump of fiber or book) when you might need a lot more? That's why I have tubs full of wool yarn collected from all over that I use when I knit for afghans for Afghans. That's why I now have a tub full of acrylic yarn from which I planned to make blankets.

I started the blanket and made it as simple as can be. A dishcloth blanket, garter stitch, increase until you get to the middle, then decrease back down to the end. I figured it would be done in no time. But this blanket wasn't fun to knit, I kept running out of yarn, it still wasn't fun to knit as it got bigger and bigger. I would put it down for months, forcing myself back to it when I thought of the poor folks waiting for blankets.

I got serious and managed to finish the thing a couple of days ago. Of course, I messed up the end and had to rip out my last few rows, but they were short by now, so it was okay. I washed the blanket and gave it to my friend yesterday. She was happy and appreciative and all is well.

Except I want to make more blankets for them. But I don't want to take a year to do it. I need to learn to crochet.

NaBloPoMo Take Two

2010-11-01T11:04:00.000-07:00

It's November 1st and November is the month to post a blog entry every day. Lots of people do so during other months and some do so years at a time, but I'm not one of those people. I participated once two years ago, enjoyed it, and promptly went back to my habit of hardly posting. Luckily that's been going on again lately, so I have lots of knitting and spinning projects I can babble on about.

If you're interested in participating, you can do so on your own, or enter your blog into the blogroll. Last time I did that I won a prize, which was a gift card to Amazon.com, and that was a nice surprise.

Anyway, writing every day is a good exercise for the mind and good practice in the art of following through, which I can indeed use.

Here's a project I finished last night. I'll tell you about it tomorrow.

Got Scones?

2010-08-28T20:25:00.000-07:00

I do!

And also some ribbons......

Today was the day I was at the Evergreen State Fair all day demonstrating knitting and spinning. It was loads of fun, even if my bottom is a bit sore ( you were right about the cushion, DH!) from sitting on bare folding chairs all day. But, the most exciting news follows.

You might remember that last year I entered two knitted items into the fair for the first time. I got a blue ribbon for my socks and a white ribbon for my sweater, and tons of good information from the judging sheets. This year I entered six items; three into spinning and three into knitting. These were the items:

Farmer's Market Cardigan:

Norwegian Rose socks:

Handspun color-progression socks:

Handspun Ishbel:

A skein of handspun, Juliespins BFL/Silk "Stained Glass":

Heart-to-Heart Beaded Scarf:

Here are the results:

Farmer's Market: Blue ribbon and Merit award

Norwegian Rose: Blue ribbon

Handspun socks: Blue ribbon

Handspun Ishbel: Blue ribbon

Skein of handspun: Blue ribbon and honorable mention award

Heart-to-heart scarf: Blue ribbon, merit award, and presentation award

I am totally excited.

Waiting for Mom

2010-08-20T15:54:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how long it's been since I updated the blog. It's not that there hasn't been anything to write about; I've written umpteen posts in my head. They just somehow never got any farther.

So to get my mojo going, just a photo. This is where I've spent lots of time over the past few summers (not so much this year in the great rainy/foggy/cool "summer" of '10). Buddy likes to snuggle up with me while I knit and listen to books or podcasts. It looks like he's waiting for me now, so I'll be back later.

Happy Fourth!

2010-07-04T11:22:00.000-07:00

Happy Fourth of ~~October~~ July! I suppose if you're somewhere else in the country, it feels like summer, but here in the lovely Pacific Northwest, it was 55 degrees F this morning when I went to the store. Don't worry, it's supposed to warm up all the way to 63 or something this afternoon. Hit the pool!

I've been madly trying to finish up my Farmer's Market Cardigan, which I put away in March, because it's been so darn cold I knew I could wear it. I finished it yesterday (July 3rd) and I still can wear it today! In fact, I'll wear it when I go to the Farmer's Market down the street after I finish this. How's that for a positive attitude about a crappy summer?

Here it is: I used Madelinetosh Worsted (now called DK) in the Norway Spruce colorway. I bought this yarn last summer at the Sock Summit. I used US 7 and 8 needles. I had an awful time figuring out the trim increase section, but it just goes to show you that perseverance pays off! Here it is (photos courtesy of DH) on our front porch in our cloudy weather.

I hope wherever you are, and whatever your weather, that you have a fun and safe Independence Day.

One Down, Two to Go

2010-06-16T10:56:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, under unusual-for-this-year sunny skies, our first child graduated from college. The Key Arena at Seattle Center was full of faculty, graduating students, and proud friends and families. It was Seattle University's 91st graduating class.

We knew where to look for our boy, and spotted him in the entering crowd.

There were, of course, speeches and congratulations and then the hundreds of graduates made their way to the front to receive their diplomas. Our boy was towards the end of the first half.

Then we waited....and waited....and waited.....for it to end. Good thing it was a small university!

Diploma in hand, T joined us outside by the fountain for some photos.

We went out later that evening for a small celebratory dinner with family. The note on the menu says it all:

Congratulations, big guy! We love you and are so proud of you. You made it through with your usual grace and style, successfully and smoothly. A whole big world awaits you and I know you'll make the most of it.

And for those of you wondering, this is what I did during those three hours:

Is One Enough? Three Too Many?

2010-06-07T11:11:00.000-07:00

When it comes to spinning wheels, that its.

Thanks to the preference of my spinning teacher, I have been on the lookout for a double treadle wheel since I decided to take the plunge and get a wheel. You might remember that during my search, I brought home a single treadle Ashford Traditional and Lendrum, both discovered on craigslist for good prices. I was spinning merrily along when I checked the list again. I hadn't been following the sales for quite some time, since I already had plenty of wheels. Of course, there was a Lendrum DT listed for sale.

After thinking about it (and pretty much talking myself out of it) DH said "That was your plan all along, wasn't it? Get the double treadle and sell your single?" Right! That was the plan. I went off to the computer to email the seller and, to make a long story short, now have three wheels.

The ever-helpful DH also made sure I wouldn't have trouble using my new wheel. Isn't that sweet?

I'd been working on spinning some merino-tencel that I want to use for socks. I took a sock-spinning class and came home with some fiber that was shaded from dark to light. I split it into 6 bundles and spun singles with the same color progression. Then I made a 3-ply yarn, which is between fingering and sport weight, I think. One skein came out larger than the other, so I think I'll knit from the smaller one first, then try to adjust the colors on the larger one to match. We'll see how that works. Here's the yarn. I think it looks pretty good.

In knitting news, I put aside the laceweight cardigan I had started (Geodesic in Wollmeise Merlot)

to continue the Farmer's Market Cardigan I began in January. I had put it away in March, I think, because I figured the weather would warm up and I'd need the lighter weight sweater more. Well, I was wrong....it's been cold and rainy here, so I got out the heavier sweater and have been working my way through it.

The body and sleeves are knit, now I need to start the pockets and collar. It looks a little confusing, so while I was getting ready to tackle that, I started this:

It's Citron and I'm using some laceweight Malabrigo that I got with a lace club I joined last year. The pattern that came with it was for a moebius type wrap that didn't appeal to me, and I thought it was very citrus-y looking, so perfect for this pattern. It's moving along quickly and the yarn feels wonderful.

I also finished the socks I've been working on. They're for my friend and massage therapist, Anne. Usually it's too warm for wool socks in June, but I have a feeling she might be able to still wear them. Unfortunately!

These are Swirls made out of Koigu KPPPM. I made these before and find the pattern easy to memorize and fun to knit. And of course the yarn is so great to use.

Now on to a little housework while praying for sunshine!

Here and There and Back Again

2010-05-22T15:26:00.000-07:00

In the last few weeks, I have been traveling a bit. No exotic countries, but when the travel involves seeing my kids and spending a week at the spa, it's totally worthwhile.

This travel ran the gamut from huge and glitzy to beautiful and peaceful to small and homey. A few photos will illustrate.

I started in Las Vegas, the home of huge and glitzy,

where I went to help the Princess finish up her move into a house where she will spend at least the next year while she continues her studies at UNLV. It's a cute four-bedroom house that she will share with three other girls. Four bedrooms, three bathrooms, washer-dryer, two-car garage, etc. etc. Reminding her that while in college I shared a two bedroom, one bathroom apartment with three other girls did nothing to make her feel spoiled. Kids these days! Although, to be fair, the rent on this house is very reasonable, given the current economic conditions.

So things were purchased, moved, unpacked and set up. My sister and I left the Princess in pretty good shape and started on the next leg of our vacation. Note: the Princess left shortly after we did, but instead of driving to Utah, she flew to New York with one of her roommates, then left for Israel a few days later. She's having a great time and I can't wait to see her photos and hear all of the stories.

Meanwhile, back to the adventure at hand. My sister and I drove to St. George, UT to Green Valley Spa. We've been there before; hopefully, we'll get to go there again. Ten thousand roses,

amazing and scenic hikes,

wonderful spa treatments, healthy food, and great exercise classes. I totally loved the cardio boxing! Lovely accommodations round out the experience. We were spoiled there.

I returned home and a few days later drove to Ellensburg, which is two hours from home here in Seattle. The two hours involve a mountain pass, however, so it's not always as easy to get there as it sounds. It being the middle of May, I expected warm weather and sunny skies, but they were nowhere to be found. It's been quite cold here and it was just as cold there. In fact, I experienced rain, wet snow, wind, sunshine, and lots of big trucks and road construction. This is the land of small and homey, a cute little college town in Eastern Washington. If you want to see some photos, you can refer back to this post. (And it doesn't hurt that it just happens to have a nice yarn store!)

Collegeboy was presenting a paper at a research symposium at his university and had invited me to attend. I was delighted to have been asked to come and enjoyed his presentation and the chance to spend some time with him. He is studying film, and presented a paper on the role of religion in the horror film genre, which was well researched and presented. I met three of his professors, who all told me how bright he is and how much they enjoy having him in class. I was very proud. It is evident in the photo that he's been too busy to shave or get a haircut lately, but I think he looks kind of cute as a mountain man.

Now I'll be home for awhile. Although I expected to get a lot of knitting done on my eleven days away from home, as usual I overestimated how much I would do. I will have some socks done shortly, and I'm making progress on my laceweight cardigan, but that's proving to be a long project. And Buddy is waiting for his walk......

I Can't Stand It Anymore

2010-04-26T15:54:00.000-07:00

Those who know me accept the fact that I am an English major at heart, if not in real life. I can spot a typo at 50 paces and a misplaced apostrophe at 100. I have much more respect for writers (even bloggers and people who post in forums on the net) if they use apostrophes correctly and spell accurately. In reading one of my favorite knitting blogs just now, I was disappointed in the author (who I enjoy and generally think does a great job of keeping her grammar and spelling top notch) when she made the mistake that I seem to notice constantly lately. (No, family, it's not putting "at" at the end of a sentence, but that annoys me, too.)

Lose vs. loose. What is so hard about this? Loose is when your pants are too big and fall down. Lose is what you've done when you can't find your car keys. You don't loose weight, you lose it (if you're lucky.) The sweater you knit is not too lose, it's too loose (assuming it's size is too large for you.) And make sure you have the right number of "o"s in too, also!

There. I feel better now. You eagle eyes may leave comments correcting any grammar or spelling necessary in this post.

The Whole House Smells Good!

2010-04-25T15:55:00.000-07:00

I love it when the lilacs bloom!

Socks, Classes, and a Visitor

2010-03-26T12:35:00.000-07:00

Happy Spring a few days late. We're having typical Seattle spring weather; a beautiful sunny day followed by cold and rainy. Makes it difficult to plan - have to live in the moment. Hmmm, where have I heard that before?

Anyway, I finished two pairs of socks this week. One is a pair that had been on the needles so long, I don't even know when I started it. It was my travelling sock; plain stockinette and brought along to doctor's appointments, concerts, graduations, etc. Since I can't knit without looking, it didn't grow as fast as it could have. But the second sock is finally finished and I know I started them a long time ago, since I now make my cuffs longer. I'm thinking this might be another afghans for Afghans donation. I like the colors a lot, but they're a little snug and short and might be great for a teenager.

The second pair I finished is my "brainless" socks. This Yarnissima pattern looked great to me and after I frogged a Clapotis in my Wollmeise Guide to Galaxy yarn, decided it would be nice in this pattern. Somehow I managed to finish the first sock without incident, but the second one was a nightmare. I couldn't get the right array of stitches after the heel turn; the directions made no sense to me. After numerous attempts, I did the best I could and got it finished. I think they look nice, but I for one will not be knitting this pattern again.

Last weekend I had a couple of great knitting classes at my LYS. Last Saturday, Stephen West was in the shop and he taught two classes as well as showed off many of his lovely knitted items. He was a lot of fun (so young!) and is really talented. I had to come home and choose some yarn and start his Akimbo shawl. It's proving to be a lot of fun. I'm planning to make the border in another complementary, variegated yarn. If I don't like how that looks, I'll stick with this one. It's Wollmeise and the colorway is a We're Different Vroni. Very rich and beautiful.

A fellow class member took some photos, which you can find here. If you look through them all, you might see a photo of me in there.

Sunday I had a spinning class. We learned how to spin good sock yarn, which is something I wanted to improve on. We practiced different drafting techniques, then came away with top to use to spin for our own socks. I got some that has subtle color changes and hope to spin it in a way that will result in gentle color progression down the sock. We'll see how that goes!

And last, a photo of an unusual visitor to our yard today. As I looked out the window from my desk, I saw this girl walking down our driveway, headed to our woodsy area. I think she's a female ring-necked pheasant. Very cool to see.

Finished

2010-02-20T09:09:00.000-08:00

My little socks and hat have been done for some time, and mailed off to their little recipient. He and his mom, however, are out of town so they won't actually be tried on by the baby yet. I think they came out pretty well and Blueberry liked them, too.

In other knitting news, I made two pairs of mittens for the current campaign for afghans for Afghans and have them packaged up with two pairs of wool socks for mailing today. I sent pairs of socks that I don't wear for various reasons and they should fit a young teenager just fine.

For Ravelympics this year, after agonizing (it's so important, you know!) I decided to work on my sock yarn blankie and see how many new squares I could finish during the two weeks. I started out strong, but only knit on it at night during the horrible prime time NBC coverage, so haven't completed as many as I hoped, but will continue. I do love seeing all the colors come together. Here's a sample of some of them.

Happy Saturday everyone! I'm off to a yoga workshop then hopefully will have a couple of hours to enjoy the sunshine before returning for the afternoon session.

Knitting Confidence

2010-02-11T13:32:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had tea with a friend who dabbled with knitting a couple of years ago but hasn't succumbed to the obsession (yet!) When I asked about the scarf that she had started lo those many months ago, she confessed that she had messed it up somehow, didn't know how to fix it, and just put it away. We agreed that perhaps the next time we get together she could bring it and I could help get her back on track. I also told her my standard line of "it takes me so long to make anything because I have to start over so much/fix so many mistakes/rip out, etc."

I firmly believe the philosophy that I've read and heard so many times in knitting that being a good knitter isn't always doing everything right, it's knowing how to fix the things that go wrong. I remember the first time I took a project knitting class and how amazed I was when the teacher could see right away why I had the wrong number of stitches on the needles and could quickly "unknit" the offenders and get me back on the right track. I was convinced that I'd never be able to do that. Thankfully, I was wrong. Now I do it all the time.

I'm trying to quickly finish up a pair of newborn socks and last night in my zeal to complete them, started decreasing every row on the gussets instead of every other row. Now these socks are tiny, will have contrasting toes and heels, and are being done two at a time on magic loop. I don't know that I've ever successfully completed socks using this method, so I'm referring to the book a lot. Anyway, when I discovered this last error, I knew I'd have to remove them from the needles (size 2) and rip both socks back to the first decrease, put them back on, and continue. The first thing I did (I've learned many a lesson while trying to fix mistakes) was to notice which way the needles and socks were facing and put in a marker so I could get them back on the needles the same way. Then I jumped in and removed both tiny socks from the skinny needles and commenced ripping. I carefully pulled the yarn so as not to go too far, then had to count stitches and fit the little needles back into the little loops without losing any. Now I don't worry about getting the stitches back onto the needles the right way, because I know how to straighten them out while knitting the next row!

The operation was a success and I was able to carry on. The socks will be done today and ready for sending to the new little Running Rebel in Las Vegas, along with a hat. I guess I've learned more than I realized in the last few years of knitting.

Now to get back to the mittens which will need to be striped because I didn't make sure I had enough yarn in the color I started with. Always something!

The socks in progress. Finished photos soon.

Here and There

2010-02-03T15:50:00.000-08:00

Well, as usual, my plan to update more regularly didn't work out, but I do have pictures! so here's a little more catching up.

DH and I took a quick trip to Palm Desert for a little sun. That worked for the first few days, until he left. Then I stayed on in that January storm that flooded most of the southwest. Oh well, I had movies and I had knitting. What else do you need except maybe a little chocolate?

The roadrunner came to visit.

We picked lots of ripe grapefruit and lemons. The lemonade was great, and I may have made myself a lemon meringue pie (okay, it was half a pie and I did eat it all myself.)

The first knitted objects of 2010 were completed and loved posing with the lemons.

These are Maine Morning Mitts made out of the first wheel-spun yarn that I made. I love them. They're a little longer than the pattern calls for and that makes for warm wrists.

Collegeboy called and asked for a scarf (!) so Mom sprang into action. This time I managed to find the yarn store and got him the requested blue tweed yarn. This was a wool handspun that was really soft. I just did a 1x1 rib and finished with no trouble.

I also had an idea for a scarf for the Princess, so I brought along the Running Rebel-colored yarn that I had purchased for this project. The scarf was also ribbed, but I made the first and last 25% striped and the middle black. I used Louet Gems sportweight doubled for this.

In the middle of all this knitting, the weather changed. The view out of the bedroom looked like this:

The grassy lawn behind the pool looked like this:

The scenery looked like this:

It was not how it was supposed to be! Of course, the sun returned on the day I had to leave, bringing scenery that also is unusual. These mountains are usually brown. The new snow on them was beautiful to behold.

Tomorrow we're off to Vegas to visit the Princess. It's supposed to be cloudy/rainy there, too. Maybe we should just stay home.....I see a little bit of sun right now here in Seattle.

Catch you next time!

More Details about the Spinning

2010-01-03T12:17:00.000-08:00

I'd like to keep a record of how my spinning progresses, so I'm going to put in a little more info about the knitting I've done with my handspun. I documented the first project, the One Row Handspun Scarf, and now I'll show photos of fiber to finished product for the other two items I've made.

The second finished object I accomplished was the socks. These were made from the Interlacements wool roving I got in the gift box of practice fiber from Goatlady. I spun half of it into thick/thin yarn (that's so soft!) but haven't used it for anything but a swatch yet. I think it might turn into some fingerless mitts.

Anyway, I spun the balance of it to continue practicing, and managed to achieve a sportweight two-ply yarn. As I mentioned yesterday, the colors were not maintained in any kind of order; I just grabbed handfuls of fiber and thinned them down so I could spin easier. The resulting yarn was quite mixed up, but very colorful!

I knit a basic, toe-up sock so I could more easily use up all the yarn, but I had plenty. There's more than enough left to make a square or two for my sock yarn blankie! Here are the socks again:

The project I just finished was spun some time ago. I got a braid of Targhee roving soon after I took my first spindle class in October of 2008. This sat until after I got my Ashford wheel and worked up my courage to try to spin nice roving. (By the way, I recommend using the "nice" roving. It's more fun and you'll pretty much always get something you can use.) So after my successful initial effort with the Interlacements wool, I got going on the Targhee. It still came out quite thick and thin and pretty bulky, but it wasn't bad. Here's how it looked during the spinning:

Here's the finished yarn:

And here's the finished product (again). You'll notice the difference in striping between the two as again, it was just grab a hunk, divide, and spin.

My task in spinning this year will be to try to work with the colors so I can get them where I want them; i.e., progression, striping, etc. I think I'll take a Spinning for Socks class at my local LYS which promises to help with that.

Happy New Year and Return to Knitting!

2010-01-02T16:47:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that the last time this blog had any significant knitting content, the calendar read August! Let's see, the reason I started a blog in the first place was to document my knitting. We seem to have strayed pretty far from documenting anything, let alone knitting, in the last year. I guess we'll just have to remedy that, starting right now. I will blame Ravelry for my lack of blogging, since I do spend a bit of time there each day, and my projects are quite a bit more up to date there than they are here. I'm just going to list the items briefly here; you can check out the information on my Ravelry projects page (if you're on Ravelry) if you want to know more.

Sweaters first: I made DH a vest per his request and had yarn left, so I decided that a matching sweater for Buddy was in order. Aren't they cute?

The next sweater I made was for niece Chelsye's expected baby girl. We won't know how well it fits a real baby until March, but Teddy seemed to like it.

Socks next:

I finally finished the Little Square Socks out of Casbah, but I don't really like them. The yarn is great, but I'll have to try another pattern with the next skein.

Then I made DH some more bed socks, per his request. These are Cascade 220 superwash so are extra warm. They were very quick to make and were started and finished on our cruise.

I made some plain ribbed socks for Mom out of some sport weight Zen String yarn and they came out very nicely.

I made the Sock Knitter's Anonymous September Mystery Socks and they were fun. They were designed by Nancy Bush, and I used a yummy merino/silk blend yarn. They were supposed to be yellow!

These are the socks I love the most. They're just a plain stockinette toe-up pattern, but are made from my own handspun yarn. I spun the rest of the braid of colorful wool that I received as practice fiber, and this yarn came out to be about sportweight, so I decided to make socks. I just grabbed random handfuls of fiber, so the colors aren't in the same order, but I really love them. They're so cozy and fun.

On to scarves: This is a Scrunchable scarf made from Knit Picks Merino style that I made for my friend, Anne. I need one of these, I think. They feel great.

Another Scrunchable Scarf made out of Knit Picks Merino Style that I sent to the Red Scarf Project. I managed to send three scarves this year, two new and one that I had made a couple of years ago but never used.

The second new Red Scarf. This was made from Knit Picks Swish DK. Same pattern.

This is the Noro Striped Scarf that I worked on for most of the year, off and on. I ended up loving it so much that I kept it for myself.

This is the only shawl I've finished lately. I got this done right before our cruise, so I could take it with us. It's Sivia Harding's Diamond Fantasy shawl made out of Malabrigo sock. It's artistically posed on our balcony on the ship.

A couple more gifts: A Classic Watch Cap with cable section for my brother-in-law. I like this hat a lot. It's made with Knit Picks Wool of the Andes.

These are hand warmers I made for my sister. I used some handspun (I think this was the second fiber I spun on my wheel.) It's Targhee and quite thick and thin, but they're warm and toasty.

I think that gets me caught up in time to start a new year of knitting. So many things in progress, so many in my brain waiting to be cast on.....never a dull moment!

I wish health and happiness in the new year to you all and hope that you never run out of inspiration for whatever it is you like to do.

A Holiday Adventure

2009-12-24T16:23:00.000-08:00

Knitting and gardening have temporarily been interrupted to bring you this holiday adventure tale, courtesy of DH and the intrepid Buddy. Hope you enjoy it!

ICE GATOR!

Ice Gator relaxing on the bench

Ice Gator hears some noise and heads to the frozen pool to hide

Ice Gator does his Apollo Ohno interpretation - Go for the Gold, Ice Gator!

While relaxing after skating, he hears the approach of an Alaskan beauty...hmmm

She doesn't notice Ice Gator

Careful now, just a little closer....

Ice Gator goes Ninja. Careful, Alaskan beauty! Look out!

Ice Gator makes his move! Gotcha!

I'll stash her for lunch later.

Back to my hideout across the frozen pool.

Slow going, but I'll make it. Wait! Is that Buddy the Wonder Dog?

It IS Buddy the Wonder Dog. Can I keep the frozen girl away from him?

Oh, no! Buddy sees the Alaskan beauty's predicament and readies himself for battle.

The Alaskan beauty is saved by Buddy the Wonder Dog. CHEERS!

It's all in a day's work for our hero, Buddy

A Matched Set

2009-12-21T09:36:00.000-08:00

There just might be a few collections around my house. Candles, martini glasses, menorahs, baskets, yarn, and fiber all seem to have plenty of company around here. One of the other cupboards that is crowded is the mug shelf in the kitchen. For years, we've collected coffee mugs from places we've been, and I enjoy the conversation that ensues when I use a selection of these for coffee at a dinner party.

Ever since the Princess started college last fall, my desire was to get the last college mug so I could complete the set of the kids' schools. For Chanukah, she brought me my coveted mug.

Behold the story of our kids' higher education, as told through the mug collection.

I love it.

Challah for the Choliday

2009-12-17T15:32:00.000-08:00

Lucky us! The Princess learned how to make homemade Challah a couple of weeks ago and treated us to a loaf or four when she came home.

She and friend Ben were whirlwinds in the kitchen to a spectacular result. We had the first loaf for dinner the first night of Chanukah, Ben took a loaf home to his family, and two more are in the freezer for our family last night of Chanukah dinner tomorrow.

Here's a little photo journal of the Challah experience.

Happy Holidays to you!

Vacay(s)!

2009-11-21T12:53:00.000-08:00

Since my whole post just disappeared, I'll try again! My absence from the blog hasn't totally been out of laziness, but vacations! In mid-October, DH and I flew to Florida, where we embarked on a week-long Caribbean cruise. We left from Fort Lauderdale, stopped at Half Moon Cay, Grand Turk, Grand Cayman, and Costa Maya. Without writing a whole travelogue, I'll hit the highlights with some photos. Hopefully they will stay put this time!

The ship was big:

Are we having fun yet?

Knitting was done

On Grand Cayman, we went snorkeling from a 78 foot catamaran. It was fun; the water was crystal clear and there were lots of colorful fish to see.On the way back, we stopped at a beach where rum punch was served by crew members in inner tubes! It doesn't get much more convenient than that!

We had a couple of formal nights. No photo of the Malabrigo shawl being worn, but here's a shot of it on our balcony. The cream colored Mystery Shawl was worn a couple of times. It's so cozy!

This chef enjoys his food...and it was good!

We had an "exciting" bus ride on Grand Cayman but ended up at a lovely beach restaurant for lunch, then visited a turtle farm. It was great.

Costa Maya was so interesting - we went on a visit to the ruins at Kohunlich, which was a 2+ hour bus ride (Mexican bus) from the harbor. It was worth it to see these thousand-year old ruins, though. A very educational (and hot) day.

When we arrived back in Florida, we left on a short driving trip through part of the south that we'd never visited before. Next post will cover that - I'm through fighting with blogger for today!