Knittinggarden

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. ...

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? ...

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, unpac...

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....

I love it when the lilacs bloom!

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 afte...

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. ...

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" t...

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 act...

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 bas...