Knittinggarden

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.

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

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.

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.

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 b...

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 ...

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.  Thi...

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 w...

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...

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 t...