Cabaret Red

Hello all, blog much?
Life has been good, but incredibly busy. Now that the lacrosse season has started, esp. now with the game season starting (practice has already started in mid-March), I'm a busy bee. The game,lacrosse, is very different from what I'm used to. When I was in high school, it was just the basics, football, basketball and baseball. But M2 wanted to play, so what are we to do, but to enroll him in it. He loves it and although I don't understand what is happening in the game, I do get to sit and work on socks, so it's not all bad.

Something I had managed to start up and not blog about at all is the Cabaret Raglan Pullover from IK Summer '04. I think it was last year I went through some of my knitting magazines and pattern books and determined I could use my oh-so-fabulous designer yarn, Lion Brand Cotton-Ease in Cherry Red for this project. I found another blogger who'd done the same and so far, I'm just loving it. I had some free time in a training class two weeks ago and cast on for it and the knitting just flew. I finished the chart yesterday and wanted to shoot myself, but it was only 40 rows and then the chart crap was over and I'm quite pleased with the front of the sweater.

The charted top for the yoke is what really makes this sweater for me and it wasn't so difficult that I couldn't do it, but it had enough interest that I wanted to knit it and it was a bit different from the loads of stockinette knitting that I usually do. This pattern was designed by Norah Gaughan. She has many patterns that I love to look at, but this is the first that I've knitted by her. I think I will really like it, except for the lack of waist shaping, but I did choose to not incorporate it into the sweater, so that would be my fault. I was also curious to see how it would look without shaping as all my other sweaters have always had some form of shaping.




So far, I have both the fronts knitted and now I need to get started on the sleeves. Sleeve Island, here I come!

My mom came out to visit last weekend for Easter, so I was pretty busy. It was great having my mom here, she hadn't been to Denver to visit me since '02, although in '03 I moved to TX and in '04 moved back here and I've seen here plenty, just not on my own home turf. And she'd not even seen my new place, so I was quite thrilled to show that off too. We hit the road shopping at the outlet mall the first day she got in and then rested after that! So funny. My mom has recently relocated to Atlanta to be near the grandbaby and she had loads of funny stories to share about being nearer to my sister. I loved it. And while I love my family, I can't be right next door to them. I need that distance. ;-) And because my sister sent me some new pics of the nephew, here's a cutie pic of him just because.


Later all.

Two Socks Do Not a Pair Make

Hmm, these were the two socks that I finished. Right after I finished one of the Opal Lollipop socks, I cast on with some of the forthcoming yarn I received from the wonderful Carola earlier this past summer after ogling her socks so much, she kindly passed on her leftovers to me. Although I'm usually not a fan of short socks for myself, I wasn't sure of the yardage, so I made them short and they are house socks for me. Well they will be when they get done. Right now, 1/2 of that duo is done.

But since some people seem to think with all my knitting projects ADD that I'm not finishing things, let me present the finished pair of Opal Lollipop socks!


These were so much fun to knit. Even with knitting a sock in between, I really enjoyed them and as you can see, it really didn't take me long to knit these at all.

Since it's all about socks here all the time, here's the newest arrivals to the sock yarn stash!


There is Trekking at the top (going clockwise), then Regia Banner Color (large stripes of color), then Opal Dreamcatcher, the new Regia Havanna color (in Stacey's favorite color, pink!) and some Opal in the Doktorfish colorway. Sock yarn is so satisfying. I still have yet to succumb to the Socks That Rock and other premiere sock yarns that are variegated and 100% merino wool, precisely for the fact that my socks are wearable. I think the yarns are beautiful, but am hesitant to purchase them b/c they have no nylon. I've been knitting socks for at least 3 1/2 years and while I may only 6-9 pair of handknit socks, I haven't worn them out yet. That worries me, so I stick with what works for me. Maybe later I'll be a bit more adventurous! There is still more Trekking that I want. It's very contagious that silly yarn, but I do love it. After knitting this pair of Opal at the right amount of stitches, I'm really enjoying it, which is a good thing, since I have a lot of Opal in my stash!

In one of my previous posts, I mentioned my dilemma with keeping the Debbie Bliss Cotton Cashmere yarn. Well, dilemma no more. I returned it and got some fabulous new yarn! I'll post later about it.

Lastly, this is as close to a finished pic as you will see for awhile with the Bliss cardi. Now that's the weather's getting warmer, I'm not in that much of a rush to finish it. If when I get around to looking for a zipper or contacting Zipperstop, I'll get a custom-zipper (or not), but I'm really not that worried about it now, but when I do have it, I'll model the sweater, even if it is 90 degrees. The cardi fits nice, but I should have allowed a bit more ease in the sweater as I would have liked to be able to wear a lightweight sweater with it, but that won't be the case. Oh well, lesson learned.



Over and out.

Happy Blogiversary and other musings

There's been a lot going on, but as usual little time and/or inclination to post. That sounds pretty bad, but my time now is so limited. Anyhow, at this time, there's no reason to give excuses why I don't post as often as I did (not that it was that often to begin with), but I will post when I can, period.

I missed my own blogiversary, March 31st! This blog is over a year old. Over a year ago, I met some local bloggers and made a great group of friends from that group that I consider my girls and love to hang out with now. By meeting those local bloggers, I was encouraged (by them and my own desire) to start a blog. I'd been considering it, but that really pushed me over the fence. I still felt like I didn't know who would want to read what I might possibly have to write about. Sometimes I still wonder that, but I love that I've found a community of people that are as obsessive about yarn and fiber as I am and understand my compulsion to knit obsessively. It's been really fun, this whole blogging thing and I've made friendships IRL and online that I never expected. Happy Blogiversary to me!

From my last post about my KADD, I've heard a lot of comments about that one. Just to address that point, as you can see from my previous post, I do finish items. And those that won't get finished, do get frogged. I think right now, with the change of the seasons, I'm getting antsy to begin knitting spring and summer items and the things I've been slogging on are just not that exciting anymore to me.

The i-cord gloves are to be picked up for the fall as I'm really not caring about them at all. The Bliss cardi is just awaiting a zipper. I haven't had time to go search for a zipper and at this rate, might just order one from Zipperstop and have it added in. I've mostly been knitting the socks. After finishing the one Opal sock, I did knit another sock, but it wasn't the Opal nor the Lorna's Laces sock, it was actually with yarn gifted to me via Carola. Two socks do not a pair make. It's actually a shorty sock since I have Carola's leftovers and wasn't sure how much yarn I had to make myself a pair of socks. But because I didn't want the Opal socks to linger and I do have all of this knitting time at work, (in between calls). I figured I'd take advantage of some of the additional knitting time when possible. I'm at the heel flap on the second sock, so progress is being made. I wanted to finish the second shorty sock, but figured I should have a bit of discipline and finish the first Opal sock. After the second shorty sock, I'll eventually get back to the Lorna's Laces, but right now, I'm not too enthused by them.

I guess M's sweater will need the front to be cast on and worked on it intermittently, although once it gets some weight to it, it will be put down during the summer, b/c it's wool and that will get hot. Sticky heat combined with wool = 1 unhappy knitter!

Sorry for all my ramblings with no pics, but next one I will have pics of the new sock yarn I bought. I got some pretty stuff!

Thanks for listening . .