Return from Brooklyn

Yep, we're back safe and sound. Thanks everyone for your comforting words, comments, and condolences. It was a very unexpected death and we're told that she died from heart disease, a hardening of the arteries over time, that was never detected. It was very hard for the family to accept this as she was very healthy, walked every day and managed her diabetes by diet, no insulin. I'm sure she left this earth with no regrets and she was well-loved by family and friends. M is holding up and getting through it, but of course that will be over time. Now we're home and getting back to our routines. We just returned yesterday morning.

Since I knew we would more than likely be at his parents' house the majority of the time, I opted to take simple knitting projects with me, like the socks I was already working on for M2 and another one of those Debbie Bliss baby raglan sweaters, b/c it was simple and mindless. I actually was able to finish the sweater in a 3-6 month size for one of M's nephews, who is only a month old. I seamed it up and everything. I'll have pics of the baby, who was born a bit premature and of the sweater tomorrow. I also took yarn to make another baby sweater, but decided I didn't want to get burnt out with baby sweater making. And I had a list of babies I was going to knit for, like 5 or 6 of them, but then decided to thin it down and knit for family and special friends. Others that I was thinking of, hmm, not so much. Although I did make one in a 9-12 month size that I had no idea who to give it to, because one of M's nephews has grown so much since I last saw him 5 months ago, that he's in 2T sizes and is only 11 months old now. So I will be making a different pattern for him, possibly a cardigan instead. I love that the cardigan I made for nephew Kieth was made using Encore Worsted Weight and only used one ball of yarn, in a baby blue color. I used a little from the second ball to sew in the ends, but that was it. I also plan to make him a baby hat as well. I was thinking socks, but I don't think they will stay put on his feet. His parents were also suitably impressed/thankful with the gift, so more knitting for that baby in the future. A couple of pics of the tiny and precious baby, as well as the finished baby raglan sweater.


baby kieth sleeping 





baby raglan sweater 


I also worked on the shorty socks for M2 and finished the first one and cast on for the second one, and it's moving a bit slowly as I screwed up the cuff a few times and had to rip it out and start over 2 times thus far, so hopefully the 3rd time is the charm with this one. I've decided to join (yes, yet another KAL, but this is one that can be successfully finished), Socktoberfest, hosted by Lolly at the same place. It's an informal sort of KAL, just knitting socks, with no deadline and since one half of the socks are already completed, this seems like one I can do! Here's the first shorty sock for M2.
one shorty sock completed 



I also pulled out the lacy scarf last night and worked a couple of pattern repeats with color changes, so this scarf is coming along nicely. I think now I can see that this scarf won't be very long, but I should get 1-2 color changes out of each ball left before the yarn is all gone, but that will suit me just fine. Also once it's finished and I block it, I figure it will gain a little length.

 
 


Last, but certainly not least, I received my Sockapalooza sock package from my sock pal, Tacha, all the way from Germany. Although my sock pal finished them while visiting family in Chile, but didn't want to send them from Chile! I have international socks that have traveled the world over! I received some wonderful socks done in Lang Jawoll in the pattern Unst from Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road. I love the lacy pattern and the color is one I don't have in my sock collection. The socks are just how I like 'em, short cuffs, and a perfect fit in the foot and toe. I also received a couple of face masques and a pretty postcard, as well as a chocolate bar, but sadly that is not pictured as I immediately pounced on the chocolate. Such a lovely package, especially to receive after the news of last week. I was so excited to receive it. And I'll stop all the blather and show a couple of pics. One of the package and below that, one of the socks themselves. Thanks again Tacha!


sockapalooza sock package 



closeup of sockapalooza socks 


I guess that's it for now. I plan to post tomorrow with a dilemma on cardigan knitting, stay tuned.

All the way from Iceland

I received a package in the mail yesterday and I was most surprised to get a box from Iceland filled to the gills with goodies:



Carola sent me this wonderful box of stuff. I was so surprised and had no idea. First off, Carola made a pair of Fortissima Colori Socka color socks with somewhat wild color selection of stripes. I mentioned a couple of times how much I liked this sock yarn, even if some of my friends made fun of me for liking them. It turns out Carola sent me her leftover, so I can make a pair of anklets with it. Additionally she sent a couple of "cakes" of Icelandic wool, which makes for really warm sweaters, but it's knit somewhat airily and it's unspun or lightly spun wool. In such a pretty burgundy wine color, I love it. Along with some accent colors, white and pink. Different types of chocolate candy and candy bar, although two were not pictured because M2 (the boyo) and I dived into the chocolate last night and again tonight! Yum, good chocolate. A lava rock from Iceland, as well as a tourist guide to Iceland. One day, Carola, I will be there to visit! A CD of Agatha Christie mp3 files, a votive candle, a postcard of Iceland, a miniature Icelandic flag and a very nice letter as well. Wow, Carola, that was really sweet of you and I appreciate it so much.


Since my last post, lots of knitting has been done. Over the weekend, I finished the second sleeve of Donna. Yay! I do need to seam the sleeves and the sides together, so I can pickup stitches and do the ribbing around the neck and be done with it. I also finished the sleeves of the baby sweater and those also need to be sewn together. It'll happen soon.

Also, the Marilyn Not-So-Shrunken Cardigan (NSS Cardigan) is fast approaching the hem. I'm going to do that next and then it will be on to the sleeves.



I've also been working on M2's shorty socks, but the first one is the prototype and it's a little too high, but I'm not ripping it out. Thankfully since this sock doesn't require much of a cuff, the heel has been turned and decreases done and I'm moving right along on the foot of this sock.




Sadly, on another note, we will be headed to New York tomorrow evening on the red-eye due to a death in M's family. His mother passed this morning very unexpectedly. She was a very sweet lady that I'm sad I didn't have the chance to know better and longer.

just a post

to see if this forces Bloglines to update my feed. Nothing is showing from yesterday's blog. Anyway, no time to play on the computer anyway. Much cleaning needs to be done to prepare for the attack of 3 preteen boys. Wish me luck!

Oh and I did finish one of the Donna sleeves. Still not done with the sleeves from hell (aka baby sleeves from raglan sweater by Debbie Bliss). Of course the problem is with doing them both at the same time, although I am doing decreases now, so I'll soon be casting off.

And the good thing about getting the boyo involved in other activities (such as karate last night) is more knitting time while sitting through a karate class. Yay! And there was another mother there crocheting. How cool is that?

Allrighty, I'm off now.

Knitting ensues

So the last post was just a diversion from the fact that not too much knitting has been going on. I did knit a little at the Boulder Knit-Out on my shrunken cardigan, but otherwise after that, no knitting. Last week was just so busy, that even when I came home, I did knit a little on the sock or on the cardigan, but I wasn't too enthused with anything. And now that I cast on for yet another project, I'm starting to feel burdened with all the projects. My project max is usually 4 and right now I'm at 6, really 7. Although the 7th one hasn't been restarted, but I am anxiously awaiting getting re-started on the cardigan.

Yesterday as I left the house and the temperature dropped to a crisp 50 degrees, it definitely felt like fall was in the air. I really wanted some cardigans at that point and knew that I want to finish the cardigans I have on the needles. Although that fall day of yesterday was really a fluke. Today it's in the 70s, it does make me think that I need to wrap up a few other things so I can really focus on my cardis. So first up, are the Donna sleeves. Remember her? Well, the first edition of the sleeves weren't quite right and were actually longer than I wanted and they didn't fit when I was trying to seam the sleeves in. So since my friend Susan helped me redo them, I decided it wouldn't take that long to knit them up, since they should be much shorter this version and I ripped them out and started reknitting. I'm doing decreases on the first sleeve now.
Donna sleeves 


I should be able to get this one done today and get started on the second one. Once I get the sleeves done, then I will finish up the sleeves for the baby sweater and knock out two things there. Then I can work on the lacy scarf for a little bit and start swatching on the other cardigan, so I can get gauge with the other yarn for the two-tone (variegated and solid color) cardigan, as well as keep working on the other cardigan and the socks.

In between a lot of other stuff with tracking down job leads, etc., here's the other reason I've had little knitting time, which has been some home repair. The carpets in our 2nd bedroom (M2, the preteen's room) are just atrocious and we're not sure what happened there. It's so dirty, although the carpet is pretty new that we don't think it will be cleaned well, so we're putting in hardwood floors. In addition to putting in hardwood floors (M's job), I decided to move my desk downstairs, which meant taking everything out of the drawers and moving both bookcases downstairs. My weekend was filled with cleaning and sorting and still consists of these things, blech. The flooring is also going into the kitchen. M says he will he have to shut off the water, and we may have to eat out! Yay! The kitchen stuff will happen on Saturday though. But M is doing a great job of doing it himself. Just a sneak preview . . .
hardwood flooring 


And whilst trying to get in a little knitting time for myself, much cleaning and laundry will commence today. Tomorrow a total of 3 preteen boys will be invading my space for a number of hours (although, not a sleepover), but will need to be entertained by movies, snacks, game-playing etc. Whoo-wee! This stepmommy thing is really something else. Naw, it's not that bad, I'm just griping b/c I have to clean and the thought of 3 preteen boys is slightly nerve-wracking.

That's about it for me and the knitting update today. Maybe more tomorrow, you just never know.

Boulder Knit-Out recap

Hi all, things have still been pretty busy. I completely forgot I had to work at EB this weekend (well, Sunday and Monday mornings, v. early), so I'm still sleep-deprived, but wanted to post some updates.

Saturday, Cynthia and I headed out to the annual Boulder Knit Out, hosted by the Boulder Hand Knitting Guild, of which our dear Jenifer is the newly elected President. I wasn't sure what to expect, as I'd never been before. I saw some ladies I'd met before and met lots of new people. I had a great time and met some new knitters. I met Carla, who described me as bubbly! Which is quite funny, but she introduced herself as a blog reader (what, who reads this rag, anyway?!) ;-), so that was quite funny and we became fast friends! Cynthia says I talked to everyone and that did seem to be the case, but I had a blast. I've also set up a photo set on my flickr page, so feel free to hop over here to see all the pictures.

One of the fun things is to see are all the beautiful knits that others have made and everyone, is of course, wearing some of the handknitted finest! Cyn and Jenifer both fell sway to the dark side, spinning, and tried spinning with a drop spindle,as pictured here:


I met Kristi, of Knitting Fool blog, and we are also on a knitting list together, so it was nice to meet her in person. She was there with spindle in hand, helping those who were interested in learning to spin.


And the lovely Amanda (not a blogger, but we've been on a list as well and never met in person). It cracks me up when someone says they read my blog, b/c I think, really! Amanda had the most amazing shawl/scarf on and it was a Fiber Trends patterns, I believe and it was beaded. So pretty. Amanda should really have a blog too! See it:


Many others were there to knit and hang out as Cyn and I did. We also toured the Farmer's Market and they had some tasty items. I came home with a small bag of Honeycrisp apples, which are delicious. I'm still waiting to hear of Cynthia's report of the hot, hot garlic she bought.

I forgot to mention that I also received a couple of gifties. One from Nik, which was a copy of



Thanks so much Nik.

And Cynthia gifted me with a copy of Scarf Style, since I've been coveting everyone else's copy for awhile. Thanks a lot Cyn. I can definitely get use out of this book.

I'll post more later, but that's all for today.

Believe it or not, I'm still around

This week has been terribly hectic, especially for someone that is unemployed. It's a bit funny. Nonetheless I did make it to 2 job fairs this week and attempting to follow up on some leads with those, so hence no time to blog. In fact, very little time to knit. Although last weekend I did get started on a new project, making a ton of baby sweaters. I figured it out and I need to make 5-6 baby sweaters and I'm on baby sweater #1. The front and back are done and I am working on the sleeves now. The pattern is a Debbie Bliss pattern which calls for DB Cashmerino Aran, but I didn't want(and couldn't) spend that kind of money, so I'm using up some of this Cotton-Ease. Yay, I am using up stash and that's always a good thing!
Here's a pic of the front and back:
(sorry for the blurry picture quality, but I was in a rush)




and the sleeves:



and a little further progress on the Marilyn shrunken cardigan:



I also joined another KAL, the Spork KAL, hosted by Brynne at her site. The pattern for Spork can be found here. I'd originally determined that I would use 3 skeins of Noro Kureyon in my stash, but upon further reading of the pattern and realizing that I would need more yarn, I'm going to use the yarn Wendy sent to me in its stead, as there is some Noro Kureyon (2 skeins) in a black, purple colorway and some purple Cascade 220 to use as an accent color. I will probably also have a stripe of purple to break up the variegation and have one stripe in the middle of the bag, and purple side panels as well as the interior panel. I'm excited for this as I've wanted a messenger/courier bag and this fits the bill nicely.

I also cast on for a pair of socks for the stepson. When will I have time to get all of these projects done? I was doing so good with only a couple of projects on the needles, but apparently that's gone to the wayside. Plus, I get bored with just one or two projects anyway. I'm just not looking forward to all of the baby sweater madness I've got to knit. Maybe I'll knit one or two and then see how I feel about making them all. At least maybe I'll get the motivation from looking at the yarn laying out to finish up the sweaters. They do knit up fast, but knitting both sleeves at the same time gets boring.

My Sock Pal, Nicole received her socks and loved them, so I'm quite happy. I would say take a look at her blog, but it's all in German, so if you speak German, go for it. If you don't and you still do want to look at it, feel free. My German is nonexistent, but she's made some beautiful projects. I enjoy just looking at her work.

I'm out of here for now . . .

Summer Knitting Lineup recap

Some of you may remember a post about my summer knitting lineup in April. Well I thought since summer is almost over, we should have a recap at WWK to see what projects were finished and what wasn't.

First up,

1. Tempting in Katia Bufalo in a steel blue-grey color, Check!
Completed Tempting




2. Donna in a dusty grey color in Katia Beetle, not exactly a check! It has been started and almost completed, however the sleeves you see in the picture below don't quite fit, so I will be reknitting the sleeves. This project will not sit until next summer as I want it finished so it can be ready to wear for next fall, but it is not yet completed.


3. Cabled V-Neck Tennis Sweater from this summer's VK in Debbie Bliss Cotton Cash



This project was never started, although the yarn was purchased for it! It will be saved until next summer or rather early spring.

4. Reynolds' Jenny (variegated in a purple, green, blue colorway) for a seed stitch tank, also not a check. Decided I don't like the colors and it will be put up for sale on Ebay.






5. 4 yarns for multi-color poncho, which is supposedly a quick knit, and all garter stitch. This is a big 'ol check too. Done and completed.





Completed summer poncho pic:


6. The front or back to a tank, one piece already finished from 2 years before, in Sirdar Rio. Double check-check! And no need to put up another pic as it was in my last post!






7. Finish the back of a V-neck tank in Katia Bonita (in a red-orange colorway) that has one piece finished and the second piece is 60-70% finished. Triple check-check-check! I don't have a finished pic and not with me in it, but both sides are sewn together. This top requires some yarn pulled through the Vneck to give it a dropped stitch look, but I'm not sure if I'm going to do it or not. I know I have a little of this yarn left over to do it with, but I can't find it. And as one ball costs $9, I'm a bit reluctant to shell out the cash for a little string of yarn that I need, so we're undecided at this point. I'll just give you a pic of both sides finished. I also had a friend's daughter add crochet around the armholes and neckline, which takes the V up a little higher, so I may just wear it without the Vneck detail and call it a day. If I wear it today, I'll try to get a pic in.






So I would say 5 out of 7 projects completed or on the way. Not too bad. We knew all 7 of them wouldn't make it, it was a pretty ambitious lineup to begin with. And with 5 projects completed or mostly, I also managed to finish up 2 pairs of socks, the Waffle Stitch socks and the Sockapalooza socks, a nursing shawl for my sister and 2 one skein wonders. Not a bad summer after all, eh? I'm quite impressed.

Now I'm off to shower and go see my favorite middle schooler run at a cross country meet. Guess whose stepson made the cross-country team?

Happy knitting all!

Tango Tank complete!

Wow, two posts in two days, what is the world coming to? And two FOs in two days! Can I get woo-woo? Okay, so I'm a little psyched. Anyway, this montrosity that hung around like the proverbial monkey on my back is finally completed.

I started this project two summers ago when I was living in Dallas, TX. When I bought the yarn and pattern, it was my first year of knitting. Whilst living in Dallas, my knitting skills were emerging, but still a pretty novice knitter. Since I'd initially purchased the yarn and pattern in Denver and then moved to Dallas, I didn't feel comfortably asking a yarn store there for help and the knitting groups I did attend in Dallas didn't meet that frequently. And over the summer, it seemed none of the knitters I knew even had time to get together. So once I hit a bump in the pattern I didn't understand, I just put the neck stitches on holders and left it alone.

I vowed to myself that the next summer I would pick it up again, but last summer was far too busy. I'd just met M, my best friend moved out here from Missouri and was living with me, I was looking for a condo and then subsequently moved into it (which was a lot o' drama) and starting a 2nd job (part-time), so needless to say I never picked up the second half. I just carted it around on a couple different moves.

This summer, the goal was to either finish it or rip it. As one half of a tank top with no sleeves was already done it seemed foolish to not attempt to at least finish it. After I started the second top, I realized the gauge I had 2 years ago was a lot looser than now and I was concerned the size top I made was going to be too big. I cast on for the largest size, a 40", but now that looked a little large. Now don't ask me where I got the feverish idea that I could make the second half 3 sizes smaller and they would both fit together! After I finished it, I was really concerned about it, but yet, it did work.

As I knitted the second half, I kept measuring against the finished one, so as far as the knitting was concerned, it was a perfect match. I noticed as I did the ribbing on the second one 2 or 3 times (I ripped it out a couple of times to get it right), that the second half was going to be much larger, I counted the number of stitches in difference and just made the second smaller, which worked into making the 3rd size, as opposed to my original 6th size. If I were to make this over again, I would just obviously do a gauge swatch to see which size I would make again, probably the 38. The funniest thing just happened, I looked at the pattern to see what the largest size was and realized that the bust size was a 42! I think when I first started knitting, I found in most situations, my size was the XL, usually 38-40". And depending on the ease or lack thereof, I might make it a little larger if I didn't want something to be skin tight. The other Sirdar patterns I've knitted usually had the 40" as the largest size, so I'm sure I assumed this pattern that 40" bust was the largest too, but a 42" is a bit big for me. I'm really a 38" bust, although lately with a little weight gain, it's a 40", but I'm not planning on keeping this weight, so we'll say normally a 38" bust. That makes sense why I thought the 1st half was so big and if I'd made the second half that size, I would not have been happy with how it turned out. In the end, it turned out pretty good.

In fact, I'm really quite pleased with this top. I stayed up till 1 a.m. weaving in ends (not that it took that long, just didn't start it until 12 a.m.) and then threw it in the wash and dried it this a.m. I put it on and with trepidation in my heart, looked in the mirror and it fits! I love it! I think I love this one more than all my other ones. Some of the other tanks that I love the v-necks, I don't want my whole bosom flashing and that has happened a number of times that I can wear it out, but if I were to wear it to work, I'd be pretty self-conscious. This one can go everywhere. I definitely think this pattern will be a template that I will use again. I will probably make the neck a little lower next time, not down to the bosom area, but I don't usually like tanks so close on my neck, although this isn't like the turtleneck feel that makes me feel like I'm choking. The picture on the pattern front makes it look higher than it is, but I might just start the neck shaping down 1/2 an inch and maybe not pick up the stitches around the neck, but then again I might. This is the first tank that the sleeves don't roll and that's saying a lot! I sent two of my summer tanks to a friend's daughter who crochets to crochet around the armholes and necklines of two tanks for me that the straps didn't want to lay flat for me and I was sick of them curling.

Anyway, I guess enough rambling on about the project and I'll just let you see some pics. I'm so thrilled with this top that I'm wearing it today! I think the dk-weight fabric is also more wearable in the summer months than worsted too. Okay, here's the first picture from the front:

Project Specifics:
Yarn used: Sirdar Tango DK color: 156, a pretty, bright blue
Yarn composition: 58% acrylic, 42% nylon
Size made: first side, size 42", back side size 36" (?)
Date started: July 1st or 2nd, 2003
Completed: September 13, 2005

from the back:


and with a surprise twist, the Tango tank, as I am now enjoying calling it paired with a OSW:


Yesterday was a good mail day, although not as good as Cathi's, courtesy of Wendy. She sent me some great gifts as a thank-you for test-knitting her pattern and I was so surprised and pleased. Purple is my favorite color, unlike some people I know. Which is funny b/c I don't think most people know what my favorite colors are. When shopping for my birthday gifts, Stacey told me it was hard shopping for me as they've seen me knit with lots of different colors, so it's hard to tell my favorites! Which is true, I've knit with all sorts of colors, so from gauging from my knitting, one might have a hard time deciding.

Anyhow, I am showing a picture of my lovely goodies, 2 skeins of luscious purple Cascade 220, 2 skeins of Noro Kureyon in a purple and other variegated colorway and a skein of Regia Strato sock yarn in black, reds, purples,etc. and a book, Pursenalities by Eva Wiechman, who is the proprietor of Wendy's LYS who wrote the book.




There's enough yarn to make one of the bags in the book that I wanted to make before I read her note indicating that was the same pattern I wanted to make, how cool is that? I love purple, so the mix of purple and black with the Noro is great and I'm very excited! Yay! Thanks again, Wendy!



In case any of you are interested, I also started another blog, one that is more personal in nature and non-knitting here. If you're not interested, no worries, don't check it out.

Sockapalooza socks completed

Yay, we have a FO to report. The socks are finished and are going through the wash. I expect to mail them out tomorrow to the intended recipient. I only hope my sock pal loves her sock as much as I do. Now I don't want to let them go.

Here are the socks:


And another shot without me attempting to model them and having no one else at home to take a picture:

Yarn used: Lang Jawoll superwash (wool/cotton/nylon)
Pattern: Clover Lace Rib (from Sole Solutions Sock Challenge '03, in a .pdf file)
time elapsed to knit: 1 month, maybe 1.5 months to knit

These socks were made out of Lang Jawoll superwash, the socks' fiber compilation was of wool, cotton and nylon. I'd been concerned about knitting these socks as I knew the yarn was a little finer than most sock yarns I use, which isn't a problem, it just means that I'm lazy. I've perfected the art of sock-knitting for myself and on most yarns (i.e. Regia and Trekking), I can get away with making socks on sz 1.5 needles, which is preferred. I love Opal socks, but hate knitting them on sz1 needles, it just seems like it takes longer. It probably doesn't, but still that's what it feels like. The Lang Jawoll, I knew would require me knitting on size 1s too. But I did enjoy it, really liked the sock pattern I used (will probably use it again) and overall like the socks, so much so, that I don't want to give them up, but I hope my sock pal does like them since she mentioned she didn't like earth tones, no maroon or browns, so I think this will do the trick.

And another project which isn't at FO status just yet, is the Sirdar Breeze tank top. I'm mostly finished, since I took most of the weekend picking up stitches around the neck and for the armholes too and sewed up the side seams. I've woven in a few ends, but there are still more to do. Weaving ends just sucks eggs, but I'm going to try to suck it up and finish. Hopefully a finished pic tomorrow. Here is a picture of it, just to show you that I have been doing some knitting and finishing anyway.


And of the super-secret knitting variety, here's the progress on the Not-So-Shrunken Marilyn Cardigan from Wendy that I was helping to test-knit. Far from being done, but I am under the armpits now, but kind of tired on knitting on the dk-yarn for a bit, so I'm going to work on a lace scarf as a brief interlude and then go back to this project.


And something I neglected to mention, that one of my SP angels, Courtney really brightened my spirits last week when she let me know that as my final SP gift, she sent in a donation in my name to the Hurricane Katrina victims. That is truly awesome and thanks again Courtney!

Till next time . . .