Last Call

Anyone else want to include their name in the book drawing? Email me ASAP. I'll pick a name tomorrow night.

I finished the back and right front of Rosy. Before I go any further on it I need to finish my swatches for my finishing class. It's several tediously dull smallish white swatches. But they have to be done to exactly as written. Zzzz...

Birthday Month

Birthday month at our home has come to a close. The four of us all have birthdays in mid-April to mid-May. Our oldest son turns six tomorrow and we had his party this afternoon. It was a Captain Underpants party complete with Poopy Cake (my son's idea) and a game of Duck, Duck, Poop (mine)! He's been reading Captain Underpants and the Invasion of the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies From Outer Space (and the Subsequent Assault of the Equally Evil Lunchroom Zombie Nerds a lot lately.

Tonight he asked, "What's a zombie nerd?"
"It's a nerd who's undead," I helpfully replied.
"What's a nerd?"
"A nerd is someone who is uncool," Dad interjected.
"A nerd is usually someone who is really smart but uncool," I added.
My son's eyes grew bright and he sat straight up.
"Like Daddy?"
I stopped laughing about fifteen minutes later.

Pass It On

A few months ago I saw in the sidebar of Mariko's blog that she was reading The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. I adored reading Interpreter of Maladies and asked Mariko how she was enjoying the book. Imagine my surprise a few weeks later when it showed up in the mail from Mariko. Knitters are just great people. Well, I have finished reading the book and it's now sitting next to my bed. So I would like to extend the favor to someone else. Just email me with "The Namesake" in the subject line and on Monday I will draw a name from a hat and send the winner the book. Hopefully s/he can keep the favor going.

Photo Catch-Up

Wes took our digital camera to a special event on Friday and I just dug it out of his briefcase. So at last I bring you...

A totally finished Lola.



Everyone likes the ribbon on this the best.



I lucked out in finding it. I went to Hancock Fabrics to return an unused skein of Cotton-Ease (the 3-4 size of this sweater only used 2 3/4 skeins). They had a meager ribbon selection. There was nothing in the color of the yarn I used and finally I found this ribbon hiding around the corner. I did a pretty awful job of sewing it on to the sweater. I still have a month to get it perfectly on there before I have to wrap it up and give it away.

Rosy is going great guns. I knit an entire skein of yarn between 8 pm last night and 10 pm tonight. I'm 2/3 of the way across the back. This isn't a great shot of it. The back looks pretty scrunched on my needles right now and the color isn't very true. But at least there's a photo!



And lastly the Ara poncho. Talk about your quick knits. I knit two skeins of this yarn in one sitting. Zoom, zoom, zooming along. I'm a quarter of the way through this.



It look like a hideous blog right now. Ah, the joy of cheap circular needles. They twist, they coil, they make your knitting look like a lumpy mess.

Yarn close up.



This yarn is great. I love thick and thin yarns. The texture is wonderful. It's soft and fluffy. It's completely fun to knit with. The colors are beautiful. And it was $3 a ball at the Weaving Works sale. I keep calling it my Colinette Point Five for cheapskates.

Happy Mother's Day

I had a happy mother's day today. I "slept in." This means that after my son and cat woke me at 7 am and prodded me awake on and off for over an hour Wes turned on the TV to lure them out of our bedroom. Then the alarm went off every seven minutes for about an hour. Finally the rest of the family went downstairs and I proceeded to have horrible anxiety dreams about my own mother. Then I finally dragged my ass out of bed around 10:30. Still, it was better than the usual. We had lunch out and then went to Archie McPhee's to buy toys for the goody bags for my soon to be six year old son's birthday party. After dinner Wes looked at me and said, "Do you want to get out of here for a while?" I was out the door like a shot. I don't think I even bothered to answer him.

I knit at the Teahouse for a few hours on Rosy. I just finished the first skein of yarn. I'm about a third of the way across the back. Photos tomorrow, I promise. I don't want to wind another ball by hand so I need to wait until tomorrow to do any more work on it. So I started a new project! I decided to make a poncho with my Dale Ara. A few months ago Mariko posted about picture of an adorable hot pink poncho she made using the Poncho Pattern Generator. I decided to give it a try. I've been resisting the poncho trend but this wool just says poncho to me. I knit my gauge swatch and plugged in my numbers and out came a pattern. I've worked about 25 rows and it's looking nice. Photo of this tomorrow too. I know I don't have enough yarn though. I'm going back to Weaving Works tomorrow to wind my '03 Tweed for Rosy into balls. I will see if any Ara survived the sale. I'm dreaming, I know. I can always order some online if I really need to.

So that was Mother's Day.

Dare to Dream

Today I lived the dream. Today I was paid to knit. Yes, today was my first day of work at the Fiber Gallery. In addition to straightening and selling, I was asked to knit a scarf from some beautiful soy silk chenille. I haven't knit with chenille in years. I forgot how inelastic it is. It made my hands pretty sore. It was slow today at the shop (they only opened yesterday) and the store is still very low on inventory. But it was my first day at work at a real job in exactly six years and I enjoyed it. I also got to meet Melinda which was very nice.

I was making great progress on Rosy when I realized that I had cast on the wrong number of stitches about 25 rows back. I ripped and am reknitting. Still it's cool to see this pattern develop. Knitting it side to side I am surprised when I look at my work and see something that actually resembles a sweater.

Lo-Lo-Lo-Lo-Lola!

Here she is.



I realized when I finished seaming the sweater that I should have taken a picture of it before. It's an interesting looking sweater since it's knit in one piece. This was a really simple project that knits up very quickly. I still need to find a bit of ribbon to sew on for the closure. The girl I made it for won't be three until late June so I've got time.

I started Rosy this afternoon. It's knit side to side. I have to just follow the pattern blindly since I can never quite orient myself. Of course, I usually just follow the pattern blindly anyway. I've got four or five inches of the back done now. It definitely requires a lot more concentration than my usual miles of stockinette projects. It's still miles of stockinette but with short rows and shaping in all sorts of strange (to me) places.

Carissa has generously compiled a list of tank patterns and put them on her blog. How cool is that?

Another Shapely Tank has been completed. Jackie's Shapely is dazzling and mesmerizing.

I found this adorable ribbon at Nancy's Sewing Basket in the famous ribbon room.



Sorry the photo is a little blurry. It's three-step instructions on how to knit. They had one for crochet too. Fabulous, no? I think I want to make a simple A-line skirt and add this as trim. Perhaps I will do it some day...

Did Someone Say Sale?

Today was the first day of Weaving Works big anniversary sale. I thought I was going to get some Cotton Fleece for Gigi. Instead I got 9 skeins of Grignasco Cloud in a baby pink, 8 skeins of Dale Ara in a mix of greens and 10 skeins of Classic Elite '03 Tweed in a burgundy for Rosy.

Lola is practically complete. I have a few inches of seaming and a few ends to weave in. Then I need to get a ribbon. I'm also up to about six inches for the sleeves on the GE Cardi. I started swatching the Ara and Cloud tonight but I don't know yet what I'm going to do with them. I will finish Lola tomorrow, block her and snap some pictures.

Good night!

Happy Birthday Wes

I was reading Mariko's blog last night and was inspired by her post about making green tea ice cream. I happen to have a fridge full of cream (a whole quart) and a husband who loves ice cream. So the boys and I made Daddy some "special birthday ice cream." It was so easy to make and Wes really liked it.

I have been knitting away on Lola. I have finished the body/sleeves and am two inches into the four and a half inches of ribbing that go up and down the front bands.

I spent much of the day yesterday at the zoo with my younger son. For four hours I followed him around as he explored then doubled back, around and around again. I spent much of it knitting while strolling. I worked on the sleeves for the GE Cardi. I have them both on the needles at once. I managed to knit several inches of sleeve and only screwed up the decreases once. But since I'm knitting them together they both have the same screw up and I can live with that. And by the way, you know what's cute? Baby sloth bears!

Wes had a meeting scheduled last night so I was sad I couldn't join the Purlygirls for a night of knitting. Then at the last minute his meeting got canceled so I had a great evening of knitting and somewhat outrageous conversation. Sure beats a night home with the kids.

A Sign

I have spent the last hour trying to post. My computer crashed once and my web connection died once while trying to preview my post. I will take it as a sign. There was not meant to be a nice post today. I will try again tomorrow.

Grrr!!!!

My web connection died as I was previewing my post so I lost the whole damn thing! Grrrr.
I had my tea part today. It was lovely. I made an absurd quantity of food. I made 60 scones, 30-40 truffles, six and a half dozen cookies, 90 little sandwiches, two walnut rolls...it was nuts. There were about 25 people there. I was worried it would be more like 40 and I wouldn't have enough seats or food. I ended up forcing everyone to take food home with them. And I completely forgot to take any pictures! One friend was working on a cute Rowan baby cardigan in coral colored Adrienne Vittadini yarn (Hi Eileen!), one friend was creating the No Sweat Pants in Chamonix (oo-la-la), one friend was working on a felted tote bag, one friend was finishing Tank Girl from Stitch 'N Bitch, one friend, who has lived the dream and actually visited Threadbear in person, was working on a lovely silk/wool Lorna's Laces shawl. Amy was working on Elfin ruffles, another knitter was making a baby sweater on size 1 needles. I know it's just for a baby but I think it will be a cold day in hell when I pick up size 1 needles to make a sweater. More power to her! So there were lots of cool projects and wonderful conversation.

Lola is crusing along. I finished the left front and am now working on the right front. I think I will start Sam next. I want to attempt the Estonian Socks from Folk Socks but need to get the right size needles.

Picture Day

I had a lovely day sitting in the park for another picknit with the Purlygirls. We sat under a tree and knit and talked. Even with an attacking horde of tent caterpillars it was a great way to spend the day. I spent the rest of the day preparing for my knitters' tea party. I've invited all the knitters from the three (!) knitting groups I'm in to come to my house tomorrow afternoon to sip tea and knit. I spent the afternoon baking cookies, making truffles, cooking lemon curd and preparing the sandwich ingredients. I just need to get this place cleaned up tomorrow, bake scones and make the sandwiches. I think about thirty to forty people will be coming.

I got out the camera to take a picture of Lola from Debbie Bliss's Cotton Angora book. I'm making this one in Cotton-Ease which knits up very nicely.



The sweater is knit in one piece. This strange blob-shaped thing is the back and backs of the sleeves. The right sleeve is on a holder which is why it looks so bunched up and the left side is being worked on a wiggly circular needle.

Then there's Lottie/Hottie.



She just needs to be seamed. I am planning on waiting to do the finishing on Lottie/Hottie and my Shapely Tank until I've taken my finishing class in three weeks. Can I wait that long? We'll see. I feel guilty every time I see my Shapely waiting to be finished.



And while the camera was out I also got a shot of my GE Cardi. It finally looks like something. Although it's pinned up so crookedly on this board, it's not even funny.



I'll try to remember to take some pictures at the party tomorrow.