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Dropped Stitches and Old Friends

Yesterday afternoon (late) I worked on the clapotis for a while and finally got to drop a stitch! It was pretty cool to actually drop a stitch on purpose and the Cascade 220 performed remarkably well, although it did make me nervous to see that ladder running down the side of the shawl. The pattern only calls for a dropped stitch every 8th row, so it will take a while to get to that point again, but I'm ready to see how it develops. We had to go to a wake last evening. One of my favorite library patrons from the East Bridgewater Public Library, Mr. Ed Sexton, passed away. He was in the library about twice a week and always made me smile. I will always remember how happy he was when he heard the news that Dale and I were getting married. I hope there are great books in heaven for Mr. Sexton to read. Tomorrow we're off to a Civil War swap meet in Uxbridge. There should be opportunities for knitting while sitting around and socializing so I'll be bringing the koigu socks with me. I should have some pictures showing progress by Monday.

Koigu Socks Started

Last night I started the socks with the Koigu. I was hoping to knit on size 1 dpns but decided that the 2s would give me a better gauge. I had one false start because I cast on 60 stitches but then realized I couldn't K1P1 around without having to P the first stitch on the needle and I don't like having to do that on double points. So I started again with 56 stitches and they are progressing. I'm almost done with the ribbing, anyway. While knitting we watched The Grudge. Pretty lame, let me tell ya! Dale was frustrated because they didn't wrap everything up into a nice package at the end by explaining all the freaky occurences. I told him it would have been a waste of time since the whole thing was silly anyway. They used lots of cheap scare tactics to make you jump but it just didn't work for me. Sigh. I'll have to wait for a good scare - maybe when we watch The Ring 2!

A Perfect Ten

Yippee! I finished Dale's blue socks this morning! I had them almost completed last night but just ran out of speed and set them aside. Today I couldn't fall back to sleep after Dale left for work so I grabbed the socks and finished the toe decreases, kitchenered the seams and voila, a completed pair of socks. As I was trying to drift back to sleep I was counting the socks I have made in my head. I haven't made very many since I can still track them without writing them down, but I believe this finished pair makes 10. Now I can start on the Koigu PPPM socks for me. First, of course, I have to wind the hank into a ball, but then I'm ready to go. In other knitting news, the clapotis (remember, rhymes with cup-o-tea) is coming along nicely. I have finished the increase section and I'm not ready to start dropping stitches. The idea of deliberately dropping stitches is a little daunting but I'm confident that if I follow the directions, I'll be just fine.

Traveling to Yarn Shops is Fun!

Okay, I have shopping AND a finished object to report. I went to The Wool Patch on Friday and picked up the yarn I needed to finish the Alien Illusion Scarf. I managed to finish it on Sunday morning. I blocked it and added the fringe and my husband wore it to Boston on Monday. It looked terrific with his new wool coat but I think he was disappointed that no on spied his aliens! While at the Wool Patch I asked Miriam what she had that was new and she showed me some awesome Cascade 220 Quatro in variegated colors. I bought 3 skeins of a green/black/blue combination to make the Clapotis from knitty. Saturday I headed out to Sturbridge with my daughter, Hannah and my friends Wendy and Sarah. We went to Wrights Trim Factory where I bought a bit of trim and fabric for a new Civil War day dress. We had a terrific lunch at Soup to Nuts Cafe and then went to Knit Witts yarn shop in Brookfield. It was sure out in the boonies but not hard to find and the owner was very friendly. I bought some Koigu KPPM and some other handpainted sock yarn and can't wait to start those socks! From there we traveled back to Uxbridge and hit the Yarn Shop. I didn't buy anything but she does have some beautiful novelty yarns. Not really my thing these days but I know a lot of new knitters like it. She is moving up the street to a bigger shop and I'm hoping when she has more space that she will expand her line of wools and sock yarns. We went to watch the 25th MVI finish their drill camp and while waiting for my husband I finished sock #1 of the blue worsted weight pair I started for him. I immediately cast on for sock #2 (it's the best way I know to avoid SSS [second sock syndrome]) and have finished the cuff and am working on the leg. Sunday I was able to start the clapotis and it's fun. Definitely a pattern to pay attention to at first but once you get the pattern in your head it's not hard at all. I look forward to working on this one! I started a fingerless mitt in black out of Brown Sheep Nature Spun but it's too small and I will have to rework it so it's bigger. But since I love the pair I made with the leftover Classic Elite Bazic I think it will be great to have black ones to go with my red coat. Picture of all this great stuff - finished objects, new yarn, etc. coming soon!

Socks and shopping, oh boy!

So Wednesday night I skipped quilting because I was beat from this cold I've got. Stayed home and watched the movie Ray (it's almost Oscar time, yay hooray) and worked on Dale's sock. I've actually made a bit more progress since I took that photo, I'm now doing the toe decreases and should have it finished today. Hopefully I'll be stopping at The Wool Patch in Middleboro on my way home from work today to pick up another skein of green and black to finish the Alien Illusion Scarf. Tomorrow is a big day. Dale is attending a drill with our Civil War group and my friends and I are going to Sturbridge to visit Wrights Trim Shop and also Knit Witts. Woo hoo! Fabric and yarn shopping all in one day! I've got my list ready and hope to find yarn for the moebius scarf and the clapotis from knitty.com I'll post again when I'm shopped out!

The finished Windy City Scarf and Mitts! 

Best Laid Plans

When last we met I was about to finish the alien illusion scarf. Alas, 6 rows from completing the sucker, I ran out of green yarn. Man alive, was I aggravated! I had planned on going to the yarn shop the next day to pick up another skein of green but, sadly, my mother-in-law passed away that morning. Needless to say, yarn shopping has not been a priority this past week. Once there's an opportunity, though, I'm hot-footing it over to Middleboro to get what I need to finish Mr. Roswell. In the meantime, I had to have something to knit so I cast on the Windy City scarf from Stitch 'n Bitch. It went pretty quickly, although I ended up making it longer than the pattern stated. I still had leftover yarn so I made a pair of fingerless mitts to go with it - mismatched stripes and all. They came out cute except that the second one was shorter than the first because the yarn ran out. So, I frogged part of the first one and now they match. Sort of. It's close enough, anyway. Once I got those out of the way I picked up Dale's socks and I've now finished the heel and gusset descreases and am making may way down the foot. Progress feels so great! Pictures of the finished scarf and mitts tomorrow!

Can you drink a martini and knit at the same time?

Doncha hate when life interferes with knitting? I thought I would get loads of knitting done this weekend. Figured the alien scarf would be finished on Friday and at least one sock by Monday morning. They're both pretty much the same as at the start of the weekend. Friday night I did take the socks with me to my friend's house. They stayed in the knitting bag because I had a martini in one hand and pistachios in the other. It's hard to drink, eat and knit all at the same time and knitting was definitely the thing to fall by the wayside that night. Saturday was just one thing after another. Between the grocery store (where I found blue cheese stuffed olives for my dirty martinis - yippee!) and visiting with family there was just no knitting time a'tall. The visiting was necessary, though. My mother-in-law is doing very poorly and the family was together for a good part of the weekend to spend some time saying goodbye to her. I had made her a shawl for Christmas and was really touched to see it spread across the foot of her bed. I spent a good part of Sunday making snacks for the Super Bowl. Once the game was on, I thought - now! - here's my time and I can knit. Problem was, I was so wiped out by then, I didn't have much stamina for knitting. I did a few rows on the scarf and decided I wasn't in the mood to pay attention to the chart. Brought out the socks but only did a few rounds on them before I put them aside, too. Oh well. It's not a job and I don't have a quota to meet! Tonight is Monday, though, and that means Dale goes to Boy Scouts and I have the evening for knitting. Maybe by tomorrow morning I'll feel like I've made some progress! Until next time . . .

On Public Knitting and Some Other Stuff

Let's see what's new in the world of knitting. Hmmm. Not much! Wed. night I took Dale's socks with me to a meeting we had to attend about a Civil War event we're coordinating. The women were curious about what I was knitting, one asked if I was knitting mittens. I haven't done too much public knitting and I'm not always completely comfortable with it, but it does help pass the time! I wouldn't ever want to appear rude or distracted so I try and stay focused on what's going on. I guess I'm okay with knitting at meetings when I'm a "spectator" but not when I'm a "participant." I wouldn't knit at a library network meeting or something work related but I don't have a problem knitting at Town Meeting or something where I'm not an actual part of the process. Left the meeting and went to Hungry Quilters where I knitted instead of quilted. It's just so much more portable than lugging around the stinking sewing machine! I hope my fellow quilters don't kick me out of quilting for lack of participation in actual quilting! I'm up to alien head #4 on the scarf and the socks are almost to the heel flap. I think I'll get going on the socks this morning and try and get them past the flap and turning of the heel. I have a hair appointment today and want to take that project with me but don't want to have to concentrate on the heel while in the salon. I also put some books on blogging on reserve at the library. I want to add more stuff in the sidebar of this one but I'm pretty shaky on html. These books should be helpful. Okay, I'm up to date here.

In which a very heavy television is brought home

Last night was the big television maneuver. Took all night long and boy is that sucker heavy! By the time we got it all set up it was too late to watch and enjoy anything. As for knitting, I worked on the alien scarf yesterday while I waited for Dale to get home from work and then again for a while this morning. I have almost finished image 3 of Mr. Roswell. I'm already planning what my next illusion project will be. Last week while surfing the web somewhere I found an illusion scarf with a deer head. That would be totally awesome for my brother-in-law and his birthday is next month, so this could be a plan. Also had a nice package arrive in the mail from Webs. This was the final part of the order I placed last week. The Filatura Di Crosa 127 print was in the first shipment. I bought 4 skeins but I don't know what I'm going to do with it. It might make a nice clapotis (www.knitty.com) but there's not enough yarn for that. Hmmm. Might need to get some more of this. Might need to call them and see if they have more in the same dye lot. Also in that order were 2 skeins of Classic Elite Wings in black for a pair of socks. I made the Rock 'n Ribbed socks from Knit Socks out of this yarn in navy and just love them! They are wicked soft and very warm. The Classic Elite Bazic is what's pictured in this box. Four skeins for knitting the Windy City Scarf from Stitch 'n Bitch. It's nice and soft and should knit up quickly. I will be casting that on just as soon as I finish Mr. Roswell. Meanwhile Dale's socks are languishing because the alien is just irresistible. Speaking of languishing, the Einstein Coat has been banished to a basket in the sewing room. That sucker is just so boring to work on, I can't even bear to look at it right now. Okay, that's all. Time to get some work done.

Not much knitting, lotsa spending

I haven't had as much knitting time as I usually do. Sunday we went to the movies and saw The Aviator. Excellent. Still have to see Ray (coming from Netflix this week) and hopefully Finding Neverland before the Oscars. Man, I love the Oscars! Anyway, after the movie we went television shopping. We currently have a 27", it's time to upgrade to a big ole flat screen. So, we traipsed through the mall from Best Buy to Sears to Target and back to Best Buy and back to Sears and then finally to Best Buy for the last time. Made our selection. Talk to the sales kid. They didn't have the one we wanted in stock. Sigh. But, they are available online. So, last night, we started shopping online and decided that the 32" wasn't big enough and we should get a 36" instead. This is our major form of entertainment, after all. We finally made the purchase online and we're off tonight to pick it up at a nearby Best Buy. Anyway, all this shopping and purchasing hasn't allowed much knitting time. The alien scarf is progressing, though. I'm on head #3 now and really enjoying watching this take shape. Dale's socks are not very exciting, but they are good for mindless knitting. More tomorrow, my friends.

Here's the front of the alien illusion scarf 

And we're off...

Okay, here we go . . . the first entry in what will probably be the world's most boring knitting blog! But, hey, everybody else is blogging! Yah, yah, if everybody else jumped off a bridge. I remember, Mom. Anyway, I have been reading other people's blogs and thought I could give it a try. I have lots to learn and will most likely make a big mess of this, but if I have fun in the process then it's okay. Last night I started the Alien Illusion Scarf from Stitch 'n Bitch. It's coming along nicely, I have one half of one alien motif completed. I bought some Brown Sheep Nature Spun Worsted in pepper, just like the pattern recommends (I have issues with using the yarn that the pattern recommends - it feels like I'm breaking the rules if I use something else) but I couldn't find the Brown Sheep in spring green. So, I broke the rules and bought Cascade 220 Superwash in an olive sort of green. The colors are a nice combination and very similar to the originals in the book. I also started a new pair of socks for my husband yesterday. Nothing fancy, just your basic worsted wool sock. We are Civil War reenactors so he wears his knit socks for that - but I've noticed he has started wearing them on a regular basis so he's going to need more pairs. He actually felted a pair a couple of weeks ago - I was not too pleased with that!Alrighty, off to work on Mr. Roswell. Today is my monthly knitting group meeting, too. One of my friends is going to bring her two socks/two circs project and hopefully show me how to do that. I like DPNs, though, so I'm not sure if I really want to make the switch. It never hurts to learn something new, though. Later, gater.