Hexed

When I learned that the 8" square I knit for a community afghan was lonely, I was not sure what to do. Then I remembered a long-abandoned crochet project someone gave me several months ago. I told the organizer I would examine the contents of the hibernating piece and see if it might be something that would work.

Let us fast-forward through the weaving in of many ends, gauge issues, seaming, and steaming. That brings us to the finished piece.

Friday?

Did anyone else lose a day or three this week? It was not necessarily a bad week, but I just missed most of it. Still, I have been productive. I finished some yarn that I started long ago. It is a three-ply yarn from mystery wool top in the Indian Summer colorway from Little Barn. I think it is somewhere around 310 yards. I do not know what it will become. Finishing this yarn makes me excited to spin the next yarn. It is time to explore the fiber stash.

What a Knitting Competition Should Be

I like Sock Madness. First, of all, there are the organizers. There would be no Sock Madness without them. They put in so much time and effort into the experience. They set the tone for the positive experience that keeps players coming back, and the cheerleading going. They have worked throughout the year with designers and test knitters so that we can play once again. Thank you, Hillary, and Carole!

Then, there are the patterns. Each year, I learn at least one new technique, construction, or other helpful bit. It is a different experience for me to knit a pattern exactly as written, but that is how this game is played. Exposure to designs I might not have chosen on my own has also introduced me to different designers and different ways of knitting socks. Learning is always good.

Finally, there are the players. They keep the excitement and camaraderie going from the weeks leading up to the event, all the way through the last pair of knitters competing. They take time to post a helpful link or tutorial. They are quick to answer questions for new players, and warmly welcome the seasoned veterans of this game. They treat this competition with all the seriousness it deserves, and celebrate it with all the silliness that it is.

I made my way through Round 1 of SM3. I took advantage of the slower pace of the first round, and knit this pair more slowly. It feels like others have also chosen a more relaxed beginning to the game. The pattern was inspired by the Drunkard's Path quilt block. It does not want to show up very well in my pictures, but it was an interesting knit. I am a short-row heel kind of gal, but if I am going to knit a heel flap, it might as well be one with "Eye of Fauxtridge."

Pattern: Tropical Mer-Tini
Yarn: Knit Picks Palette Salsa Heather

New New England

I truly thought I would have finished these this past Saturday, or Sunday, at the latest. Instead, I was done this evening. My first package from my psc was good. I have always liked looking at this pattern, and admired the fancy stockings. Now I have my own pair, and I think they are even fancier than those in the book are. I continued the lacy ribbing down the back of the leg, decreasing the plain stitches between the lace repeats. I also exchanged the heel flap for a short-row, y-heel.

I have already worn one of the socks. I was cold last night as I knit the second one. I was also fixing my sister's computer. Tired as I was, I could not sleep for anything. I wrapped myself in two shawls and worked away. Bruce laughed when he saw me. I was a bit of a sight. I wish the situation had been more conducive to other knitting, but was quite glad for the sock to keep me company. Also, I needed to clear the needles. SM3 starts in the morning.

Kindness of Strangers

More yarn=more knitting=yay!

Is That All There Is?

Knitting the Shetland Tea Shawl has been wonderful. Even though the rounds became quite long, I loved knitting every stitch. I only ever retrieved one ball of yarn at a time. When I needed more yarn, I went to the closet, opened the tub, and pulled out another. I Russian joined the new to the old. The spent ball bands went to the bottom of the knitting bag, or into books to mark pages.

After much knitting, I finally reached the end of the last chart. It was also time for more yarn, so I repeated the same actions. I did not think of how many times I had done this during the knitting of this lace. What I can tell you is that I cannot do it another time. There is no more.

I was sure there was more. I should take that back, because I could not tell you how many balls of yarn I thought I had. What I thought is that I had enough to knit this. It would seem that I was wrong. I went through the stash. Had I not once swatched with some of this yarn a few years ago? Surely there were one or two more in there. They had just been taken out and never found their way back the proper bin, right?

Somehow, I must have made a miscalculation. This mistake has me somewhere between wanting to scream, wanting to cry, and feeling so very stupid. I am trying to obtain more of the yarn, and remain hopeful. I plan to keep knitting the Beechleaf Edging. Knitting one hundred fifteen chart repeats is bound to keep me busy. Perhaps by the time I reach the end of the ball, I will have more yarn. That should also let me know just how much more yarn I need. I should also be able to knit that chart in my sleep by then.

That Explains It?

My energy levels have been a bit on the low side. In fact, yesterday, I fell asleep on my mom's couch amidst the noise of an energetic preschooler. My ear had been bothering me for about a week, so when I was in for a check up, I mentioned it to the doctor. "Ooh, that is very red; that looks very bad," were the doctor's comments after examination. I hope that explains everything, and that I will be back on my game soon.

When I am not slumped over or passed out, I am knitting. The March socks are coming along nicely. The Shetland Tea Shawl is a quite warm. That was wonderful when it snowed. Since it is over 80 degrees in the house right now, I am finding it less enjoyable to knit. I will want to make the most of the time I feel like knitting it so that I may finish soon. I am done with the body, and am ready to begin the edging. It is already so pretty, and I can only imagine how much nicer it will be after blocking.

I have also been easing my way into a more structured exercise program, and it has helped my back. I have been using the inversion table more, and have worked back to full inversion. It is uncomfortable around the heel and instep, but I am hanging in there. Oh, yes, I am hilarious. I wish I knew if the gravity boots/conversion bar kit would help. It would be a pricey investment, but one I would make in a heartbeat if I knew it would help.

Dare Completed

There was a dare for me to knit and wear this hat. I decided to accept, and am glad I did. I love my new hat! Having it has made the brief return of colder weather welcome. The shadow I cast is pure entertainment. I am wearing the hat at every opportunity. At the birthday party, people suggested one of these hats would be perfect for someone else. I wore it to the Waffle House in the middle of the night. The waitress was puzzled, but told me she liked it. My headwear for the first Monday after Thanksgiving is ready.

Just Duckie

I reached up amongst the brown paper sacks, and pulled down the selection for March. Nestled between the perfectly pine green yarn was a slip of paper. I will be knitting a Nancy Bush pattern from her 2001 release, Knitting on the Road! Yes, for the psc, I am knitting a nearly decade old pattern with the readily available Knit Picks Essential sock yarn, and I have never felt less exclusive. I love it! I can only hope I love knitting my New England socks as much.

It will be nice to have a more portable project. Sometimes I am just not up for a 574-stitch round. They will also help to satisfy my yearning for new lace. Still, socks are not a shawl. I think I know what the next lace will be, and I am OK to wait for it.

For today's photo offering, I give you a poor snapshot of the latest amigurumi. This went to my niece at the birthday party yesterday. It went over well, as did the ninja for her brother. Tomorrow will have a more entertaining picture.

No Rest

I am on the final chart in the body of the Shetland Tea Shawl. It requires a bit more attention than charts past. There is action on every round. That is to say, there are not plain knit rounds alternating with lace rounds. This makes for finding a stopping point a little more difficult. It is easy to keep going, because the natural resting points just are not there. However, my energy and concentration levels force me to take breaks.

Sometimes, I want to keep with the fiber pursuits, but am not up for much action. This is where planning and plotting can be good uses of my time. However, I am not interested in becoming stuck focusing on all the things I want to knit, and the resultant frustration at not doing it all right now. I want to keep the enjoyment going. The time to plan my participation in the personal sock club arrived.

After risking life and limb to retrieve the package of brown lunch sacks, I was committed to the psc. Seriously, that was a more trying endeavor than I had expected. Anyway, once the bags were in hand, it was time to fill them. I flipped through books and magazines. I perused patterns on Ravelry. I examined the sock yarn stash. There is less than I had thought, and this is good. I consulted the Sock Madness 3 supply list.

Before I knew it, the time had come to seal the sacks and wait for the first day of March. I have to remember to sign up for Sock Madness that day, too.

Death and the Ninja

I finished the first two amigurumi creations from my new book. These were fun and easy to make. The ninja is going to a nephew for his birthday. Death still needs a sickle. When I pick up a toaster oven, I will use it to bake polymer clay accessories. I do not know why I never thought of that for the eyes, but it will be perfect.

Anyway, I also finished the amigurumi tiger I started last year. I forgot to take a picture of it before giving it away. I will endeavor to remedy the photo situation, soon. There are plans to get together with the family this weekend for a birthday party.

Speaking of birthdays, I know I need to crochet an amigurumi critter for my niece. She will feel hurt if her brother gets one for his birthday, and she does not. I just need to figure out which one I think she would like the best. I am thinking that perhaps the vampire queen, sheep, or maybe a turtle would be right for her. No, I am not in the habit of giving a present to siblings of the birthday child. This niece and nephew is a twin set.

Next up--dishes and laundry. Of course, the spinning wheel is singing to me, beckoning me to spend a bit of time, telling me to not set the timer.

Newness

My sister has a new puppy called Lucy. She seems like quite a sweetie.













I have a new book. I do not think you can call any of the critters in it sweet.

Monday Already?

The weekend flew by for me. Valentine's Day was good. I suppose I like that day the same way I like Thanksgiving. Love and thankfulness are for every day of the year, but it is nice to spend a day giving extra attention to them. We are mostly silly about the day, liberally sprinkling our conversations with cutesy pet names.

Anyway, I was also not feeling well for a good bit of the weekend. My back did not like the way I moved, and has been taking it out on me since. It has kept me from the spinning that I want to do. I am glad that I seem to have recovered well enough to go for my ten minutes today, but I had better not push it. Beyond that, I alternated between feeling cruddy in a general way and extra sleepy. It seems to have passed, but it did cause me to lose large chunks of the weekend.

My constant companion has been the Shetland Tea Shawl. I just keep knitting away on it wherever I am. The growth of the piece might be what makes it a less portable project before lace complexity does. It is now well beyond the stage where a photograph shows much more than a giant lump of knitting. At a baby birthday party, people kept asking what I was knitting. My answer was that it will be either a shawl or a blanket, depending on the finished size. It is a wonderful piece, and I love it so far. However, I am beginning to think it might become a gift.

Speaking of things I have been thinking, I am warming up to the idea of the personal sock club. I have loved watching other people participate in it, but have not felt it was a good match for me. Besides my last pair of socks, I have not been knitting them lately. However, I enjoyed knitting my Marlene socks, and feel the desire to knit more socks. That is what got me thinking about the club. Then I remembered that Sock Madness 3 will soon be upon us. Still, part of the point of the psc is making it your own. Maybe I can think of something that will work for me.

It Adds Up

A few minutes here and there can add up over time. You might think this is going to be about spinning ten minutes each day, and it could be. Yes, it could be, but only if I had been spinning. I have not been making time for that lately, but that is changing. Today, the minutes adding up refers to the knitting I was able to do today.

Bruce (feeling a bit better) received a phone call from a visiting, out-of-town friend. They made plans for lunch. With this particular friend, going to lunch usually means we will not return home until after dark. In preparation, I made a working copy of a pattern, and packed the knitting bag. It was already full, so out went some yarn and the wip that might have a date with the frog. In went a book, a pattern, and two current projects suitable for on-the-go knitting.

While Bruce drove to Popeye's, I worked on the Yoruba Bird hat. Before lunch was over, I had begun wishing I had brought the knitting bag inside with me. Afterward, Bruce's friend needed a new headlight, so we were off to the auto parts store. While they changed the bulb and talked cars, I knit more of the hat. I soon ran out of black yarn, and I had not brought along more, so it was time to switch. This was just as well, as it was less convenient to keep checking the book, knit, and chat. Still, if I had more of the black, the only thing left to knit for the hat would be the bird. Anyway, my Shetland Tea Shawl was much better suited for the occasion.

I had just begun it yesterday, and I was ready to start the first chart. A few rounds into that lace pattern, the guys decided that test-driving cars was a good idea. It felt as though the stitches were flying off the needles, so I did not mind. I just kept knitting. I knit through the test drive. While they talked with the salesperson, I knit some more. The television in the dealership was tuned to vh1 classic, which was airing nothing but AC/DC. The next thing I knew, it was time to leave. I had completed the chart and moved on to a section of plain knitting.

By the time we got back home, I was almost ready to double the stitches again and begin the next chart. I did some calculating, and I knit over 2700 stitches while we were out, just on the shawl. While this is not a huge number when you consider the amount of time we were gone, it is a nice bit for the moments grabbed here and there.

Zig-Zagging Through the Week

Am I an easy mark, or what? At first, I just had a nice laugh as I read the dares. Before long, my mind had wandered to the stash, and I was mentally running through possibilities. As soon as I chased away a headache, I was digging through yarn bins and casting on 118 stitches. Then I remembered to prevent another potential pain by checking errata. I may have a new hat before the end of the week.

This project came along at the right time. My other knitting has been giving me trouble, and I have not quite found the next thing I need to knit. The Yoruba Hat has been a great companion today. It has kept my interest, but been easy enough to set down when I needed to do other things.

My poor Brucie-Pie is ill. I hope this is not the flu. He has needed my help throughout the day. If he feels the same way in the morning, I will take him to the doctor. If he gets feeling much worse during the night, we will be on the road. I suppose I ought to get a bag together just in case.

Getting Warmer

No, it is not a treasure hunt hint. We are in the midst of a predicted string of 70+ degree-days. So, of course, this means I have a finished pair of alpaca blend socks. I do not really feel like the two are connected. While I do live in my head more than a bit, I have not begun believing that the weather changes solely to affect my life.

I finished knitting these socks on Saturday. Once I found my rhythm, they sailed along quickly. The chart was easy to memorize. I chose to knit only five repeats on the leg because that length seemed right to me. I also substituted a short row heel and worked the toes plain. The yarn is so soft, pretty, and a delight to knit. The only thing that bothered me is what I see as a difference in color between the two skeins. According to the labels, they were from the same dye lot, but they look different to me.

Last week was not the best week. However, it was not without its good moments. I baked bread. It turned out much better than the first two loaves. I felt confident enough to share some of this loaf with more of the family. Maybe I will be baking extra bread this week.

We had the opportunity to keep our niece a bit more than usual. She is an interesting little girl. We learn new things about each other every time we get together. She is pleading for a new amigurumi bunny, as something happened to the first one. We had a long talk about taking care of our belongings, and she assures me she will care better for a new bunny, and even has a place for it in her room. She has the most expressive little face. We look forward to the next time she comes over.

Consolation Prize

It had been a couple of months since my last time at Monday night knitting. I decided to go tonight, but was more than a little late. By the time I arrived, there were just a couple of knitting magazines left on a table. I sat and knit four or five rows of my lace, looked through the magazines, and left. It surprised me, as that crowd often gets started a little on the late side, and the last hour is usually the best.

I collected the mail from the mailbox when I got home, and my mood was brightened. I had received a package, and I knew what it contained. I recently purchased a used copy of Folk Hats, and it arrived today. It is a bizarre little volume, but some of the patterns in it caught my eye. I held off purchasing it, but when I saw the chance to pick it up at a bargain used price, I jumped at the opportunity.

It's Groundhog Day!

My love for Groundhog Day is known far and wide, but understood by few. Even I have difficulty explaining my love for this day. I tried describing the holiday to my nephew with the hope that he would be excited about the day, but it would seem I have failed. I told him that if the Groundhog sees its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter, but if the Groundhog does not see his shadow, spring will be here in six weeks. First, he scrunched up his face in puzzlement. Then he declared the whole thing to be stupid. He is now trash-talking the Groundhog and its day. Fear not, for I am far from giving up on him.

I have mixed feelings over the best way to spend this day. I just try my best to make it special. I have been known to use the Groundhog's shadow results as an excuse to leave the house or to stay home in accordance with my desires. It has been suggested that I follow the Groundhog's ruling when deciding whether to attend Monday night knitting. Of course, being in serious hibernation mode, it would have been a surprise if I had gotten out of bed during daylight hours.

During the time that I am awake, I have been knitting. I have begun the second sock. I am ready to begin the second glove. Yes, I have finished the first glove. I like it, and am excited at the prospect of having a new pair of gloves.

All Over the Place

My decision to grab a can of soup turned out to be a good one, because I was not up for preparing anything more complicated. I had made my way out to three stores, and as it turned out, that was my limit. I just could not get back out of the house again, even though it would have been to knit with friends.

The yarn is ready for another go at Estonian lace. My difficulty with pulling it off the needles was a bit bizarre. I kept being careful with the lace so as not to lose a stitch even after I knew it needed a restart. I am past that, now, and I as soon as I finish this sock and begin the second, I will get going with it. Those rows will be so much quicker with two repeats fewer, and it should still result in a nice width on the finished piece.

I finally broke down and purchased a new calendar. I do not have high hopes that I will now know what day it is, but perhaps my chances have improved. However, now I am no longer looking at December 2008, and I see how close we are to our next holiday. Can you believe it is almost Groundhog Day?

I no longer rely on Bloglines as my feed reader, but I still keep an eye on it for other information. It is once again going through one of its "worse than usual" phases. Today, it has shown somewhere between 800 and 3200 unread posts in my feeds. Add to this the lag between the time a post goes live and when it shows up in the reader. Yes, they suck. It is a good thing there are better alternatives out there.

If that is not enough random for you, I am all over the place with the desire to knit a sweater. I have been seriously looking at this jacket (love the name), Shauna, Habanero, Vienne, Amused, and Valpuri (all Rav links). I love Shauna and Habanero, but do not currently have the right yarn in the stash. I think I will go with either Amused or Vienne.

Worth It

Last night, I decided it was time to transform a bumpy bunch of wool into lace, and try out my new tool kit. I love my new blocking wires! They are totally worth the investment to me. I went about the process in a random manner, weaving the wires through the edges of the piece. Before long, it was time for the tape measure, a few t-pins, and made some final adjustments. I am excited for the next blocking adventure.

Another thing that I love about this experience is the finished piece of lace. When the knitting was over, I thought the shawl would be very small. Unfortunately, I ran out of yarn and had to leave off some rows at the end. The finished dimensions of 62"x28" makes for a nice little shawl. This is going to be a gift. I think it will be for Tanya, although there are a few other people I think would be thrilled to receive it. This lovely little piece takes the sting out of frogging my Estonian lace, and now I am excited to restart it.