I still knit

There's photographic evidence that I still knit. I even have proof that I manage, from time to time, to finish something, too. (A little applause right now would be nice, people.)


Some recent projects for your perusal, if you wish to look...

After making two Ruffles and Ribs scarves out the Misti Alpaca for others, I had to have one for myself. Honestly, these are a lot like potato chips. You can't stop at one.

A popular pattern going around Yarn Cravin is this button band hat. Mine is knit from Socos, a chunky yarn in the Pumpkin Green colorway. Big needles were used - 11's and 13's. I have enough yarn to make matching mittens or mitts, but I'm battling with the thumb and have have knit mitt number one 4x now.

This is the start of my cabled wrap, a rectangular shawl. The pattern is by Plymouth. I'm using Plymouth Royal Llama Silk and size 7 needles. It's deliciously soft and I can't wait to wear it. Last night I discovered I made a mistake somewhere, so I will be going back a few rows to fix it. *sigh*

Here on my desk is the beginnings of the sock for January/February Sock of Month at Yarn Cravin'. This was dyed for us by Yarn Love and it's called Creme de Menthe. We're using the Herringbone Rib pattern from Knitting Socks With Handpainted Yarn.

Work is insanely busy. January was the 2nd snowiest on record here - 30.7" of snow fell, and it hasn't been melting. My children have kept me hopping and along with everything else, I decided I would help out my favorite LYS by taking over their blog. (It's fun, really!) All I can say is I'm having a whale of a winter!

Unseasonably Warm, with a Chance of Handknits

While out and about in the above normal temperatures, please do be extra careful. These mild temps have caused an unusual outbreak of showers of partially knit woolens. Be on the lookout for items likes these. Apparently these WIP's, sensing the change in temperature (it was 66 officially here today, by setting a new record high), decide to mutiny and run amok. I had to keep a close eye on those two, I tell ya! That mitten would have sailed away like a little box kite if I hadn't caught it quick enough.

Zip your knitting bags up tight and makes sure you needles are stowed away at the bottom of the bag!!! The Irish Hiking Scarf just about slithered away across the parking lot.

It's a warm,windy night. Hold on to your knitting. If you aren't knitting, hold on to somebody that needs holding! ;-)

On The Needles

It seems I have too many things on the needles again, my friends. In order to start decreasing WIP's (works in progress), I'm going to list them all out here, in no particular order. As my kids would say, "Hold on to your underwear!" Maybe this will prompt me to finish something. Maybe.

1. Cobblestone Sweater for Buddy Bill. (Have to finish the sleeves and attach them.)
2. Mittens from kool-aid dyed yarn that Becky gave me back in the summer.
3. Swirl Socks started in August during Arizona trip. (Sock one is 2/3 complete.)
4. Fuzzy Feet for Mayhem. (I started these ages ago!)
5. Generic Colinette Jitterbug socks (using the label pattern)
6. Log Cabin Afghan (mindless, never-ending)
7. Irish Hiking Scarf - making good progress on this right now.
8. Sweater for me... somewhere in my stash is a raglan, two-tone sweater of Sheep Shop Wool. The front is done. UFO vs. WIP... hmmmm
9. Clapotis for me. I know just where it is. It's started and abandoned. I would say this is a UFO at this point.

Methinks there are more than that, but those are the projects that come to mind. So, in the midst of all this incompleteness, what did I do? I joined the "Sock of the Month Club" at my LYS, Yarn Haven. Indie dyers are creating special yarns for us, and Khris, of Chewy Spaghetti (etsy shop) created the first one. As soon as I get a decent photo - it's gray and gloomy here - I'll post one. The yarn is gorgeous, and named "Havenly" after our beloved yarn shop. Yay!

Now I will return to knitting. The question is, which project shall I work on????

I Gotta Knit!!!

There seems to be a plethora of knitting patterns that are calling to me right now, not to mention to Mayhem and The Absent-Minded Professor.

Take the Brain Monster Hat for example. Both kids love this one! Mayhem has requested that hers be pink or purple. A-MP has assured me he would indeed wear it, but has not decided upon a color. He immediately thought of the joke about "a brain sucker starving to death" when he saw the pattern.

After seeing The Secret Knitter start this ribbed beanie (pdf), I really have been itching (OK, given recent events, maybe that was a poor choice of words!) to make a few to donate and stash away for Christmas. This hat has "college kid" written all over it.

The pattern for the felted clogs from Fiber Trends is still sitting at home, staring at me, taunting me. I have two friends who are finishing these right now, and are ready to felt their clogs. Thanks, girls. You know who you are.

Here's the WIP update: I am slowly working on a simple stockinette pair of socks for me. They stay in the car, mostly, so I am not getting very far. Last night I started on the border for the granny square afghan. Yes, the border!!! It WILL become a Finished Object (FO) this weekend, then Cobblestone is coming back out of the knitting bag. Everything goes slowly with the wrist pain (which is manageable most days with meds and the wrist braces), and I get frustrated at times with my seemingly lack of progress.

Thank you to all of you who had suggestions about the hives! I took an allergy pill (Rx) before school today and so far so good. I really didn't want to keep itching! Besides, this weekend I have plans to make some homemade oatmeal raisin cookies. yummmmmmmmm

Missing Kid Not on Milk Carton

I'm missing my Absent-Minded Professor. He's been gone since Monday morning. No phone calls, no emails, not a word. Rest assured, though, you won't see his face turning up on a milk carton. He's just gone for the school week at outdoor education with his whole 6th grade class. Tomorrow afternoon my first-born will be home again. I'm sure he'll have great stories about Michindoh.

My house sure is quiet with him gone. It's not that he makes a lot of noise. The clashes he and Mayhem get into over stupid stuff create a lot of noise! Normally when he's gone he can call, or I will call and talk to him at night before bed. AMP regularly goes to stay with my parents for several days to a week at a time, so I'm OK with him being away from home. This is the first time he's been somewhere without family, though. I'm quite sure he misses Bruno and Coco more than he misses me! The dogs and I did send him mail.

The granny square afghan is 45" square. I ran out of the Tatamy Tweed worsted in Oatmeal and have just a scrap of the yellow (Gold) yarn left. My LYS is out of those colors; remember I bought it on clearance months ago when they decided to stop carrying it. Today I decided to order some directly from Kraemer Yarns in order to finish the afghan the way I want. Now that it's finally cool, I really want to finish this and get it to Buddy Bill's!

Mayhem gave handknit socks her stamp of approval today. It was chilly in the house and her feet were cold last night at bedtime. I suggested she could wear the Thuja socks I had made for her during the summer. This morning she proclaimed that her feet stayed toasty warm and those were now her bed socks. The way her feet are growing, they won't fit long! When I knitted them in June she thought I was nuts, of course. "It's too hot for those socks, Lady!"

Tonight I plan to get Cobblestone back out and work on the sleeves. Grey's Anatomy will be on, and I know I'll be parked in front of the idiot box, as my dad so fondly calls the television. Now that it feels like October, Buddy Bill needs his sweater.

Any big weekend plans? I think I'm going to try to get out and photograph the fall foliage! Oh, and knit of course.

Heat Wave

How in the world can it be 87 degrees in October?

Look! This is on my back porch, on the north side of the house, in the shade of a BIG apple tree.


Yesterday we set a record for high temps, and the weekend forecast is for temps to be near 90.


And what am I knitting and crocheting? An afghan and a wool sweater! Hello!? It's not summer anymore!! Guess what I did last night? I turned my AC back on!!! (But in October in northwest Ohio??) Then I curled up on the couch under the granny square afghan for Buddy Bill and stitched away. Here's a pic of the afghan in progress. All those leaves prove it really is October.


I survived my tests this week. Buddy Bill was a godsend on Thursday for the EMG. He offered to take me and I gladly accepted the offer. Wow, am I ever glad I did! First, there was a mixup on scheduling and I reported to the hospital where I requested the test, only to find out that the person who scheduled it booked me at a different test site. We schlepped back thru the maze of corridors so typical of hospitals to the parking garage and drove to another hospital. Once there, we waited to register all over again, and then wound our way thru another maze of corridors to the correct place. The EMG was pretty unpleasant, but not the worst thing I've ever been through. I did end up sleeping for an hour and a half afterward, though, I think mainly from the stress and frustration of the runaround, but maybe from being tasered for 30 minutes. I also have bruises at each needle insertion site. Buddy Bill took very good care of me all day afterward, getting me Starbucks, fixing soup and salad for lunch, propping me up on the loveseat with my book... A girl could get used to that kind of spoiling, you know?

Oh, back to my tests! Anyway, the EMG made the mammogram on Friday seem like nothing. Really. No big deal. If for some reason you are dreading it, the mammogram is over quickly and really isn't that uncomfortable. Just go do it. The longest part of the whole procedure was waiting for the technician to make sure she had clear images on the films afterward.

Know what else? My sock yarn is calling to me! I am just dying to start knitting socks again. My hands will probably not like it, and I am going to resist the call for a bit longer, but I have all of this gorgeous sock yarn stashed here and eleventy-billion sock patterns. I really want to knit socks! Maybe today I'll wind some yarn...

Seeing Green

I'm seeing green. Really. Last night when I measured Buddy B's Cobblestone sweater, it was 15" in length. The body for the size I am making has to be 17" before putting some stitches on hold for the sleeves, and knitting the top of the sweater. I'm getting so close! There have been a few days when I haven't knit because my wrists ached again. A couple of other days I was insanely busy and didn't get time to knit more than one or two rows. Two or three days it was really too warm to have a pile of wool sitting in my lap! I'm not bored or tired of this project, at all. Honestly, I'm finding great joy in this knit. Maybe the recipient has something to do with that. Someday, the weather might be cool enough for him to wear it, too! It has been in the mid to upper 80's here, making for some very steamy days here in 8th grade land.

Speaking of joy, I came across this quote today. Mother Teresa said, "Joy is very infectious; therefore, be always full of joy." It made me think of the way my life is going right now and how I been able to help others, especially recently. I feel strongly that we end up where we are supposed to be in life, that we have a purpose and we're placed on certains paths for certain reasons. Just in the past few days someone thanked me for sharing my joy of life.

Next weekend, I have a baby shower to attend. My nephew and his wife are expecting their first baby. I'm going to be a great aunt... again! (My nieces and nephew already think I'm a great aunt.) Not having a lot of notice on the shower, I am not sure that I am going to get a gift knitted in time for the shower, nor do I think I will try. My wrists just won't let me take on a rush job right now. I do have the Tulip Baby Cardigan kit at home from Dream in Color yarns. Honestly, I don't know that I want to put other things aside to focus on a baby sweater for a week and maybe not even finish. Having written it out here, I think I've decided I'll knit it slowly and send the sweater to baby when she arrives in November. Yes, she.

Enjoy your weekend, everyone. My parents are in town to watch my nephews. Tomorrow I'm taking my kids to The Butterfly House to see the Monarchs released. The butterflies will begin their migration to Mexico. Sunday will be spent going to The Toledo Zoo with Oma and Opa and all the kids.

WIP's

There seems to be a whole lot going on right now! Just how many WIP's can one have going on at one time and still accomplish something? And how many is too many? Is there such a thing? I have a note card on my fridge that says, "Too much of a good thing is a good thing." The problem I'm having is that I just don't seem to be getting anything finished! Some of that I can blame on my wrists, but honestly, some of it is due to the fact that I'm having trouble concentrating on any one thing for very long... Any one knitting thing, that is.

Also, there are just some things going on in my life (I alluded to changes in my last post) that are requiring my time and attention (I'm not complaining!) right now. Good things coming from that!

Here's my current WIP list, not in any particular order:

Cobblestone Sweater for Buddy B.

Log Cabin Afghan

Swirl Socks (kind of abandoned lately because of wrists)

Rusted Root Sweater (cast on, but not much farther than that)

Super Quick Baby Socks (almost complete)

Chemo Cap to donate (3/4 complete)

Cotton Dishcloth - Chinese Waves (half done) for a friend's apartment

Chevron Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts (being made from the cashmere and silk Buddy B got me in Scotland last year!)

What about you? How many WIP's do you have on the needles?

*sigh* I need some some Knitalin, I think!

Not Buyin' It

All month long, since my trip to ThreadBear on July 1, I swore I wasn't going to buy yarn. I haven't. Really. Even this last big sneak up at The Loopy Ewe didn't make me cave! So what you see below, is not a new purchase. Honest. Those were ordered in June when Sarah and I put our names on the waiting list to buy them. They just got here this week. What the hell am I talking about? The Dream In Color Yarn and Tulip Baby Sweater Pattern, that's what!

OK, yes, I bought two of them. But people keep having babies. I will have the pattern afterward to use with other yarn also, if I so desire. Notice they are still in the package?

Instead of starting something new, I'm working diligently on my current WIP's. Thuja sock 2 is nearing completion, as you can see from the photos below.

Last night I even pulled out the Log Cabin afghan and knitted another log. I have cast on for another pair of socks, which I will tell you about later.

Next time I write I will tell you about the hilarious encounter with a muggle (non knitter) male that Sarah, Johari and I had Wednesday evening while having coffee and knitting. Some men are so full of shit.

Just a Suggestion

A couple of days ago, I was reading the blog over at Cider Moon. Jacki was showing off some newly dyed yarns, (Yum!) and said that one had yet to be named. I just happened to comment that maybe a little contest should be held to name that yet-to-be-named yarn. Well, lo and behold, a Name This Yarn contest was born! Many, many coments were left with name ideas. The winner will be announced sometime today and will receive a skein of that lovely yarn as the prize. Even if *I* don't win, it was so much fun! (But pick me, Jacki & Gail!)

All of my other knitting has been set aside for the Log Cabin right now. I've been working on it the most, even at work, while it is still small enough to be portable. I think it will go with me to S n' B tonight at Yarn Haven. That, and the Baby Surprise Jacket. Two projects are enough to take along. I'm going to try to not buy yarn, but may buy a pattern or two, or a book.

How many days of school now? 13. Not that I'm counting. Every day this week has me busy running to the elementary schools to talk to the 6th graders about coming to junior high. It needs to be done; those little guys need reassurance about coming to my great big building. But I also need to be in my office finishing things up.

From the Peanut Gallery

Since I don't seem to be finishing anything, and I have yet to find a drug called "Knitalin" to cure my knitting ADD, I thought I would address some of the comments previously left for me in this entry.

Beth asked "Is there enough in the Duets yarn to knit the socks w/o using the coordinating heel/toe yarn?" I suppose it would depend on the pattern. The total yardage is 360 yds., but separate yardage for the solid and variegated is not listed on the label. Want me to weight them?

Becky C. said, "I think you and I could co-enable each other right into the poorhouse!" No doubt about that, Becky. Sarah and I are doing a great job of it already. Good thing all three of us haven't manged to meet up yet!

Sarah Lou commented, "thanks for enabling me... again!!" No problem... again. Just remember you asked, no *begged* for that Loopy Ewe info! (Hey, we knitted together this morning and didn't buy any yarn.)

Liz left this comment, "Unfortunately, I am buying yarn faster than I can knit it. MUCH faster." Same here, friend. Same here.

My Namaste Messenger bag arrived and wowee! does it ever hold a lot of stuff! I'm loving it! Right now it has the following inside, and isn't even full:

• Cider Moon banana cabana sock - in progress
• Baby Surprise Jacket- in progress
• Clapotis - in progress
• practice sock on 2 circs - in progress
• Sensational Knitted Socks book
• Notions bag (stitch markers, scissors, etc)
• Patterns for the 4 projects above
• Notebook, 2 pens
• 3 hanks of yarn (Yarn Pirate and Claudia Handpainted - to show Sarah today)

What am I trying to NOT cast on? My Rusted Root sweater and my knitted Log Cabin afghan. Seriously. I have to finish something!

Happy Mother's Day to those of you celebrating this weekend. My mom is out of the country right now... in her mid-70's and traveling with Dad in Germany.

Happy February!

I have a special fondness for February. Lots of good things happen this month. President's Day (and a corresponding day off school!). My parents' wedding anniversary (52 years this year). Groundhog Day. February is the shortest month of the year. It's also usually good for a couple of snow days. (Notice I left out February 14? Blech. Phooey!)

Yesterday I was talking to a friend about support groups and I happened upon this site: Knitter's Anonymous. There is some very amusing merchandise there. When I showed it to my friend, however, I was told that I am "beyond help." My response was that I hadn't asked for help! I rather like myself just the way I am, thank-you-very-much. It was all in fun, of course.

Here's a knitting update. I still have four WIP's. Calorimetry is half finished. The Irish Hiking Scarf #2 is half finished, more than half if I don't make it 6" long like the first one. (I am seriously considering keeping it for myself because I am loving the stripes!) I am nearly finished with slipper one of Mayhem's pair. Sadly, however, my green sweater is stalled again. Poor, poor, green sweater. Must. Work. On. Sweater.

This weekend I don't expect to venture out much. We are expecting temps to dip down to ZERO each night starting Saturday, with highs in the single digits. It will be a good weekend to catch up on housework and knit.

Guess which one I prefer?