Debbie and Me

Debbie Macomber was signing her newest book "Twenty Wishes" at Foxwoods Casino last night, and I went down to see her. I heard several comments from Foxwoods staff about what a nice lady she is, and she is just like her books - easy-going, not too complicated and a little bit funny. She gave a short speech first in one of the Ballrooms, then answered questions from the audience (about 250, mostly women). I bravely put up my hand and asked if there would be a knitting pattern book associated with Twenty Wishes, as there is with the other 3 Blossom Street yarn shop books, and she said there was. Later, when I finally got up to her table (long line) with my book to sign, she asked me if I was the one who had asked that question, and I admitted it. (Imagine she actually remembered my face out of all those people!) So she snuck a copy of that pattern book from under the table and gave it to me, saying "Don't tell anyone". (and since no-one reads this blog, I'm not.) She's got a fan for life in me. And she graciously consented to have pictures taken, so here we are. In case you missed a previous post, she knits and lives about 20 miles from S1 in Washington which is how I had connected with her. Another connection is that she mentioned in her little talk that she had had 4 children in 5 years, just like me.

Next is a picture of the wonderful lace butterfly which D2 sent me on Mother's Day. This was on the cover of an issue of Piecework magazine which I saw at her house in February, and jokingly said "Why don't you make that for me?" It's a project I would never tackle myself - way too complex, but D2 likes extreme needlework (you should see her needlepoint!), so she attempted it and lo and behold - isn't it beautiful. To give an idea of size, it's about 5" by 7". I'm going to frame it.

The big news at the condo is that we're having our lawns re-loamed and reseeded, after many years of crab grass being the only green to be seen. Here's what it looks like right now. But we have hope. The second picture is my small garden in front of our unit - a few perennials, including a wonderful peony, and some pansies and impatiens for spring color in the front.

Happy Spring! Flea Market season has started.

The Eyes Have It

I don't have much time to post this week. Today was the day Hubster had Lazik surgery on his eyes, amazingly it took only about half an hour (I barely had time to read an article in People in the waiting room). Tomorrow we have to go back to Wethersfield for the doctor to check his work. Hubster is sleeping right now, hopefully for the rest of the day to help heal the surgery. He has an eyedrop and medication regime for the next week.

And my eyes are a little black and blue today, as I banged my nose with a heavy wooden shelf while packing the car after the Brimfield flea market. My show partner did very well, but I did about as poorly as possible. I probably won't be doing another Brimfield show - not much fun to spend two days alternately freezing and baking, and then not even break even.

Hubster Reunion

I got my camera back from Canon - nothing but praise for their repair service! It was back to me in a week, working perfectly again, and under warrantee with no charge. Hooray! So now I can post some new pictures and update Ravelry.

Friday afternoon, Hubster's brother paid us a visit from South Carolina. Long time no see for these two. We went out to dinner and then I left them alone and the two guys talked until the semi-wee hours. I wasn't really listening to their conversation, but a lot of it involved politics, the job market, and the state of the world today - pretty different from what women talk about when they get together. Brother is younger than Hubster, but larger, as you can see in the official commorative photo below.

Now for the exciting knitting news. This is my completed scarf, using the pattern that Pat sent me, after I admired hers at the Knitting Guild. I've gotten compliments galore on it and two people want me to make it for them (I refused gently, but offered to teach them to knit.) They might get it for Christmas, though, who knows. I love it myself and will wear it a lot. It would be excellent in a heavier yarn also. Thanks again, Pat!

This is what I currently working on, and I can't wait to finish it, because I don't like this kind of knitting. I have to concentrate on every stitch. It looks like a real mess right now, but when it's seamed and blocked, it should look like the one in the picture. The yarn is from my stash, which I've had for ages. The blue scarf above was stash yarn also, so I'm making a small dent in what is in the boxes.

But I had to buy some new yarn for the next project. It's the Sunrise Circle sweater, and the yarn I got at almost half price at Webs is so gorgeously soft and beautiful. I haven't started the sweater yet, but every so often I just squeeze the yarn and pet it a little.

The next post will be about butterflies, grass and Brimfield.

The Cutest Model Ever

My California daughter just sent me pictures of my GD5 wearing the purple cotton sundress I finished for her last month. It's a little big, which is good, and the buttons on the straps can be lowered to allow for even more growth. I couldn't choose which picture was the cutest, so I'm

including all three of them. Love the little ballet poses!

My camera had to be sent away for repairs - it's under warranty so I might get it fixed for free. I have pictures to take for Ravelry of new stash and new projects, so I'm hopeful I'll get it back next week - Canon Service promised to be quick - 7 day turnaround. I've started a turquoise cotton shrug, and bought some marvelous Debbie Bliss alpaca/silk for the Sunrise Circle Cardigan (almost 1/2 price at Webs!).

Another issue here at home is that our automatic garage door opener isn't working - in fact, most of the the whole condo's garage doors have the same problem. The serviceman worked on it for a while and concluded that something with a very strong frequency signal in the neighborhood is interfering with the signal from the remote. He tried to install several different frequencies in the door equipment but nothing worked. Hubster has contacted the electric company and the phone company and walked around to neighboring houses to ask if they had anything new which might be the cause of our problem, but nothing was discovered. Not a major problem, but definitely a nuisance.

Harlot at Webs

Sunday was Yarn Harlot day at Webs in Northampton. It was worth $20 in gas to drive there and hear her speak. It's like stand-up comedy with a knitting theme. Her style reminds me of George Burns routines which I've seen on TV, where he just stands on a stage and tells stories and you are laughing softly all the way through, and then he leisurely gets to the punch line and it's just hilarious. Her point this year was that knitting induces a meditative state (Theta brain waves) which lets your mind go free and stimulates creativity and stress-relief. It's marvelous how she can make that so funny. Isn't it just great to learn that something you enjoy and results in beautiful things to wear or give away is also good for you! And didn't we learn last year that chocolate and wine are also good for your health? We can eat chocolate, drink wine and knit all at the same time, and become Super Heroes. The chocolate and wine has to be in moderation of course, or we'd all be fat drunks, and then how would we knit?

Here's a picture I took in a store window on Main Street in Northampton. You can see my reflection taking the photo. I had not heard of this movie but I definitely want to find out more about it.

Here's a picture of Stephanie signing her book. I took this picture because of the Red Sox jacket the woman is wearing, but now looking at it I see she has my hair, so maybe we can pretend it's me. I actually got a pre-signed copy this time - didn't want to wait in line for over an hour and she signed my book last year anyway.

The second photo is some of the mob scene at the Webs store after Stephanie's talk (which was at the Calvin Theatre) - you could hardly move in the aisles. Fortunately I got there before her talk when the shop was relatively empty and scored some beautiful pink yarn for my planned sweater, at half price! I would show a picture of it, but I stupidly dropped water all over my camera on the way home, and now it isn't working very well, to say the least. I did manage to recover the pictures I took, as you can see above, but I can't take any more until the camera dries out (I hope!)

New Projects

Now that the Cobblestone is finished, I've been thinking about the next BIG project, and have decided on the Sunrise Circle Jacket, by Kate Gilbert. It's in the Spring 2006 IK, the one recent issue that I don't have, but it's downloadable for free from Knitting Daily - which I just did. Since I'm going up to Northampton on Sunday for the Yarn Harlot, I can look through Webs' vast inventory for just the perfect yarn. I'm planning on finding something spectacular and absolutely perfect on sale, of course. And I'll get Stephanie's newest book, too. With the price of gas now almost at $3.60, this trip will probably cost a fortune, but well worth it. After all, it's knitting!

A friend of mine recently bought a "Knitting Nancy" for her grand-neice to try out. This is the same thing we used to make with a wooden spool and 4 nails. It makes a long round chain. Wouldn't you know, we had the hardest time trying to figure out how it worked - the directions that came with the gadget were useless, so we gave up trying to follow them and just worked by instinct and memory. We also found a crochet hook would be a lot more useful than the metal stick on a handle that came with it. And this toy cost over $20 too. Granted, it was cutely painted, but I told my friend that maybe we should just stick to the good old spool and nails.

One FO, One New UFO

First to all, here's the Cobblestone sweater, finished, washed and blocked, and finally modeled by Hubster, who is very satisfied with it (he better be!). I'm happy with it too. He's out at the Lion's Club meeting tonight wearing it - I told him I was not taking order for any others no matter how his friends begged. His will be unique in Putnam.

I have a lot of little projects in mind, but I don't know yet what the next BIG one will be. Here's a little project I just started last night. At Show-and-Tell at the Knitters Guild meeting last week, Pat showed this scarf, and I just fell in love with it. I've been looking half-heartedly for a pattern for a neckerchief-type scarf, but all the ones I've seen have a straight-across top, like a real triangle. This one has a curved top edge, so it will fit around your neck without bunching up in the back. Anyway, I asked her for the pattern, and she kindly mailed it to me, so here's my first few rows.

And by the way, I have already frogged this three times, before I finally got the pattern down in my mind. It's really easy - I just kept doing it wrong.

And this is how the striped scarf is coming along - a friend of mine really likes it so she may be getting it as a surprise gift.

This is under the Small World of Coincidences category - I was just talking this morning with D2, who lives in Los Angeles, about the AARP magazine cover of Jamie Lee Curtis, and how great she looks with her grey hair and honest wrinkles - no haircolor or cosmetic surgery for her! And D2 just called me and said: Guess who walked into my needlepoint class this afternoon? Yes, Jamie Lee Curtis! And she really does look great just as she is. Simple chic.

Sweaters and Feet (One of Each)

It was Show-and-Tell at the RI Knitting Guild meeting last night. I had planned to have the Cobblestone sweater finished by then, but due to some unexpected frogging, that didn't happen. I brought it anyway and got some good comments about it. New member Marva wants to make one for herself so she was able to see the construction. This is the second sweater I've made recently (first being the Napoli by Norah Gaughan for myself) that has what I'm going to call "interior construction", sweaters that are knit mostly in one piece with circular needles, short rows and increases/decreases in interesting places. This is quite different from the way I've always made sweaters - knit a front, a back, 2 sleeves, and then sew them all together. I'm really liking the new way - it's more of a challenge and I like the way it enhances the fit. Here's the cobblestone so far - hopefully the next post will show Hubster modeling it.

So then I came home from the meeting and what did I find? See below.

This is Hubster's left foot, complete with bracey-shoe-thing. He broke a long bone in his foot, and would you believe it was because he was jumping up to swat a bug on the ceiling. He's now supposed to be resting his foot and walking with crutches, but of course he isn't taking that good advice. I warned him I was going to post this picture, but I don't think he reads my blog posts. Probably a good thing.

Live With It!

I've been reading other folks' blogs this afternoon, and some of my favorites write reams of funny and interesting thoughts, on and on about this and that. Somehow I can't do that. I find it hard to write a non-trite sentence or two on a birthday card. I've often wondered how someone could write a novel - how do they think up all those words? And writing a self-help book - insane. I could probably say everything necessary in one paragraph, or even one sentence - something like "get over it!", or "so stop doing that if it makes you unhappy". D2 is a writer - she wrote a wonderful magazine column for a few years - so where did that come from? D1 writes well too when she gives it a chance. Anyway, this blog is probably going to turn out rather boring, except for maybe a nice picture or two once in a while. So Live With It.

Cobblestone Coming Along

I'm getting near to the top of the Cobblestone sweater. It got a little complicated at the armholes as you had to add on the stitches from the sleeves to the stitches of the body, and then start doing short rows. The short rows shorten the yoke of the sweater (the garter stitch area) without obvious decreases at the neck - neat idea. All of this is done on one big circular needle, which avoids a lot of seaming.

The only "seam" I'll have to do is some kitchener stitch at the armholes. You can see this opening in the photo below.

I don't like the way you have to constantly stop and move the stitches around on a circular needle (especially since there were a LOT of them in this pattern). You have to do this with straight needles too but somehow it seems less interruptive. And at this point it's a huge amount of knitting to be holding in my lap, and there isn't any lap left to hold my book. But the end is near and Hubster might even get to wear it once or twice in April.

I've finished the Rowan Kidsilk lace scarf. I think it came out beautifully and I've gotten compliments when I wear it, but it was difficult to knit. The yarn kept sticking to itself or dropping off the needles, so I had to keep counting the stitches every few rows to make sure I still had 38, not 40 or 35. I had to frog back several time before I learned to become REALLY careful when knitting the lace row and row after that. It was a challenge for me, as I haven't done much lace knitting, especially with this fuzzy type of lace yarn, and I succeeded! Yay for me!

Also on the needles now is a diagonal striped scarf from some KW that was in my stash. The left edge looks a little lumpy but I can straighten that out with blocking - it's not mistakes in the increases.

FO anxiety is beginning - what will I do when the Cobblestone is finished? I need another big project.