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.

Vicar of Dibley Knits

Tonight (Saturday) is the night for one of my favorite shows - The Vicar of Dibley. It's one of those English comedies. I thought it was a religious show but I tuned in to it by accident and found out it's hilarious. The vicar is Dawn French, a very large lady who is extremely funny. And it turns out she has written knitting pattern books - who knew? I found them on Amazon - Big Knits, written in 1990, and Great Big Knits in 1993. I've noted the sweaters she sometimes wears on the show and she probably knitted them herself. Isn't it strange how you find knitting and knitters wherever you go!!

Easter in Indiana

I spent the past long weekend visiting Son2 and his family in Indianapolis. It has been about a year since I last saw them, and a year makes a big difference in those grand-children. At least GD2 (age 11) and GS2 (age 6) still remembered me! We colored Easter Eggs on Saturday morning, making a grand mess (that S2 on the right), and went to Easter service on Sunday. Daughter-in-law was unfortunately very busy helping her mother and father who were having severe health problems, so I didn't see too much of her.

I had brought several balls of yarn and crochet hooks, hoping that GD2 would like to learn to crochet. She picked up on it quite fast, and was happily crocheting along while I knitted on my rose Kidsilk scarf.

I'd love to be able to teach her new stitches and help her out when she has questions, but I probably won't visit them again for another year (maybe sooner, who knows). But maybe when she's older, she'll remember that Grammie taught her to crochet, at least a little bit, just like my grandmother taught me.

I'm saving the pictures of the completed rose scarf for the next post.

Showing Antiques

This past weekend, my show partner and I did an antiques show in Massachusetts. The trend in antiques in the past 3-4 years has been gently downward, so we weren't expecting much from sales at this show. However, we were pleasantly surprised to do a little better than we had done at the last two shows in this location. Not great, but better. However, the not-so-good news is that the show was smaller, only about half as many dealers as in previous shows, so we got a larger share of a smaller pot. I took a couple pictures of our space.

I spent some of the boring hours in the later afternoon knitting on my rose Kidsilk Haze lace scarf. A couple of ladies commented on how lovely it was (and I agree). It's a relatively easy Feather and Fan lace pattern, but the yarn is so thin and fuzzy that I find it hard to work with. I have to count the stitches about every four rows to make sure I still have 38, because it's so easy for me to knit two together or add one where it's not wanted. This is an older picture - I actually have about 3 feet done.

And now I'm off to work at the antiques show for the day, and I probably do a little knitting there when there are no customers needing help.

Flowers in Boston

A friend and I took a bus trip up to Boston on Saturday to attend the Boston Flower Show. Some of the exhibits were amazing, with waterfalls, huge rocks, tall evergreens and flowering trees, and of course, thousands of flowers blooming away, not realizing that it's still winter outside. Just to walk in the Bayside and instantly get that scent - moist soil, flowers, flowing water - hard to describe how comforting that is to a spring-starved person. I took home a souvenir - a rock planted with succulents - well, not really a rock, but it looked like one. I think it's made of poured concrete, and there's a hole in the bottom for drainage. I like my little mini-garden!

Here's my other souvenir. Some people buy tee-shirts when they travel, I buy socks.

Below is a picture of the finished sundress for GD5. I'm mailing it off to California tomorrow. I told D2 not to tell me if it doesn't fit (at least if it's too small - she'll grow into it if it's too big). GD5's birthday is March 20 - she'll be an awesome five years old. That day is plugged into my memory, not just because of her birthday, although that's certainly the best reason to remember the date. Five years ago on March 20, our troops invaded Iraq, and that has definitely not been "mission accomplished", as was so proudly proclaimed by a person whose name I refuse to use. So let's end this day's blog with something actually accomplished, something that is not bringing more chaos into this world, and something I think pretty is darn cute besides - the sundress.

Sweet Dreams

For the last two or three years, I have had frequent dreams that my fully grown-up children are babies and toddlers again. Some of the dreams have only one child, some have more. Most of the time, they are cute and cuddly, running around and playing nicely, sometimes they are bratty and whiny and crying (just like they were then). Last night's dream involved only one baby - a sort of composite of all of them. I was first holding him on my lap, and then he was drawing nicely with crayons and paper, sitting in a high chair. A sweet dream, and it was nice to be a young mother again briefly.

Two of my boys have birthdays this month, so that childhood in my dreams is getting even further behind us. Doesn't it seem strange sometimes to look at these adults and realize that you have actually created them, that you brought them into the world, changed diapers, rocked them to sleep, helped with homework, and so on and so on. And you never stop worrying about them.

Yes, I know there are only 4 kids in the "before" pictures, but Son3 (the big guy in the white shirt) only came along 6 years later.