Finish-itis!

Not such a bad thing! I go in spurts of startitis and finishitis. I love to start start start, but then there's nothing quite as satisfying as finishing a bunch of projects one after the other. Okay, I find throwing out ball bands and a pile of snipped ends to be equally satisfying but that's beside the point.

I really wanted to bust the cotton stash in June. I tried, really I did...



This was less then half my washcloth production. When all was said and done, I'd made 14 washcloths for personal use and 4 more intended as a baby gift. Oh wait, I'm forgetting a couple - make that 6 more for gifts. All that knitting, and the cotton stash remains. It is smaller, but it's still there.

Doesn't help that I bought a cone of Peaches n' Cream and started this:



It's Rutabaga from Knitscene Spring 2007! I loved this immediately, but the word "cluster" scared me away from even reading the instructions. I envisioned having to knit a popcorn or bobble every few stitches (nevermind that I couldn't actually see anything like that in the photos) and couldn't bear the thought. Upon closer inspection, however, the cluster was nothing more than a couple wraps of a couple stitches. Big deal! I'm halfway through and it's really fun...though I can't work on it too much at one time since my hands are still recovering from the June Washcloth Mania (aka cotton hell).

I'm working my way through a couple sweaters. The Incan Pullover on the cover of the Summer '08 KnitSimple really is what this yarn wants to be, it's just taking a long time to become it.





I like top-down construction, but the yoke takes so dang long! I'm knitting this on size 6 needles which is the smallest size I've ever used for a garment. I finally made it to the back and my goal is just to have it done by fall - but I better hurry because that could come any day now!

The other sweater is crochet: The Sera Lace Top by Doris Chan from the Fall 2007 Interweave Crochet.



So far so good, but I'm going to definitely need more yarn. I'm using 7 balls of Knit Picks Shine Sport in Violet that I bought from someone on Ravelry. I knew I was rolling the dice by starting this with a finite quantity of yarn, but it was a chance I was willing to take. It's cute, but I'm concerned about the length. I know Doris is great about taking stretch into account so you don't end up with a dress, but it still is a little worrisome. I think I'll end the body with 2 more balls of yarn - one for each sleeve - then I'll order more yarn and leave my fate to the dye lot gods.

I'm very blase about work right now and thinking I'll bug off and crochet some more this afternoon. My daughter is at a basketball day camp in St. Cloud today and won't get home until 4-ish, but then right away at 5:00 we're off to Minneapolis for her last regular season soccer game. Eek. I won't be driving though so you can bet my lace scarf will be coming along. That thing is moving like lightning. Have I shown that yet?



The perfect use for the leftovers from my Knit it Down sweater and it satisfies my love of lace in worsted weight yarn.

On that note, have a wonderful day!

My brain is on cruise control.

Thus, I forget things easily...like the whole reason I started talking about my Hourglass Pullover woes yesterday!

Like I was saying. It's a great sweater. The shaping is perfect, it looks great, color is awesome, fits like a flattering glove - I just have my own personal issue with things touching my neck.

So what am I going to do about it? Here's my dilemma. Do I keep the sweater as is and hope that I get over my creeped-out neck feeling? Or, do I take matters in to my own hands and try to steek the sweater and make it a cardigan?

I've never steeked before, not to mention this is a sweater that was finished with lower and neckline hems. I (in theory) could rip out the neckline and start the hem finish lower, but I really don't want to do that. Plus, now that it's been worn and washed a few times, is it really going to work up the same way?

I just don't know. Another solution would be to just make another sweater. After I finished the first one, I did immediately think how lovely it would be to have a cotton Hourglass. Perhaps I'll do that and when the time comes to think about wearing wool again, I'll reconsider the first Hourglass.

I'm pleased to say that today is the last day of teacher gift knitting! Fluffy Lap Blanket #5 is one purl row away from the bind off. Weaving ends will be minimal since I tried to weave as I went along. I have two washcloths all tied up with soap ready to go and two more blocking. I may try to make a few more, but I also have a lot of work to do today so if not, no biggie. I'd like to do something for the moms who helped me out this year with rides. I think I might do the basket liners from Mason-Dixon Knitting. I might even splurge on EuroFlax for it too!

No photos today, but perhaps if I get ambitious, I'll drum some up for later.

Who let in the wet sheep?

Naw, it's just wash day! For Mr. Greenjeans, Ms. Oblique, and the redheaded step-child Hourglass. What better way is there to spend an overcast June 3rd when it's 57 degrees outside?



It's about time, really. This is the first washing of Oblique. I blocked each piece separately prior to seaming, but then I was so in love, I couldn't part with it for a wash/block. I've worn it everywhere and the itch on my neck is starting to get to me, so hopefully a soak in Sweater Soap will have solved that.

Laziness kept me from washing the others. All my wool things have been sitting in a heap on the upstairs hallway floor for a couple months collecting dog hair. Mr. Greenjeans will be a nice one to have clean again. I still adore that sweater for its simple and stylish practicality.

Why do I call Hourglass the red-headed step-child, you ask? Well, it's beautiful enough - I love the color of the yarn, the design, the hems, the fit...mostly the fit. This is one case where Ravelry did not work in my favor.

You see, nearly everyone commented on the neck turning out all Flashdance-y and nearly everyone commented that they solved this problem by knitting 3 more sets of decrease rows on the yoke before starting the neck hem. Or they said they wished they had. I foolishly thought I'd be fine by blindly following what everyone else said and taking it as a personal truth. My reality, however, is that the sweater would have been just fine and indeed, preferable, without those 3 extra rows. It hits my neck it such a way that scratchy or not, it irritates the heck out of me. It could be because of my thyroid nodules, but nevertheless, the neckline bothers me too much to wear it.

The other thing I've realized about my sweater preferences is that I am gravitating towards cardigans. For me, they are more wearable, have more style options and best of all, I can take them off if I get too warm. I never used to have that problem, but lately I've been overheating something fierce. Maybe it's just that I have 10-15 extra pounds hanging on. There are so many cute ones though, that it's difficult to choose. My queue and favorites lists are brimming with the best of them and I know there are more I want.

Lastly, I'm trying very hard to stick to my yarn diet. Today I scored my last 2 balls of Faded Khaki Denimstyle - go the the call last week that my order was in. I also snagged a ball of Lion Wool in Sage for $.97. I couldn't pass that up. As luck would have it, the Denimstyle was marked down even further than what I'd already paid for it and the difference paid for my Lion Wool and a ring pop for B, with some change left over.

Yesterday, I bought Lace Style by Pam Allen. I'm a little obsessed with the cover pattern. I'm going to swatch for that with my multitudes of Patons Shetland Chunky Tweeds in Earthy Brown.

I do believe I need to take a little nap before L gets home from school. I've been trying to work and losing a hard fought battle with the Sandman. I plan to finish the last Fluffy Lap Blanket tonight and block all the Mason Dixon Washcloths tomorrow and be ready for gift-giving on Thursday, the last day of school. After that, all the knitting is selfishly for me!

Remember, play fair and see ya next time!

Has it really been this long?

Good grief! Give me a day off and I'll take a month! I really do love blogging - I just have to get into the habit again of doing it regularly.

So what's been going on? Well, we're patiently waiting for consistent spring-like weather. It was 39 degrees here a couple days ago. Right now we're sitting at a rainy 52. Not too bad - at least there's no snow!

We did, however, have some severe storms last Sunday. Here's what the north side of our house looked like after the baseball-size hail:



Here's one of the hail stones. This photo was taken 30 minutes after the hail stopped and it had probably been on the ground for 45:



Here's what happened to my poor mom's car. She was visiting so her car was outside:



We are going to need a new roof, siding, 1 window, an exterior light, and gutters. Our truck took a beating as well. Both my mom's car and our truck will likely be totalled. Eek. Hopefully this storm was not a sign of things to come this summer. I'm going to stock up on batteries just in case.

Ok, on to the knitting. I've been heavily into the 2008 Fluffy Lap Blanket Bonanza. If you're on Ravelry, you can find the details here. One more to go and then I'll pound out a few more Mason-Dixon Washcloths. Those two patterns are my favorite teacher gifts. Fast, easy, impressive looking, and always appreciated. What could be better?

I bought my first skein of Malabrigo Chunky yesterday at Silver Creek Cabin. The color is Stonechat.



I was forced to buy this after seeing Parikha Mehta's Dolores Park Cowl. I simply had no choice. Plus I needed some yarn therapy after signing up for a stupid safe driving course to keep a ticket off my record. I bought it, wound it, and promptly knit it up. Like it? I adore it!



I definitely can wait for winter weather, but believe me when I say I'll be looking for any opportunity throughout the rest of spring and summer to wear this. I think this could be a new fave for gift giving as well. At $11 a skein, it's pretty darn economical too.

I suppose that's about it for now. I'll be casting on Blanket #5 today - Oh, and I got the call from JoAnn that my Denimstyle in Khaki has arrived! Yay! I'll get it tomorrow and I hope I will finish that sweater (from my last post) over the weekend. It's all good!

Have a great Thursday!

Yarn Eradication is a Goooooooood Thing!

Evil grins abound today as I make stash yarn disappear! It's great! The best part? I finally get to use the Sam-eaten skein of my beloved hand dye!

This was the stuff I dyed with Wilton Icing Colors. Loved it! Then one day Sam got bored inside his crate and picked through the bars until he caught hold of one of the skeins. By the time I found it, it had been slightly peed on and chewed into itty bitty bits. I couldn't bear to throw it away so I washed it, untangled it, wound it back up, and wondered what the heck I could ever do with it.

Turns out Baby's Got a Brand New Big Bag is the perfect pattern! My hand dye looks great paired with leftover purple and brown and a felted bag is ideal for using up little yard-or-so-long bits of yarn without worrying about hiding ends. It's moving along super fast - I just started it last night - and I'm so excited about having a new bag. The bag has only a slit-type handle at the top so I might add a purchased shoulder strap when all is said and done. We'll see.

Wanna see the Fun in the Sun Hat?

I used two almost-complete skeins of TLC Cotton Plus (love that stuff!) that I had leftover from the crocheted bunnies. Yeah, I could have used the skeins to make 3 more washcloths EACH, but I was in a crochet mood and I'd just found a couple back issues of Interweave Crochet - Spring and Fall 2007 to be exact. Whee! Love them! I fell in love with the hat and had to give it a try. It is a little small for me but I'm sure I could will it into size if I wore it enough. Perhaps A. would wear it? One never can tell.

Burp cloths are moving along swimmingly. Here's the 4 I've finished so far.

The green one on top is my favorite. Each one is better than the last and I just love making these. The 5th one is even better than any of these, but I'll wait to post a photo until it's done. My friend's due date is T-minus 19 days so I'm gonna keep plugging away on these.

Next, the Mason-Dixon Washcloth frenzy. One ball of red TLC Cotton Plus made 3 washcloths and they're just so soft and nice! I had just enough yellow left over from the hat to make another. I also have enough Cotton Ease for at least one more. I have a lot of Peaches/Sugar n' Creme, but I'm hesitant to use it for these cloths because I don't want them to shrink and get goofy looking - at least not right away. These are going to be for teachers who don't get the blankets. Don't make me think of the blankets yet!

Lastly, Annette Petavy's Pillow from CrochetMe. I'm using worsted weight acrylic from the stash and an I hook, but following the pattern exactly. I stopped after 15 strips for the one on the right and still have a few more strips to go on the left one. I'll crochet backs, stuff, and toss on our sofa. My family room is looking dark and bland lately and I'm hoping these will help to brighten things up a bit.

This is a lot of stuff. What's gotten into me, you ask? I'm doing my usual thing of "I have something I have to do but I really don't want to do it so instead I'm going to enter a stage of profound yarn catharsis and produce so much that I delude myself into thinking I'm actually using my time productively."

The thing I have to do is make my niece's 1st Communion dress. I'm ready to start and I know I can do it, but it's a big and quite important project so I'm waiting for the planets to align just right before I start and that is NOT this week. It's spring break, A. has been at WI Dells with the neighbors so it's just the boys and I. Now really people, can you see the logic in laying out mounds of white (WHITE) satin, lining, tulle, and organza with two boys running rampant and just waiting for the opportunity to strike? Me neither. I'll start after they go back to school next week.

So in the meantime, I'm trying to make yarn go away. There's nothing more satisfying than throwing away bits of yarn too small to make anything with and watching the pile lessen. Plus, when I'm all done, I can buy new yarn guilt-free!

Is it spring yet?

This is what I did on Thursday and Friday. You like? I've had the yarn for several months now but finally got off my arse and made A. her Fiber Trends felted clogs. They are GIGANTIC! I have unshakable faith in Bev Galeskas's instructions however and I'm certain they will felt down perfectly.

I'd forgotten just how quickly these slippers come together. I knitted them both on Thursday and felted them this morning. I haven't been able to get her to stop sliding across the wood floors long enough to take a photo, but I'll get one some day. She's been invited to the Wisconsin Dells with our neighbors for spring break and really wanted to take these with so I tried drying them in my dryer, on the rack, on extra low heat. Worked like a charm. She spent some time trimming off all the fuzzies and they are perfect. Finally, a "knitted thing" she actually likes!

Ok, now into the meat of the post - I'm staring out my window, this lovely March 21 - first day of spring, I might add - and looking at a beautiful winter wonderland.

Except is MARCH 21, THE FIRST DAY OF SPRING!!! Haven't we had enough yet?

I know there's a lot of people out there who think that Minnesota is cold year round, but that's just not true. We get brutal cold winters, but our springs and summers are lovely and warm. This has been the longest winter we've had in a really long time and it's starting to wear on all of us.

Our first snow was sometime back in late October and it never left us. We've had lots of snow and more than our fair share of insane cold. The house has been shut up tight for nearly 6 months. We were just starting to see grass again and now bam, we're hit with more snow. It can't last long, right?

This weather has to be the major contributing factor to the rampant influenza B scare that's running through our town. It actually killed a little 5 year old girl who's preschool classroom is right across the hallway from B's class. L. had it first. 103 fever, couldn't go to his 1st grade concert, puking, you name it. He got better after only 2.5 days though. Mr. T. got it next. I've never seen him that sick and I've known him now for 15 years.

I took care of him and came down with it next. I was sitting in the elementary school listening to the kindergarten registration program when the throat tickle and cough started. By that night, I was down for the count as well. Fever, chills, worst aches of my life, cough, and limp lungs that can't seem to get quite enough air. I *think* I'm starting to rejoin the living again after over a week.

As far as the rest of my yarn world, I've begun to feel the pressure of a friend's baby's impending arrival and the looming of the last day of school - hence, teacher gifts. I tied up some loose ends with some of my other projects (Kanga Sweatshirt and Climbing Cables) by crocheting until I ran out of yarn and those are set aside for now. I'd like to get back on the Oblique horse and get that one done. I went like gangbusters on that for so long and then just stopped. I bought the perfect buttons; now I just need to finish it.

I'm cruising along on the Baby Genius Burp Cloths. I've finished 3 and would like to just keep going and see how many I can do. My friend's baby is due April 15, and then I have 2 cousins who are also expecting in June! Never hurts to have things like those burp cloths on hand for gifts and I have quite enough cotton to last me a while. I have a baby blanket in a box somewhere that only needs a few more inches as well as several baby quilts that only need minimal finishing. I should be good.

The big box of Fluffy Lap Blanket yarn is calling my name too. I plan to shovel those out with wreckless abandon. I won't need as many last year because L. has some of the same teachers as last year - thank goodness! I'm making more Mason-Dixon Washcloths for them. Those are so quick and cute and take so little yarn. I have 4 stashed waiting for blocking and I'll add to that in the days to come, I'm sure.

Oh! AND I've committed to sewing my niece's 1st Communion dress. Yikes! The big day is May 4. I have plenty of time, but I must budget my time accordingly and concentrate. I'll keep you posted!

I must be going through blog-withdrawal or something - better stop for now, but hopefully since I'm starting to feel better, I'll get back into the swing of posting daily. I like that.

Have a wonderful Easter weekend, everybody

I hear patience is a virtue...

...but I'm having a very hard time being virtuous!

I subscribed, I paid online, and I'm trying to be patient, but I STILL haven't received my Spring '08 Interweave Knits! It's been below zero for days on end and I need my dose of spring, people!


I'm slowly making my way through the sleeves for Oblique. She isn't making quite the progress I'd hoped for, but my distractions have been many. I've had this rotten flu, which sank in my lungs over the weekend. Luckily my most excellent asthma doc is kind enough to give me an emergency course of prednisone to keep on hand for these very situations. I'm finally starting to feel like myself again.

Another distraction, in a good way, is my girlfriend's baby boy due in April. I had the gift-knitting withdrawals so I'm very pleased to be making things for little Will. Not to mention the serious stash-busting potential. I have enough 100% cotton to make several burp cloths and bibs without ever setting foot in a store. So far I've finished one of each.

I really like this color combo. My next set is going to be even better. I started this one late last night so I haven't had much time with it, but it's looking so great!

I also found out that a cousin of mine is expecting in July...yay! Another baby to knit for - and it's even spaced out enough so that I won't have to knit for two babies at the same time! How thoughtful of them!

Remember I mentioned the mindless knitting I started while watching Lord of the Rings over the weekend? Here's my progress on it. Yep, it's another Mr. Greenjeans.

This time I'm using Patons Decor in First Spring from my stash (there's a theme here...). I had bought 4 skeins for a Clapotis, but made a pair of socks instead and the rest has been sitting here. After seeing a couple Greenjeans in variegated Patons, I got going. I think I will need one more skein to make it all the way through, but that's not so bad.

Lastly, along the same vein of trying to create spring when spring is not even remotely in sight, I've begun my semi-annual kitchen overhaul. The cupboards with dishes were the easy part. I loaded a box full of stuff that I haven't used in at least a year, wiped them down, replaced everything and that was that. The pantry cupboard is another story.

We all know I have a boy with autism. One of the ways we treat this is with the gluten-free/casein-free diet (GFCF diet). I'm also allergic to dairy. We've been doing the diet now for almost 5 years so the cooking part isn't the problem...it's the sheer number of products I need to have on hand. Check out the upper half of my pantry cupboard, which is devoted to all things flour, plus a few cans of chips. It's a deep cabinet, and it's stuffed.

In my former life, these shelves would have been nearly empty. Canisters of white sugar, brown sugar, and wheat flour would have been the only things there. Ok, perhaps also whole wheat flour and bread flour, but big deal.

Now, however, I have the who's who of alternative flours: white rice, brown rice, sweet rice, potato, sorghum, garbanzo, garfava, potato/corn/tapioca starches, and don't forget xanthan and guar gums. Then there's the larger canisters of premixed (by me) Featherlight Flour Blend (Bette Hagman), GF Flour Blend (Carol Fenster), and Quickie Baking Mix (Special Diets for Special Kids 2). Oh yeah, and two kinds of pasta two: rice and wheat.

Yesterday, my kitchen was a cloud of fine GF flour powder as I mixed up fresh batches of all these mixes and tried to make some sense of what I already have. Oye! I gladly put up with the powdery mess of some of these flours, though, because the ladies who developed them have made my life so much easier. These are my favorite flour blends and they are perfect for all my baking. Casein (dairy) free is like tiddly winks compared to the transition to gluten-free, and these flours are fantastic.

I'd love to go more into the GFCF diet, but that will be for another day. Work is beckoning and this post is already far longer than I'd expected. I like doing it though, even if nobody is reading it! Stay warm everyone and have a great day!

Freaky Friday

It's Friday once again and I'm STILL sick! Tea and Puffs, baby - now that's my idea of a great day! I'm not sure how much more of this my nose can handle. Or my throat. Or my chapped lips. This is getting too darn old, folks. I'm buying stock in TheraFlu.

I'm also a little bitter because this weekend is the big Knit Out & Crochet Too at the Mall of America - a mere hour away from my home - and I can't go! Many things are conspiring against me with this one. I am still sick, but also my niece's birthday is tomorrow and knitting would not be an acceptable excuse to miss that. A. has a Girl Scout meeting in the a.m. and a big report on Coronado with which I promised to help (that would be the Miracle Worker part of my tea mug up there). On Sunday, A.'s basketball team is playing in another tournament because the organizers needed another team to round out the playing field. Three games spanning from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. It's fun to watch basketball and the homework help isn't so bad, but I do wish I could go drown in yarn and people for a few hours.

My consolation is that Oblique is getting closer and closer! I did end up ripping back on one of the fronts and redoing the raglan decreases and I'm much happier with it now. The other front was good as is so I was saved that extra work. When the fronts were ready, I already had the back pinned out and it was nearly dry (thank you lace!) so I pinned the fronts right on top of the back so that I had a good template to follow to get it all lined up right. I'll be blocking it again when finished (probably) so my only real goal here is to get everything behaving better for seaming. Love it!

Can you see the fronts better this way? I like it. I LOVE IT! I can't wait to finish it!

The sleeves are on their way also. Last night I got through the cuffs - felt like it took forever, but I think it was because I knit both cuffs at the same time. This morning while watching Angel from 5-7 a.m. (I'm hooked now and it's totally killing my committment to my morning workout!), I got to the point of starting the sleeve increases.

The photo is kind of dark, but you get the idea. My kids probably can't wait for me to get this finished because it's nearly impossible to keep them off my side of the couch and I just have to have my pattern and my notebook and my pens and my markers and all my assorted garbage set out just so. They don't like it. Even though the chaise end of the sofa is Mom's Spot, they see fit to make me feel like I'm inconveniencing their lives by covering it in knitting paraphernalia. When you have your own house, you too can put your knitting stuff any where you want!

My final note for today regards Valentine's Day. After reviewing our tax situation, Mr. T. and I decided that we wouldn't be giving gifts to each other. However, on Wednesday, he mentioned that he was going shopping for my gift. WHAT??? After we decided not to give gifts, I'd not given one single thought to what I would give him. Frankly I was relieved. He always knows what he's getting me and it ticks me off to no end because I agonize over any gift giving occasion for weeks on end.

I did end up having a pretty good idea and I think he likes it. I bought him some noise-cancelling earbuds for his iPod because he flies a lot for work and will be doing a lot of flying here over the next few weeks. He got me one of those radio transmitter thingys to use to play my iPod over my car radio. I'm very excited about that! Podcasts and audiobooks, hooray!

Okay, back to work people! Have a great day!

Is it really Friday?

Whoa, what a week! L. is the only one who's been healthy all week. A. didn't make it through yesterday but she's bound and determined to make it today since the entire 5th grade class (those with fewer than 7 late assignments, that is) is going roller skating for this trimester's reward party. B. had to miss out on sledding today at preschool because that darn cough and slight fever haven't quite left him yet. Mr. T. is back at work and I'm doing better as well. I'm going out again with my high school friends tonight so yes indeed-y, I AM better!

Sam made it through surgery just fine. He was just as happy as ever to see A. and me waiting for him. We got a chuckle over the post-op instruction of "restricting his activity for 7-10 days." A. looked at me and said "restrict what?" Precisely. The photo is his typical posture, just picture him in different rooms and you're all set!

That's the blanket A. is making for a school arts and academics awards competition - she'll be really thrilled when she sees it covered in dog hair. That's what you get for leaving it spread out like that!

I got around to taking some better pictures of a couple of FO's. Here's a new pic of the Rustic Love Pullover. I tried for full length, but my arms are only so long.

Next is a modeled picture (finally!) of Teva Durham's Assymetrical Cable Vest from Loop d Loop. I love this and wear this all the time, but Mr. T thinks I should be running around the house saying "it needs more cowbell." SNL, anyone? A. made me swear I'd never wear this to any sporting event of hers. Come ON, people!!

And finally, the piece de resistance...Mr. Greenjeans! I realy love how this turned out. It blocked out perfectly and fits so well! I'm going to wear it with a black short-sleeved t-shirt and jeans tonight for dinner with my friends.

Please excuse the horribly spotty mirror, but this was the best I could do for a full length shot. Eek!

Oblique is moving along nicely. I'm about halfway through the back. I have six balls of yarn, which in theory should be enough, but I'm considering picking up another ball tonight just in case. I hate having to use partial balls but after doing our taxes, perhaps I should see how it all goes before I spend more money!

While I do so love my evenings stretched out on the chaise end of our sectional, tonight I am very willingly sacrificing a night of knitting for a night out with friends. It will be 5 of us who went to high school together, but I've known a few of them longer than that. I met Lynn the summer before 6th grade and we played softball together. I met Kathy on the first day of 6th grade when I was the new kid at school. Katie joined us a few weeks later. We were separated through junior high and we all met up again in high school when Kathy and I joined the poms dance squad. Kathy, Lynn and I cheered hockey all through high school and Katie and Allison joined us our junior year. We've been all over the place since then, but we've remained friends. It's pretty cool. Eating out at an Italian restaurant might be a little challenging since I'm allergic to dairy, but I'm ready for it so I can have a great time with my buds! And it's Kathy's birthday so I'm bringing her a couple Mason-Dixon washcloths with some bath goodies tied inside. Boy is it nice to keep some of those on hand!

Have a great weekend everybody!

I so wanted to be able to give you a glowing account of Mr. Greenjeans. I thought I might be nearing the end of the body cable-rib section. It looked really nice. But then I reread the pattern.

I forgot to switch to smaller needles! ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!

I remain determined to do this the right way (remember the Cozy V-Neck saga?) so before I even took a picture of my progress, I pulled the needle out and ripped away. There it is, in all it's spaghetti-like glory.

I would consider myself a process knitter, though I'd be remiss if I said I wasn't anxiously awaiting this particular finished product. I understand the value of and really want another shorter sleeved cardigan. Plus I'm going to get together with my girlfriends on February 9 and thus have another occasion on which I might be able to wear a new garment. Frustration abounds, but I'll get through it.

STASH BUSTING ALERT!!!! I realised I have partial single skeins of 5 different colors of TLC Cotton Plus in my stash. This is quite fortuitous considering my goal of making gads of Mason-Dixon Washcloths to give to teachers at the end of the school year. There's a light lemon yellow, turquoise, lavender, red, and black - enough for at least two washcloths of each color. I made one out of the red yesterday (to help relieve the shock of ripping out so much of Greenjeans) and wow is it ever great! I really really love that yarn!

Photos don't do it justice, neither does the fact that it's not blocked, but it really is lovely. Cotton Plus is 51% cotton, 49% acrylic. It has cable construction, is very soft and has a sheen to it. It's labeled as worsted weight, but I think it might just pass for DK. I'll be swatching with this for some of the garments in Debbie Bliss's Family Knits.

I trekked down to Michael's this morning - I couldn't help myself! Patons Classic Merino was on sale for $4 a ball and I had a coupon! I'm such a sucker. First off, I walked past the $1 section and saw the cutest little bars of Mary Engelbreit-wrapped soap. Score! I grabbed 6. They'll be perfect for tying up inside the washcloths whence gifted.

The color selection of Patons Classic Merino disappointed me. I don't know why - I go there often enough that I know full well what their stock range of colors is. I wanted spring-y and it was not there. So I went with an option I've never considered before.

I'm gonna dye a sweater's worth of yarn! Shoot me now or cheer me on!

I bought 6 skeins of Natural Mix - my favorite - and 3 jars of Wilton icing dyes: Moss Green, Pink, and Delphinium Blue.

My gut tells me to go with the D. Blue with a dash of Pink in hopes of getting a mildly lilac-shaded blue. My gut also tells me I'd better test this out first. I went with the Natural Mix because I'm hoping that it's subtleties will remain through the dyeing process. Tonal variations are so much more interesting than one solid color. I have a gigantic canning pot that roughly resembles a 50 gallon drum - I'm sure that will hold 6 balls of yarn.

As for potential projects, I have a few in mind. The Strawberry Lace Wrap Cardigan from Knitting Classic Style by Veronik Avery is one; the Swoon Cable Cardigan from the April '08 Knit 'n Style is another. It's a little garish in the modeled photo, but would be very nice in something less busy and lighter. Oblique is another highly coveted cardigan and might just be perfect since it's lacy and I'll be using wool.

All right, enough stalling. I gotta get back to work.

Summer Knitting in January

As I sat and knit on the Lutea Lace-Shoulder Shell this morning before everyone woke up, I wondered what I was thinking knitting something for summer in January? I just finished the Hourglass Sweater (it's blocking as I type) and I still have sweater quantities of wool waiting to be knit into things that I want equally as much as the summer stuff. Even still, the answer wasn't hard to find.

First, if I knit summer garments now, I'm more likely to have them finished by the time it's actually warm enough to wear them. It's hard to believe it will happen when I look out at the crystal blue sky and see that it's -6 F, but warm weather will come.

The second reason is that very soon, I need to start my Fluffy Lap Blanket Frenzy. Last fall, Smiley's had Red Heart Symphony for $1.00 a ball. I went nuts and bought the entire $40 minimum of several colors, plus some Red Heart Tweed as the contrast band color. I think I have enough yarn for 10 blankets total in 4 or 5 different colors. I'm giving out blankets and Mason-Dixon Washcloths with soap as end of the year teacher gifts but I haven't yet decided who gets what. I figure I'd better just get knitting and decide later. Remember the blankets and washcloths? Here they are. I think they are the best idea for teacher gifts ever!

The blankets in the photo were gifted to L.'s teachers last year, but the two washcloths are part of the gift stash for this year. All they need is blocking, but I'll wait until I have a few more. I found some forgotten TLC Cotton Plus in my cotton box and I think I'll try a few washcloths out of that. I really like that stuff - very pretty and easy to work with.

I must crack down on work today, but I'm hoping to get enough knitting time during my breaks to reach the 13.5" stopping point for the Lutea Lace Shell. Then I get to do the short rows and get ready for the lace.

Oh yeah, reason #3 for doing summer knitting in January...it's super duper fast! Who couldn't use some instant gratification right about now?