The Good, the Bad, and the Looney!

I had a that kind of weekend. Mr. T was given Friday off to make up for having to work so much over Father's Day weekend. After I finished my work for the day, we went to the nursery and picked some perennials for my new flower bed. That was about all we had the energy for that day, but it was nice to all be home and have nothing going on.

Saturday rocked! It was a lovely 85 degrees here with a breeze - not too warm, not cold, and not a hint of humidity. We went fishing.

The good (a nice bass),



The "bad" (the world's smallest sunnie!),



And the Looney!



This beauty was only about 25 feet from the boat. The kids love them and Ben can do a mean loon impression. Frankly, it's not that hard for him.

I wore my newest yarny creation - another Fun in the Sun Hat!



I made this one from Peaches n' Creme from the stash and an H hook. Super easy, super fast, and super functional. Cute too! I love it and it was perfect for a warm day on the lake.

We fried the sunnies, beer-batter fried the bass, and ate them with fresh corn on the cob. We finished the day with a fire and s'mores out back. It would have been totally perfect if the neighbors hadn't ruined it. The guys behind us whooped it up until 1:30 a.m. with huge (and illegal) fireworks, girly screaming, and manly belching. Yeah baby. We were exhausted. We turned on all the lights and ate toast in the kitchen at 1 a.m. hoping they'd take the hint. Who knows if they noticed us, but they did stop at 1:30. Or maybe we just passed out. One or the other.

I'd hoped to sleep in on Sunday, but my lovely son who never sleeps past 6:30 decided to open the garage door before we got up. The alarms went off and I flew downstairs to disarm before I'd even opened my eyes. Spent 5 hours cleaning and the rest of the day moaning my aching back. Oh well.

I was looking forward to my endodontist appointment today - not because of the excitement of dental work - but because I'm in PAIN! However, that plan was foiled when the roofers showed up at 8 a.m. Would it have killed them to give me a heads up? My daughter didn't feel like staying home alone with the boys while a roofing crew was here so I rescheduled my appointment for next week (the earliest I could get in after today). Crapper! Must ration the pain meds!

As for knitting/crocheting, I'm still doing washcloths and I'm crocheting another Fun in the Sun Hat. That pattern is addictive! This one is taupe/ecru striped - a little more neutral this time and slightly darker. Next time I'm at Michaels/JoAnn, I'll pick up a color or something for another one. The stash does not have quite the color selection I'm looking for. Love it and must have more!

I suppose that's enough for now...back to work, back to work, work work work work!

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!

Back to the grind...

...but not without getting a fair amount of knitting done. Ever since Christmas I've been all over the idea of instant gratification knitting. After devoting so much time to that infernal blanket, it's hard to look at a large project.

I made 2 more Mason-Dixon Washcloth Reloadeds - that makes 3 washcloths out of one ball of Cotton-Ease! I think there's enough left of each color to combine them into one more washcloth. I'm gonna go for it. This totally fits my definition of a perfect patter - it's beautiful, useful, short, quick, challenging enough to hold interest yet not intimidating and best of all - it's correct! Man, I hate when patterns are wrong. Aren't there people who get paid the big bucks to make sure patterns are right? That's a story for another day.

I finished one Cozy House Sock from 101 One Skein Wonders out of my leftover Shetland Chunky in Rich Teal from the Drops sweater. It's wonderful! I have yet to cast on for the second sock, but it won't be long.

What else...oh - and I got back to my Hourglass Sweater. I'm using Wool of the Andes in Sapphire Heather and it's gorgeous! I finished and attached the first sleeve and started the second sleeve this morning. I made it through the hem and I'm ready to start the shaping.

This whole knitted-in hem thing is a wonderful trick, but somehow it was a real problem until the second sleeve. Both on the body hem and on the first sleeve, I could not for the life of me figure out which loop to pick up unless I went to the wrong side, placed loops onto a fine dpn, then held that needle in my left hand and knit off both needles. With the second sleeve, however, everything clicked and I picked up the stitches from the cast on row as I went and it went as smooth as silk. Yay me!

I also finished the Spiral Rib Tweed Hat and one mitten from IK Holiday 2006. I'm a bit disappointed because the pattern said I should only need one skein of Lamb's Pride Worsted. I made it through the cuff and about 1" of spiral rib and then I ran out of yarn. The set is really pretty (though my husband laughed at me when he saw me wearing the hat) and I really want those mittens, but they will have to wait until Thursday when I can get over to Silver Creek Cabin and buy more yarn.

AND, I started a pair of Jaywalkers. I think I'm the last sock knitter on the planet to make these, but I finally jumped on board and began them today. I went out this morning to JoAnn specifically to get size 2 dpns (about the only size needle I didn't have) for these socks. I figured that since I knit tight, size 2's - rather than the recommended size 1's - would be perfect. Well, 3" into the leg I tried them on and they just skimmed my leg. I prefer a more snug sock and they did look off on gauge anyway. I didn't have the heart to frog them so I just switched to size 1's on a knit row and kept going. I'm 5" down the leg and hopeful that I will be turning a heel at some point tomorrow.

I bought some gray Wool-Ease today to futz around with a scarf design I've had in my head but it wasn't turning out as I'd hoped so I'll probably used the yarn for socks. I bought Ann Budd's new sock book "Getting Started Knitting Socks" today as well. I set out this morning looking for "I Can't Believe I'm Kntiting Socks", found it, but after flipping through it, discovered it really wasn't what I was looking for.

I hung around in front of JoAnn's horribly disorganized book display until I saw the Budd book. It's hardcover (yippee!) yet it still lays flat with minimal contortions on my part. I read it while I knited the Jaywalkers. This book is fantastic! I'm not totally new to knitting socks (I've knit 4 measly pairs) and I have Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks, which I thought would probably be the only sock book I needed, but I was soooo wrong! There were things I'd often seen in patterns or in Charlene's book and I'd think "ok, how exactly am I supposed to do that?" or "why the heck would I do that?"

Ann's book goes into detail, but the explanations are clear and concise. She gives her preferences and tips throughout the book as well, which I find very insightful. This book shows all the different ways you could pick up the stitches along the side of the heel. It has the best Kitchener illustrations I've ever found. I think I might actually be able to do it. It's a great book. If you're really super experiences at sock knitting, you probably won't need it, but I can see myself knitting the basic patterns and the other more embellished patterns for years to come.

Onward, young stash buster!

Ok, maybe not so young, but I am in a stash busting mood! After completing a few large projects, I always like to throw in several small projects both for their stash busting benefits and the instant gratificaton that comes from a couple days of knitting.

I made the Super Yak Scarf from 101 One Skein Wonders with some leftover Shetland Chunky, but when I ran out of yarn to finish the Cabled Cap, I frogged it. I didn't like it anyway and I adore the hat, so it was a good trade off. I also started the Sock it to Me scarf from Designer 101 One Skein Wonders with the Opal Rodeo leftover from my Coriolis socks. I'll probably just wait until there's more leftover sock yarn lying around and make it a mish mosh of colors.

I still have some Violet and Slate Cotton-Ease so I'm going to try to make a couple more Mason-Dixon Washcloths since I love those so much and don't want that yarn to go to waste. I'd also like to get through all my UFO's. I have an Hourglass Sweater in the works as well as a new cabled sweater for Ben. I love to see yarn get used up. I feel productive and I feel like I'm doing something beneficial for my household - reducing clutter. (psst, then I get to buy new yarn too!)

Now, I'll share the story of the epic hat for my daugther. She got a new winter coat this year - I'm sure many of you have seen it. It's from Kohl's and the brand is Arctic Zone, I think? Black, with skinny white and green stripes along the arm, across the chest, and down another arm.


A. wanted a hat to match and since I love knitting for her, I was happy to dig out my Holiday 2006 edition of KnitSimple. That magazine had several hat patterns, in varying gauges, sized for preemies, babies, toddlers, children, women and men. I'd made her a 2x2 ribbed striped hat last year in the child size and she loved it. In fact she wore it so much that she eventually lost it.

I set out to make a 2x2 rib hat in black, white, green and blue stripes. The first attempt had to be frogged because I neglected to account for a brim length when I measured the total length and the hat ended up being about the right size for a Cabbage Patch Kid. The second attempt had all the right measurements for a woman's hat, but still ended up looking like it might fit a 2 year old. See the hat on the left.

Even though A. specifically said she wanted the 2x2 ribbed striped beanie hat, I made the executive decision to make her a striped Cap Karma. I thought the cabled pattern would be warmer than the 2x2 rib. I followed the basic Cap Karma pattern and then went with Jared's decrease in pattern instructions. I love it and it looks so cute on A!

Isn't she darling? What's that? Did she like it, you ask?

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

I could tell she tried to be tactful about it, but she said she really liked the other one (2x2 style) better and really didn't like the cables "or whatever" on this hat. CRAP! I should have known. Departing from what's expected or wanted really hasn't ever worked out for me. Oh well, now we'll have another hat to throw in the bench as a standby.

On another note, I started something that I've wanted for myself for over a year now. I started the Spiral Hat and Mittens Twill Set by Sharon Shoji from the IK Holiday 2006 issue.

I always have a little anxiety when I go to a yarn shop. I'm a thrifty person who rarely buys yarn from a yarn shop for my projects. Typically I'm going to Michael's or Jo-Ann and I've never bought a sweater's worth of yarn from a yarn shop. However since I knew that this would cost me less than $15 bucks, I went ahead and bought Lamb's Pride Worsted in Clematis and Wildfoote Luxury Sock Yarn in Elderberry. The photos don't do the color justice. It's beautiful!

I know I'll finish the hat today. It's a fast knit and the twill pattern is one of my favorites. I can't stop touching this hat and squishing it between my fingers! The sock yarn gives it just the right punch of color interest and I hope it finishes up and wears as well as I hope it will!

On that note, I think I'll get back to my knitting. I also need to get back to work, but this hat is addictive, as is any quick project. I keep giving my self a cut-off point when I'll stop and do laundry or work or something, but it's so tempting to keep going!

The Crisis and the New Year's Resolution

Wow! It's been nearly a month! By the looks of thing, nobody has noticed, but it feels like a long time so I thought I'd get back in the blogging game.

I'd made a conscious decision this year not to knit gifts for anyone and though it made me a little sad, it did mean I had plenty of knitting time to myself. I started the Tree Jacket, Hourglass Sweater and I continued on Ben's Cabled Sweater. I also finished a lot in December:

• Patons Cabled Cap

• Bernat Leaf Pullover

• 4 Mason-Dixon Washcloths (or Washcloth Reloaded, however you happen to refer to it)
(gave them away before I got pictures)

• Drops 79-24 Pullover

• The Yarn Harlot's One Row Scarf

The Mason-Dixon Washcloths were a last minute gift idea for my sister and 3 sister-in-laws. A day before the Christmas celebration with my dad and step-mom, I decided that I really needed to make something for someone. My female immediate relatives seemed like the only realistic recipients (there are only 4 of them). I had a couple skeins of Cotton-Ease and went to work on the Washcloth Reloaded from Mason-Dixon Knitting. I sent Tony out to Bath and Body works for 4 bars of smelly soap. I made one washcloth that day and got halfway through the other. I finished the second one in the morning. I pinned them, spritzed them, and they were dry in a few hours. They turned out marvelous! I finished another one that afternoon so I could give it to another SIL the next day. I made the last one on Christmas Eve, blocked it, and gifted it that night. I think this might just be my second favorite knitted gift (Fluffy Lap Blanket being #1). I fully intend to make several of these and save them for end of the year teacher gifts - to the teachers who don't get blankets. The pattern is easy and how can it get any better than a pattern that decreases into nothingness?

Oh my GOSH, how could I forget the most amazing finished object of December!!!!!!

(drum roll, please...)

THE OMBRE ACRYLIC BLANKET!!!!!!!

I can't put into words just how wonderful it is to have that beast out of my house! It turned out beautiful! I could have made it longer, but I was so tired of it that I could not bear the thought of continuing. Plus, I ran out of yarn. My brother and his girlfriend made it into town the weekend before Christmas and we had them out for dinner and presents. He loved it and she loved it too. Here it is, modeled beautifully by Alicia and Yocasta.



On to the crisis I alluded to in the title of this post. Yesterday my Christmas present to myself (using gift money) arrived from the evil Crafter's Choice book club. They don't have the best selection of knitting books but they had an irresistable $9.99 for any book sale and I happened to find five (5!) books that I really felt I couldn't live without. I got Family Knits by Debbie Bliss, Modern Classics by Louisa Harding, Bag Style by Pam Allen and Ann Budd, The Best of Interweave Knits, and Knitting Classic Style by Veronik Avery.

As I entered these books into my Ravelry library (and as I contemplate the purchase of another sock book), I realized that I have a crisis on my hands. I have a lot of books. It might be getting a little out of control. This led to a New Year's resolution: in 2008, I resolve to knit something from every book in my library. Even if it's something little. I have knit something from nearly everything I own, but there are several books that have sat collecting dust on my shelf. It's time to change that or get them out of here.

I used to be a pack rat, but now clutter bugs me. If I'm not making use of something, I'd rather not keep it. It was quite a leap for me to buy the Debbie Bliss book - also for the Veronik Avery and Louisa Harding books - because I've always been a little afraid of those books/designers. In Knitting Daily yesterday, Sandi said something about fearless knitting. I've decided that that is the perfect motto for me for 2008. Anything from Debbie or Veronik would qualify as bravery for me. I love texture and cables and small gauges, but I've always shied away from it. I will change that.

Heck, I spent the money on all these books, thus there was something that appealed to me enough to want them, so why not make it?

Holiday Knitting...I've got the blues (but it's okay because I have presents too!)

And not for the reason you might think. Am I overwhelmed with projects and don't know how I'm going to finish them? Am I staring at the ceiling each night wondering what the heck to make everybody on my list? Am I worried I won't please anybody with their gift?

Nope. Not me.

Last November I crocheted a sweater for my mom and this year I'm making the Ombre Acrylic Nightmare - er, Blanket - for my brother, but I haven't done any holiday gift knitting since the Scarf and Hat Extravaganza of 2005. That year I made 9 hats and 15 scarves. It was craziness!




That was a little much, so I'd hoped not to do that much again, but I didn't expect that I wouldn't be doing any gift knitting. I'm kind of sad. Here's the deal....

The Husband sees the idea of a sweater/hat/scarf/socks or anything knit for him and expected to be worn by him as torture and a threat. He gets nothing and likes it.

The Girl, as I've said many times before, said to me "Mom, I don't like knitted things." She gets nothing and likes it. Well she does want a striped rib hat to match her new winter jacket, but that's all she wants.

Bigger Boy loves anything I make. He doesn't specifically ask for anything, but he'll take anything I make.

Smaller Big Boy loves anything I make. He's begging me to finish his blue sweater.

Everybody else already has a scarf or hat, my mom has a sweater, and my brother will eventually have this beast of a blanket. What more could they want? The other attitude prevailing in my household is that a handmade gift isn't enough. Nevermind that the yarn for my mom's birthday sweater last year cost $50 and hours and hours to crochet, Tony didn't think it was good enough to give that on its own and we bought another gift to go with it.

It's not that I don't know my family well enough to decide what to make for each of them. On the contrary, I think I know them well enough to understand that they don't want anything and I'm not about to force anything knitted upon them. Plus, everybody at my house but me sweats year round so they don't need any wool in their lives. I pity them. More for me. My hands are cold.

On one hand, I'd love to be the person who is constantly asked to make things for others, but then again, I wouldn't have as much time to knit for myself. Which brings me to my presents!

The first half - the package from Amazon - came yesterday. I started reading Jenny McCarthy's book and it's pretty good. Her son's story is vastly different from my son's but I'll save all those details for a review when I've finished it. I haven't looked at the Knitter's Book of Yarn much yet, but I can tell you that I'm DYING to sit by the fire and read until I fall over! It's huge! I'm so psyched and so ready to soak up some knowledge about yarn. This book is jam packed with info. I'll review that too once we've gotten to know each other.

My Knit Picks package should be arriving tomorrow. Package tracking said it was only 25 miles from my house at 3 a.m. this morning. I was hopeful for today, but certainly it will be tomorrow. Yeeee! Of course that does mean I'll have to work on that blanket...

I'll let you know if I survive.

The yarn is talking again...and Sam contributes to my progress.

Ahhhh, it's November and now we can all come down from the Halloween sugar-high. After a cold blustery day yesterday, the winds died down and it wasn't all that bad last night. I love a nice cool October, but it's never fun for the kids when they have to cover their costumes in winter gear for the sake of a little candy. Correction...a LOT of candy. Luke made me take a picture of his bag after we'd been down one side of the block. There was a ton in the end!

The candy was checked and sorted into either the GFCF bucket or the regular bucket and now comes the challenge of rationing until Christmas. We can do it.

On Tuesday, the yarn started talking to me again. This time is was the 9 or so balls of Lion Brand Landscapes in Autumn Trails. This yarn started out life as the Indulge Yourself cashmere pullover from the Yarn Girls' Guide to Beyond the Basics. It's a cowl neck A-line swingy looking pullover that of course I could not dream of doing in cashmere (somewhere between ouch and boing!!!), so I chose Landscapes. It was going along well, but I lost my stride somewhere along a sleeve and just didn't think it was going to work out. Off to the frog pond it went.

I made one Cabled Wedding Hat from the same Yarn Girls' book, but that didn't take up nearly enough yarn. It is my favorite hat though, soft and warm and gorgeous.

The rest of the yarn sat in hand-wound balls until I bought a winder, then it sat in nicely wound cakes. Forever. Then I bought Stefanie Japel's Fitted Knits and spied the Alexandra Ballet Neck Pullover. It was a great idea, but of course, I incorrectly calculated gauge - or rather I incorrectly compensated for my lack of gauge. It was too big.

Some otherworldly force led me to Loop-d-Loop by Teva Durham. I love looking through this book and one design that has always spoken loudly to me is the Assymetrical Mock Cable Vest. The unexplained Force also drove me to the pile of Landscapes, which really wasn't hard since Alexandra hadn't been frogged yet and sat right before me on the table. I swatched on size 11 straights and had gauge...first try even! Alas, no size 11 circulars. How does that happen when I seem to have multiples of every other size needle? Walmart's needles stopped at 10 1/2 and I neither wanted to drive to Maple Grove for $6 needles nor Buffalo for $20 needles. So I compromised and cast on for the largest size on my size 10 1/2 circulars.

Turns out this yarn is absolutely fabulous in this pattern! Each stitch shows the yarn off in a different way. The reverse stockinette is muted, the stockinette is the highlight, and the Irish Moss glows as it peeks out from the centers of the "cables". The larger portion of moss stitch in the back is going to be indescribably beautiful.

I started this on Tuesday. I arrogantly thought I could finish it to wear out trick-or-treating with the kids last night. Early Wednesday morning, Sam inadvertently fed my arrogance by waking me up at 3 a.m. puking and pooping. I didn't feel comfortable turning out the lights again once he'd relieved himself sufficiently from each end so we turned on the fire. He slept and I knit. I really thought I could do it, but I only got mostly through the upper front. I wasn't too bothered by that. I wore my Unisex Tweed Pullover instead. One Teva for another.

I finished the knitting on the vest this morning and wove in ends and crocheted the edging during my lunch break. I might have 1 full ball leftover, but it's in 5 separate mini balls, so I think it will go bye-bye. What a fantastic stash busting project this was! It fit the available quantity of yarn to a tee. The vest is washed and blocked and waiting to dry. I chose to wash, then block because this vest really needs blocking to make the patterns all behave and I didn't think the spray bottle was going to cut it. The moss stitch inside the stockinette "cables" wants to pucker, but that's how it looks in the book too so I'm not worried about it. I'm hoping that in the end, this will fit me a little loose, like it does the model in the book.

I already know that it fits me because I tried it on pre-washing. I also know that I'll wear this no matter how it fits. What's not to love about a soft, warm vest that goes with everything?