I'mmmmmmmmmm Readyyyyyyy!

(said like SpongeBob Squarepants)

For what am I ready? The Summer KAL/CAL, of course! I first heard about the KAL/CAL earlier this year when I was listening to back-podcasts by Sharon and Marly. It sounded like so much fun I just had to get in on it this year.

I'm making Rutabaga from the Spring 2007 Knitscene. I already explained why I was afraid of this pattern initially, so I won't go into that again, but I will say that I loooove it!



I adore this stitch and can't believe it took me a year to even read the pattern and figure out it was nothing to be afraid of. It moves along quite nicely and my favorite thing about it is that it is stretch, but it has limits to its stretch. I like a stretchy bag, but I don't want it to stretch with wreckless abandon.

My sweaters are rather languishing right now. The Incan Pullover is sitting in my way at the end of my chaise end of the sofa, but I haven't worked on it for several days. 28thirty only needs one sleeve, but I haven't picked that up either. The Sera Lace Top has also lost its luster. The problem with that is I need more yarn. I don't want to buy more yarn. So I'll probably frog. What to do, what to do.

I ordered Norah Gaughan Vol.3 and Berroco 281 - Cuzco and Peruvia Quick from Jimmy Beans Wool. I sat here waiting and waiting, then realized I hadn't checked my home email for several days. Turns out #281 is backordered for a few more days and they had asked if I wanted them to send one without the other. By the time I saw the email, it had been nearly the amount of time of the backorder. So I told them I could wait for all of it to come at once. Trying so hard to be patient...and to finish other things first so I can fantasize guilt-free.

The usual kind of Monday stuff is happening here, though I can't believe it's already noon! My son has already been too and from preschool and now I have to run off to the bank and the post office. Big insurance docs to finally get off to our mortgage company so that repairs can finally take place. The dog reeks to high heaven so my daughter is bathing him - cross your fingers she keeps the water out of his highly susceptible to infection Golden Retriever ears!!

Happy Monday everyone and I hope to see you, too, at the Summer KAL/CAL!

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!

6th Avenue Heartache

I realize I'm probably dating myself here by quoting The Wallflowers, but if you don't know them and are into hip acousitc-y alternative-y Bob Dylan-y sound, check them out. In the meantime, we have a real heartache going on here.

This morning, L's county case manager stopped in for the annual signing of the paperwork fun fest. Prior to her arrival, I took the dog out and put him in his crate so he wouldn't be all bothersome and hairy. About 20 minutes into the visit, Sam starts to stir upstairs. I told her it was the dog just wishing he was down here. Sam starts to bark - and bark repeatedly. I laugh - ha ha! - he just hates knowing there are people down here when he's not. Ha ha ha!

After she left, I went upstairs to release Sam from prison only to find that he'd somehow pulled THREE skeins of my lovely Delphinium Blue hand dyed yarn into his crate. He'd peed a little on two of them (when he saw me and got an incredibly guilty look on his face) so those got a soaking in the sink and are drying (again). The third skein got the worst of it. What used to be 223 continuous yards of bluish-purple dream fiber - is now what you see below:


Rotton dog. Oh well. I guess I can designate this as the swatch and seam skein, though I had a completely different and unscathed skein all set aside for that purpose.

On a happier note, the back is done for Oblique and it's blocking to what I think are the correct measurements. I followed the directions for the medium size but I was knitting it at a tighter gauge than called for so I hope to have it more close to the small size. I'll probably block it again after assembly so I'm not too worried.


I started the sleeves and once I get through this tedious twisted rib, I'll be off and running on those. I'm fighting off the urge to buy another skein of yarn. I *think* I'll have enough, so I'm going to take a leap of faith and see how far I get with what I have. I've impressed myself with this project - I've stuck to it and never strayed once except for the staff meeting, which called for mindless knitting. I'll redo the raglan decreases on the fronts tonight and have the whole thing blocking before bed. Yay!

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?

Sam strikes again

Last night, I almost had to murder my dog, Sam....again.

He looks innocent enough, but really, he can be the devil. He already destroyed the first wearable sweater I'd made - Funky Funnel Neck Fun from the Yarn Girls Guide to Simple Knits - but I did forgive him for that because I had bound off the neckline too tightly and it was a little annoying. However, I happen to love - no, LUFF - the Teva Durham Unisex Knock-Around Cashmere...er, Patons Shetland Chunky Tweed...Pullover. It has peanut butter on the front and sleeves but I still managed to wear it for about 23 of its first 24 hours of completed existence. Yesterday afternoon, after shooting off a few photos, I decided it was ready for the laundry pile.

Ok, so it isn't the wisest choice to have a laundry pile that lives on the floor of my bedroom when I have a slightly less than 1 year old Golden Retriever who loves to sleep on dirty laundry - but that's beside the point. I threw the sweater in that pile and the next time I saw it, there was a loop of yarn that had been pulled out about 10 inches sticking out of the dead center front of this sweater!

CARP! FISH PASTE! TARTAR SAUCE!

I'm sure he didn't mean it, and that's why I took no retaliation (at least I meant not to until I knew the exact fate of this sweater). I think his claw snagged one stitch in the front and somehow he pulled it until the entire row across the front had been tightened to where it wasn't even visible and all the yarn was coming out the front.

To poor Sammy's credit, he did not chew, slobber, or otherwise maim any other part of the sweater. I spent about 30 minutes wheedling the yarn back through all the stitches to bring that row back into the world. It worked. Yay! Sammy's life is spared again.

Once the yarn was successfully and evenly woven back into a knit row, I went to work on fixing the problem of the curl at the bottom and cuff edges. I unknit the reverse stockinette border on the front and reknit it as 6 garter stitch rows (3 ridges). Garter stitch matches the rest of the garment perfectly and hopefully should solve the curl problem that could not be blocked out since my yarn is 75/25 acrylic/wool. I did the same to the back except I did 8 garter stitch rows. I used a crochet hook for the bind off - a method I adore - and then I crochet-seamed the lower panels together at the edge slip stitches so that it was a little less of a slit at the sides.

I picked up stitches around the cuffs and added 6 rows of garter stitch there as well. My bind off there might be considered slightly less flexible than it should be for garter stitch, but the cuffs are quite wide and they are not tight at all. The garter border and bind off should help to keep them a little more under control. Plus the roll was making the sleeves feel too short.

It's now bathing in Sweater Soap and I'm confident all will be wine and roses from here on out.