Friends, Chalk and WIPs

March 27
Started another hat today. I just feel like I always need something mindless and chunky on the needles for those moments of the day when my brain doesn't work at all but my hands need to keep moving.

March 29
One of my WordCraft friends was in town for a conference so a few of us met up for dinner! Me, Nancy (from Chicago) and Anita (also from here in town) . . . Mike and Simon were there, too, but they wanted to take pictures, not be in them.

March 30
I got home from work and Si was very excited - he finally had his chalks out for the first picture of the season - can you guess which Civil War General this is? He's very excited about hopefully participating in another Via Colori this coming Fall. He did it a few years ago, and loved the experience of sharing his art with the public.

I'd started this pair of socks a week or so ago, and it's some of the most lovely yarn! It's infused with Aloe and Jojoba Oil, and it's so soft and good to touch. I finally figured out, though, that what I really want to make with this is gloves, so that someone's hands can benefit from all this soft conditioning goodness. I've been searching and I've found what looks to be a good glove pattern for sock weight yarn. It's actually for Opera Gloves, but I'm just using it as a guide for shaping the hands and doing the fingers. I'll be working on these for a while, but I figure I've got all summer, right? They'll have nice, long, fold-up-able cuffs because I am not tinking out this beautiful ribbing!

I seem to have start-itis! I decided to just start another neck scarf. I sure hope this is enough yarn to make one of these! It's such a fun, easy pattern and turns out such a beautiful product. Another thing that I don't know who it will be for, though.


I think all this project starting is a symptom that I am nervous about moving forward on my tank top/shell thing. Grr. I need to shape the neck, so that means I need to do math again. BLAH!

Badges!

I spent quite some time yesterday fiddling with badges on Simon's scout uniform. Every time he changes rank he gets a new badge to put on his left breast pocket. I switched it out 2 weeks ago, and already he needed the 1st class badge. (nah, I'm not proud or anything!)

We also finally got him the sash for all his other badges, and his patrol badge (the Native American in red and white). His patrol name is "Insane Indians" which bothers Simon, but it is what the patrol leader chose, so that's that. As you can see he also has 7 badges on his sash. Yay! He hopes to get 6 more badges at camp this summer, and he's currently working on orienteering and hiking. Cool, huh? Next Monday I'll try to get a pic of him in his full uniform again. Boy, he's handsome!

Spring!

March 21 (yes, we have dates again!)
Spring has sprung! There are even more beautiful little crocusii in my garden today than earlier this week when I took this pic! yay! We also have paperwhites blooming. Ahh - spring!

March 22
The cats love to join me when I'm knitting. My lap is warm, I don't shift or move much, and there is that lovely, tantalizing, moving yarn to nibble at when they can stay awake! Sam, however, usually can't stay awake.
Also in this pic are my falling-apart jeans. Mom - you'd be happy. When I first wore these jeans to the Knitwits group, they all made fun of me! I know, I know, you don't want to hear that I wear them in public, but SOMEtimes on my day off I need to REBEL! And let's face it, if my version of being REALLY rebellious is to wear falling-apart jeans - well - how bad can I be?

March 23
I've dug out my shell again, with the goal of completing it in time for Easter. I've started the fancy cabled yoke part, and it's complicated, so I can only do it when I'm sharp and not overly distracted by life or TV or whatever. This is NOT something I could take to Friday morning Knitwits! Or to book group! But it should certainly be something I"ll WEAR to those kinds of places (to show it off!)

March 24
I still need to weave in the ends and felt this - but don't you think this will be a fun Easter basket? Small, but fun - and it was a stash-buster!

March 25
Every homemade sweater deserves a matching hat, don't you think? Especially when there is enough leftover yarn. This is for Mikey - knit to his specifications (longer in the head, not too tight in the ribbing . .. blah blah blah). :-) Next, I think I'll make him matching booties.

As Advertised

I promised you more pics and here they are! First we have Simon, sporting the new red and black cabled scarf I made him. He loves it! It's from Baby Alpaca Grand, just like the scarf and hat I made my dad.

Here is Kushi, the newly adopted daughter of our friends, the James'. She is absolutely delightful, and is still learning English (being newly moved here from India). She's wearing the sweet little hat Megan made for her. Having never seen snow before, Megan tells great stories of Kushi needing to be convinced that she needed pants and socks and boots to go outside last month. She does seem to like the hat, though, but the shirt and pants she has on the in the picture were the 3rd or 4th outfit we saw her in that afternoon. She loves wearing pretty skirts!

This is Megan, taken by Kushi. She really liked using the camera.

I bought this beautiful yarn at the Merc when Cider Moon was having their trunk show there. It's some of the most wonderful yarn I've ever used. I absolutely adore the colors and have been fondling it for a long time trying to decide what to make. I finally settled on the moebius cowl.

I added some extra stitches to the circumfrence and I wish I'd had a second skein because I was hoping for more of a shawl-like garment . . . but as you can see I used nearly all the yarn and the scarf is only about 8 inches wide. Next time I"ll get 2!!!

And before you say anything don't worry - I know it doesn't go so well with my tie-dye.

I am still thoroughly in love with knitting moebius'.

More pictures tomorrow and I think I'll be caught up!

I haven't forgotten about you!

I've been feeling icky since returning from San Jose, and I'm just now feeling like I have energy and time to do work and home AND blogging, so here goes. This is the little Carnegie library in 'da hood of San Jose - my friend Jim took us there. Cute!

Here is Jim - we met his wife, Viki, too, and we had a great evening together having awesome sushi and then coffee outside. Lovely! I know Jim from the Wordcraft site - see the link to the right.

This is my Lillehammer hat. DH is modeling it for me, and it's his now. He's even given it a test-wear while birding last Saturday. He says it looks silly, but it sure kept him warm! Maybe it's a little too femme for him. Who shall get it, then?

The moebius baskets and the Lamb's Pride Chunky yarn have, since I discovered them, inspired me to think about the new CML logo. It's the colors. One of our PR folks is a pink addict, and I just finally got around to making this basket for her. I thought I'd snapped a pic of it after felting, but alas, I didn't. It awaits her return from her vacation on her desk, filled with pink candy.

And the final pic posted today is my new sock. This is yarn that I got in NYC, infused with aloe vera and jojoba oil. It's lovely to work with, and I'm really enjoying the colors. Come back tomorrow for more pictures. :-)

Insomniac Surfing

I found this great site from the American Red Cross that has links to the patterns they used to use for knitting for the troops. One of the patterns even has a size circled, so you know they were owned by actual knitters. A cool part of our history, huh?

Busy Week!

To be honest, other than working I have no real memory of what I did weekend before last. I obviously didn't do anything picture-worthy. I'll start again with Monday - and this week will need to take 2 days to post, so I might not take pics this week much. I am sick - blah. You honestly don't want to see me now . . . and you most definitely do not want to hear me. As my Uncle Dick would say "I sound like Tallulah Bankhead on a bad day."

Monday, Feb. 26. Simon finally received his wonderful Star Wars model - ordered from lego.com with some of his Christmas money. Isn't it cool? I forget what ship this is. Simon will be embarrassed that I don't know, he's told me a dozen (or more) times.

Tuesday, Feb. 27. I was in the mood for a new scarf - took me about 2 hours to knit. I wish I'd shaped it differently, but it'll do. The colors are good.

Wednesday, Feb. 28 I flew to San Jose, CA. Golly, it's a long trip. This is the view from our room. My Roomie, Jenn, I am convinced, has Good Hotel Karma. She checked us in and they gave us this TOP FLOOR ROOM! It was really beautiful - the room was great, the bathroom was huge (marble, huge tub, seperate shower stall, etc) and the service was nice. There did seem to be a terrible water leak in another room on our floor, though, and I think it stirred up some nasty mold or something because it aggravated my lungs and I've now got some kind of wheezing thing. Not to worry - it didn't really come on til Saturday.

Thursday, Mar. 1
Jenn and I explored San Jose. We did a LOT of walking. I liked this quote outside the Tech Museum: Optimism is an essential ingredient for innovation. How else can the individual welcome change over security, adventure over staying in safe places?" Bob Noyce. Anyone know who that is? Me neither.

This is the Winchester Mystery House. It was really amazing - crazy, but amazing. Read the link for more details.

I'll post more pics tomorrow.

Boy Scouts and Pics

Monday, Feb 19 found us off work and out of school for Presidents' Day, but we all got to go to Boy Scouts! It was fun to see what the boys and folks do at a meeting, AND I got to do a lot of knitting there. It was fun!

Tuesday, Feb 20 shows Samwise feeling all better and overseeing the doings of the kitchen sink again from his favorite perch. Sweet boy kitty!

Wednesday I wore my newly-finished Mohair neck scarf. I had it tied for a while, but it was too warm around my neck, so I used this little pin to clasp it. :-)

Thursday, Feb.22 I finished up the legwarmers. I did them on magic loop, I think a size 9 needle. They were fun, easy, and they look good!

Today is Friday, Feb 23. I went to Knitwits at the Merc, and then to lunch with some of the ladies. Very nice time! Before that I met up with my pal Carol at Panera. Last time we met at Bear Rock, but they're not opening til 10 now, so they suck. The group went to Villa Nova for lunch - very good Italian food at normal-people prices. Was just like back home in Youngstown, it was so good! Don't they all look like nice ladies?

quiet day

Several pictures for today! (See, I TOLD you I'd catch up from that lag time.)

Today was a quiet day after we ran some errands. After stopping at a few other stores, I popped into the LYS while DH did the grocery shopping. I'd forgotten they were having a huge trunk show from Cider Moon and I indulged in a few skeins of their lovely yarns. Yum!

After we were home for a while, watching TV, reading (DH) and knitting (moi), we lit a fire in the fireplace - isn't that lovely?

And finally - I've been wanting to knit up some of these fingerless gloves since I saw the pattern on Knitty.com . I cast these on in Classic Elite's Lush yarn this morning, and lo and behold they're blocking now! This pictures doesn't do them justice, but the knitty site does. There is lovely cable detailing on the cuffs and by the knuckles. I love them!

Boy Scout Camp!

Feb. 16, 2007 - several pics

Simon left this evening for a few nights in a cabin (no running water!) with the Boy Scouts. Hope he doesn't freeze his patootie off!

This is some of the snow - you can see that there was so much the driveway couldn't even been completely cleared. Ugh! About half of that pile is ice, too. You can't see it well, but the side of the house is coated in about an inch of ice, as well.

After being traumatized first by her brother, Sam's illness and disappearance, and then even MORE traumatized by his return home, Rosie is finally back downstairs - here she is nearly falling off the window sill by the kitchen sink. She was so enthralled by the dripping faucet that her drooping backside didn't bug her.

Well, on the third try the neck of the sweater finally fits over DH's head and it's ready to finish. I have about a dozen ends to weave in, and a few holes where I added the new balls of yarn, and then some blocking, and it's donesky! And he even likes it!

Picture This

Feb. 15, 2007

Yea, yea, I know - I need to tink back and fix that neck hole. Sigh. The colors look good, though, right? Right???

Sweater Obsession!

2-14-07 My second snow day in a row (unprecedented!) found me inside ALL DAY! it was great! I did knit a bit on other things, and I made breakfast, lunch, dinner for myself and Simon (and b and d for DH), along with cookies - yum! But mostly I just worked like a woman obsessed on this sweater for DH. As you can see, I've started the decreases at the top and I've been adding in the color. Still a lot to go to finish the neck, but I am thinking it's looking pretty good. Also, it'll probably be done before Monday - that's my goal, anyway. :-) I imagine I'll be back at work tomorrow, but it should be a great office day since I was originally scheduled to be doing a puppetry workshop in Zanesville and was going to be gone all day. Given that they still had a Level 3 Snow Emergency all day today, and that things are generally a mess, the workshop is cancelled. (yahoo!)

Picture the Snow!

Sunday, Feb 11 I went out to Ugly Tuna for what we thought would be all-you-can-eat crab legs. No luck. Turns out they stopped that special, but we did get a pound of legs for only $7.50, and that seemed like plenty to me. Was yummy, especially with the sweet potato fries - yum!

I am with, L to R, Sanne, Misty, Deb, Teresa and Theresa (she's shy).

Deb, on the other hand, is not at all shy.

Sanne is from Denmark and is really delightful. She is Misty's Au Pere.

They all seemed mildly interested in the picaday thing, so they had fun doing the pics with me.


Monday, Feb 12 I worked on attaching the sleeves to the body of Mike's sweater. I had to take two tries because of a math error, but all is well now and I'm ready to start shaping the top.

Today, Tuesday, Feb. 13 is a Snow Day! Not just for the schools, but even the library is closed! Yay us! Si and I did venture out to do some shopping (new shoes and pants for snow stuff and his upcoming Boy Scout weekend in the woods, hobby stuff, Invention Convention stuff, etc) This is Simon, out to shovel the walkway. I should have made him shovel the driveway, too, especially since a nice man with a snowblower came by and did the sidwalk for him. If tomorrow is a snow day again (a definite possibility) I will make him do the driveway.

More Pictures!

I don't have enough pictures to cover all the days I've missed, but there is a goodly batch, and I'll try to get back to the one-a-day thing today. Promise!

Well, Samwise has been our worry the last few days. Monday he was perfectly fine - exhibit A shows him sleeping on Mike's lap, thoroughly happy. Tuesday he started acting weird and Wed morning we were sure he was sick. It took him in and he had to spend 3 days in the hospital! He had a urinary tract blockage, poor baby boy!
You can see his front leg, where the IV was in. He seems better now, but he's still recovering. We're all very glad he's home.

On to WIPs:
Mike's sweater is coming along well. This is the body. Now I'll knit up the sleeves and then I'll join them at the armpits and knit the rest! It's really cool, with lots of math to do along the way. There's a group of us all making sweaters with EPS (Elizabeth's Percentage System), explained pretty well here.

I cast on this hat at knit group Friday morning, and finished up by the TV in the evening. It's made of Lush Yarn, and it knit up in a jiffy. It's for a friend of mine who is going through Chemo - I just saw her at a meeting Thursday and didn't even know she was sick until then. This is very very soft, and I hope she likes it.

I also just cast this baby on. I would like a fancy neck scarf like the one I made my mom. This is all mohair, though, and it's already bugging me a bit, but it should make a pretty little scarf, and it's still outrageously colored, so it's my style.