It Is Still Summer

As can be seen by this darling girl with her sunglasses.  We will be heading over to Iowa next weekend to see them all.  I'll be checking out to see what kind of Fall sweater she is going to be needing!

I am oh so hoping that by the end of this weekend, I have the sleeves on this last Summer sweater finished.  It is taking everything I have to keep knitting on it, and not cast on for something new.  I've switched it up a bit and did moss stitch on both the bottom and the neck edges.  I really like the way it has turned out.  

The pattern has rib and I have done this one before the rib.  I like the way the moss stitch doesn't pull up the band.  I did cast off with a two size larger needle and could have maybe bound off a little looser, but I believe the Boku yarn is going to do a little stretching when it is blocked.

I chose to make my sweater meet a little closer in the front than the actual pattern, because a) those of us with a belly don't necessarily want it to be hanging out there and b) when I have them open like the pattern, I tend to spend a lot of time pulling on it to bring it closer and/or carry something in front of me.

It is going to be so nice to have one more WIP off of the needles, hopefully later this weekend.  And then, no, really, that should be the last of the Summer knitting.

Wednesday Website

Oh, I wish this place was really close to me!

Nifty Thrifty Dry Goods

Techno Tuesday

When knitting by myself, I like to have some background noise.  Usually, it is the t.v., but this weekend, it seemed that the pickings were a little slim on t.v., and lets be honest I could only listen to the Cardinals lose badly so many times, so I muted the game and listened to some knitting podcasts on my iPad, via my Braven speakers.

I love these things!  I bought it off of QVC last year and have probably only used it about three times.  I will be using it more.  For music, for audio books, for knitting podcasts.  Love it!

I looked at the long term forecast on Saturday after I finished my Caribe Blue T-Shirt.  It is going slowly climb back to the 90's here in Central IL by the weekend!  That is when I made my decision that, yes, I could knit one more summer sweater before fulling going to Fall knitting.

That and the fact that this Knitting Pure and Simple Summer Cardigan has my size 9 Chiagoo needles on it and I did not want them out of commission until next year.  Yes, I could put the stitches on a string to hold them, but if the needles are in it when I am ready to knit it again, I am more likely to knit it straight away.

It is a pretty quick knit and I am hoping to have the hem treatment on it by the end of tonight.  Then I will do the collar and neckbands as I may be cutting this close on yarn.  Sleeve length will be dependent on how much I have left when I get the bands done.

I, also, pulled out my Cusco again and will take it to knit when I need some nice no nonsense knitting.  Over on the Knitaway Board, on Ravelry, we are going to be starting our Fall KAL on the first official day of Autumn on the 22nd.  We figured in the meantime, it might be a good time to finish something already on the needles. 

My Cusco from Briar Rose Fibers is from Wistful.  I love Wistful, because of it's Alpaca content and Chris does a great job of dyeing it.  This was considerably further early this Summer, when I abandoned it for another pattern, which I have since decided it would be better in something else. Back on the needles it is!  It is going to be so uber soft to wear!

My short term goal for now is to not start anything new until the 22nd to see what I can accomplish in the world of my WIPs.  Stay tuned to see how that goes!

No Labor Labor Day For Me

Laundry is done and I am just going to kick back and do nothing today.  Maybe some reading, definitely knitting, and otherwise just waiting for work to come tomorrow!

Goodbye Summer!

I have finished what I was calling my last Summer sweater for the season.  The Sierra Quatro Casual T-Shirt by Vera Sanon.   It was a great knit and I love the waist shaping.  This one really fits me well.  Isn't it amazing what knitting to gauge and waist shaping can do for a sweater.

I told myself that before September 1st rolled around I would be done with it and I am!  Yea!  It just needs some blocking which I will do later this weekend.

It is dang hot here in Central IL and we really need a cool down and some rain.  The lawns are brown and it has been really too hot to even sit out at night.  Perhaps, the weather man says, we will have a cool down into the 80's come Monday.  This end of August weather has been more like mid July.  Not that I am rushing the seasons, but frankly, I'm ready for a little Fall like weather.

Which brings me to what will I knit on next.  I have been taking a lot of ribbing from my fellow knitters on all of my WIPs and so I am feeling a little compelled to pull something off of my knitting bag tree and knit on it.   And not cast on something brand new.

I made a list a couple of days ago of the projects in the order of how soon I would want to wear them.  One column has the ones from yarns that were not purchased at Knit 4 Together and the other column are those that I did buy from them.  I could pick one from each column so I add a little variety to my knitting.    But, as I realized again with the t-shirt I just finished, if you work on one thing all the time, it can be done in 13 days!

Which makes me wonder, do I have time for one more Summer knit even though it is September 1st and time for Fall knitting?!

Happy Birthday Norma and Karen!

Yarn Tasting

Last night, Knit 4 Together had their first ever Yarn Tasting.  The yarns were all Cascade yarns.  The rep was male, which is okay, but I found it interesting that he doesn't knit, and seriously, I think if you are selling a product, you really should at least use the product.  I just found that very interesting.  I told, friend Sue, that when I retire I would like to be a yarn rep.  I think I would be good at it.

Anyway, the way the Yarn Tasting worked is that after we had drinks and snacks, we got to take little balls of the different yarns and knit with them.  We didn't find out from the rep until the very end that we could have kept our little balls.  Guess he should have said that up front.

I used my size 8 Knit Picks needles throughout my little sampler and just did stockinette.  I found some new to me yarns from Cascade that I most definitely want to use a little more of.  Below, I am going to give you my review of the yarns.  Now mind you, it is my opinion, others had very different opinions on some of them.

From right to left:

1. Hot Pink - 220 Superwash Aran - I loved this one the best I think.  It is a Superwash Merino Wool Aran weight and on a size 8, I loved the feel of it.

2. Black, Gray and White - Pluscious - this is a super soft chenile.  I really liked it and Knit 4 Together has it in several variegates, but my problem is what I would knit with it.  I don't really want to knit any of those lovies or an animal, but knitted up it would feel quite nice to pet.

3. Purple and White - This is Cascade's version of an acrylic - Pinwheel.  It's kind of scratchy and not one that I will ever knit with.

4. The Caribe Blue with flecks - Bentley is an acrylic/superwash wool.  It's okay.  The contrast colors remind me of a rayon type yarn would with it.  I think it might be a bit splitty, but not major.

5.  Blue - This is Sateen and a lot of people loved it.  For me, probably not, it is acrylic and just not me.

6. Orange Variegated - This is Heritage Silk Paints, and I love it, I own some and really didn't need to knit with it last night, but I added it to my swatch anyway.  It was interesting to see what the fine yarn would do on a larger needle.

7. Green, Blue, Cream Variegated - 220 Superwash Sport Multis, another okay, I'd need to knit a bit with it more to really like it.

8.  Red with flecks - Sunseeker.  I bought some of this last year on our knitting getaway in Janesville.  Mine is a darker blue, and I have Dinner in the Eiffel Tower started out of it, but I am not sure that is what it truly wants to be.  The base is a Acrylic/Cotton with the metallic thread running through.  It is pretty soft on a size 8 needle so I may need to play around with mine a bit.  

9. Light Blue on towards the left end - 220 Superwash, a superwash merino wool.  Funny, I don't like it is much as a like the Superwash Aran, but I'll have a chance to knit with it when I knit the Alligator afghan later this Fall.

10. Green on the left end - Alpaca Lana d'Oro.  What can I say it has Alpaca in it and I love anything in Alpaca

All of the prices on the skeins are pretty decent, which makes Cascade Yarns a decent yarn to knit with.    I have been a fan of Cascade 220 forever, but, the 220 Superwash Aran could be a new fave for me from their yarn line.

It was a great Yarn Tasting, I hope they do more of them in the future!

Wednesday Website

Knit Inspired Cakes

If only I was this creative!

By the way, in case you are reading this today, Tall Guy - Happy 37th Anniversary!

House Shopping Day 2

We decided to look at a house tonight down the street from the brand new house of yesterday.  I had been eyeballing it for sometime.  Nice, cute, house from the outside.  Really cool inside for entertaining.  The end.  The carpet would need to be replaced.  My bathrooms are better than this house.  Basement?  When you walk down and the Tall Guy has to bend his head, it is not good.  Then, you smell the electric candle going and you know there are more problems.  Chopped up and bad flooring and you know what?   My old basement doesn't look as bad as it once did to me.

So, as long as we are in the neighborhood, a mere block away, we go through the new house again.  Can I tell you again that I love it!  So much room, so new and fresh.  So over our price range and not sustainable, considering the taxes, should we decide to retire in five years.

My brain is mush and I am disheartened.  I think I am going to be in my current house til the end.

But, the Tall Guy had a great comeback tonight.  "If" we bought the new house, there would be no need to go out to the shop every weekend, I wouldn't be able to do fun things like that.  Hmmmm, yarn shopping vs big entertaining spaces.

What a perspective!  Out of the mouths of a husband who knows how much I like my yarn!

I think I'll go knit on something, that should help for now.

House Shopping

Today, we went to see the first of several houses that are on our list.

The first one was outside of town and I went along just to appease the Tall Guy.  Thank goodness, he removed it almost right after we went into the garage.  No basement, only a crawl space, lots of gaps here and there and the backyard-an almost deal breaker for me -  butts up to a cornfield...you know what the means.  The kitchen and  living room were really open and the dining room wasn't bad either.  But, it needed some updates in the bathroom and like I said before no basement struck it from the list almost from the get go.

The second was a brand new house.  I was in love the minute I walked in.  Big open spaces with living room, dining room and kitchen all right there.  Main floor closet for washer/dryer.  Nice master with it's own bathroom and walk-in closet.  Two other bedrooms that have closets that would keep spare clothes in one and the yarn collection in the other.  Unfinished basement to do with whatever we want.  I loved  loved it!  Only thing was the cost.  It really was more than my already bumped up figure.  But, I loved it.

The last one was just for fun.  It was on the lake, and there were people just lazying around on their tubes this pretty Sunday.  The windows and back porch went the whole length of the house, which for us was the best part of the house.  The rest we didn't even bother with.

It was an interesting first outing and although I really liked the new house, one has to be practical...it eats into the yarn budget big time.

We have two more on the short list that I am going to call about seeing tomorrow.  This house hunting thing is a lot of work.  But thank goodness, we don't have to move tomorrow.  We can take our time til just the right one comes along.  Even though, I am anxious to be somewhere before the snow flies this year.

I Have The Best Friends

Look what my friends gave me!

New stitch markers.  And I love them!  Not just because the color is just right.  Not just because they made them.  But because they really are quite easy to move from needle to needle when you come to them.  Some stitch markers can be quite pretty, but get in my way when knitting.  Not these!

I am hoping they decide to sell them, because I would heartily endorse them.

Baby Shower at the Knit Shop

Last Spring, you may remember I was knitting on a couple of stealth projects.  Both of them were heart blocks for surprise afghans.  One was for Meg's afghan for Knit Camp.  The other was for Erin's baby afghan at the knit shop.

Tonight, we had a baby shower and gave her the afghan that we all had knitted blocks for.  I think she really liked it.  Mine was the heart block on top.

I was amazed at the finishing of the afghan.  Jalayne, sewer up of knitting things extraordinaire, sewed all of the blocks together.  I am sure glad she did, if it were me, the baby would be lucky to get it by his wedding.

The afghan was knitted out of Pacific Worsted in green, purple and light gray.  It is so squishy soft.  Just perfect for cuddling up with mother and son!

Wednesday Website

I am having so much fun!

A couple of weeks ago, I discovered that I could listen in my car through Bluetooth, audio books that were on my IPhone.   Actually, that is not true.  I knew I could, I just thought that it would cost me money to do this and I wasn't 100% sure that I knew what I was doing.

Then, I was going down the road, messing with going from a CD to a local radio station when I happened onto options and I pressed it.  All of a sudden, my audio book from audible, was playing while I was going down the road.  How cool.

After finishing a book this week, I was, yet again, messing around with it, and voila, a podcast that I listen to every so often on our way to Iowa with my headphones on.  You have to check Benjamin out-
Fiberhooligan

This week I have listened to his interview with Susan B. Anderson and today started listening to the interview with Franklin Habit.  What fun!  I even find myself doing the speed limit just to hear more of the interviews.

You really need to check this one out!  I am lovin it.

Technical Tuesday

This is a SSK.  A SSK is a left slanting decrease.  

Years ago, I used to have a lot of problems figuring out if a SSK was left or right slanting.  Then, a teacher at some knitting event explained it so well that I have not had forgotten.  The S has a \ as part of the formation of the letter.  The \ slants to the left, hence SSK slants to the left.  Amazing!

So the opposite would be true of K2tog.  It would be a right slanting decrease because the 2 has a / as part of the formation of the number 2.  And the bar in the number 2 slants to the right.

Simply amazing and I have used it ever since, just wish I could remember which teacher said that.  It was worth the whole class whomever it was.

Weekend Wrap Up

What a quick and fun weekend!  Saturday, I got to drool over yarns and patterns that my knit friends got at Stitches Midwest.  I was envious of them, but lets face it, I really didn't need to buy any more yarn, and I had a hoot of a time with Miss Mona Lisa.

I had some help on Saturday for picking out what yarns should go with the peapod on the left that I found in the yarn room last week.

I have some leftovers that I can use from the other baby afghan I knitted for my hair dresser on the right.

 I think I am going to use the same pattern as I did for her.  It was fun to watch the colors evolve and a pretty quick knit.  The new one is for one of the guys I work with. I normally don't put this much work into stuff for co-workers (unless they are real friends)  He is going to be a grandpa for the first time and for some reason, I just feel like this is something I want to do.

On yesterday's blog, I said I was going into the yarn room to look at some patterns for my Lost City Knits Silk.  That didn't happen. Tonight, I happened upon Girasole.  I think this might be in contention.  It is very pi like and has been on my radar for some time.

 I am not making any rash decisions at the moment, as I still have my big pi to finish before embarking on a new one.

I did cast on what I think will be my last Summer Sweater for 2013.  I am hopeful to have this Casual T-Shirt finished by the end of this week.  I am getting a little antsy to work on some Fall stuff which includes some September Shawls (since the Summer of Shawls was a great idea, but not great on execution).

The weekend buzzed by and Monday came too soon, but if all of the days go by as fast as today did, we will be having a weekend before we know it...and a three day weekend in just a couple of short weeks!

Haunted and Compulsive

and a lot of times obsessed.

I am haunted by my yarn and the quest for just the right pattern for it.  You know how it is.  You obsess over it and spend more time looking at Ravelry then knitting.

 Right after camp, I bought this lovely yarn from Denise over at Lost City Knits.  It is 1000 yards.

Then, when I knew she was going to be at Stitches Midwest, I asked her to bring me another skein of the same yarn, same dye lot.

 For some reason, I thought I was going to need 2000 yards of lace yarn to do a pi or semi pi shawl or some other really cool lacey shawl.  And for about a week now, I have been looking at Ravelry, trying to find just the right pattern.  It would seem 1000 yards would have worked for most of the ones I might want to knit.

But...many years ago at Camp, Joyce Williams had this really cool circular shawl on.
It was from these wonderful books and it really was a table cover, but she knit it to wear as a shawl.

 I fell in love with it and bought a wonderful lace yarn for it and the Saturday market day.  The yarn was once  designated for a wedding shawl for Baby Boy A, which never came to fruition (the shawl not the wedding)

In my search for the right pattern, it has brought me back full circle to the Joyce Williams idea.  But, I have to say, once again, I am spending more time trying to make the right decision on this than I am on knitting.

Right after I finish posting this, I am shutting down the computer, (way too much time is being spent on it) I am going to go into the yarn room and do a little research on what patterns I have, I am going to wind a skein and play with it.  Maybe, in the playing, and my books, I'll come up with something that will get me off of this roller coaster, so some real knitting can be done.  Or maybe, hopefully, it will be one I already have.

But, if you all have suggestions, I would love for you to post them in a comment.  I could use them!

Back To School! Already?

School started all around here this week.  Next week will be the first full week for most of them.  I don't know about most of you, but I remember the day when we started like September, which was a sign of Fall coming.  With the super decent temperatures we have had here this week, it is no wonder that I have been thinking about chucking my current knitting projects into bags and adding them to the tree.

But then, errrrrrrrrrrrrt!  A friend turns me onto these beauties.  They are so Summer.

And I just so happen to have a yarn that if I hurry up and knit it, it could really be worn into the early Fall.

But, wait, I have this yarn too!

Is it possible to knit these up and be able to wear them before Fall really comes?!

Wednesday Website

In case you wanted to know how many repeats of a stitch pattern you would have  -

http://laylock.org/sts/

Might As Well

I discovered that I had lost a marker on my Swirl Jacket about 9 welts later.  I left it hibernate for a bit to think it through and see if there is anyway that I could not rip back all that way.  All those rows, all those stitches.  

After a month, I gave it up decided nothing could be done, but pull the needle out and pull it back to the end of welt 5.

But, before I did that, I took my locking pins and placed them where all of the decreases were and where the markers were on the needles.  Then I ripped it back.

It took a while to get the stitches back on the needles.  Thankfully, the diagram in the book, told me not only how many stitches I had in the entire round, but how many stitches I was supposed to have between markers.  What a great lifesaver that was.

As long as I was ripping back, I figured I might just as well rip it back to the start of welt 6 so I could do the condo stitch on that round that I had skipped the first time around.  So, now I am feeling pretty good with my Swirl Jacket that I can continue on.  I may be wearing this one before the year is out!

It's A Quiet House Today

No little ones waking up.  We miss it.  But it was a great weekend for family.

Mona Lisa is growing so fast!  She now is eating real, but really healthy and organic food whenever possible.  Fresh fruit, no processed foods.  I might have to adopt her food philosphies.

She is still crawling around and VERY inquisitive.

She will stand with help but still not ready to take off on her own.

She has the cutest smile and has her four front teeth!

My great- niece was her yesterday to visit too.  Baby Boy A ( Mona Lisa's Dad) is on the left with Bella and Baby Boy B is on the right with his niece Mona Lisa.  I cannot wait to see these two little girls at Christmas and in the Spring together, won't that be fun when they both are toddling around!

So, now I am looking towards Fall and Christmas.  I think these two little lovelies need a knitted sweater for Fall!  Into the yarn room, I go today.