You Know It's Time

to take some things off needles or knit them off the needles or clean the yarn room
when...
the Options cords that you would like to use (24") are all missing, the needles you want to use are missing or you can't find your way to the closet.

So, before doing the family thingy on Saturday, I think I'll start cleaning up the Yarn Room.

In the meantime, neighbors that have someone cackling outside, it's 10:30 p.m., time to send them home OR tell them to start being quiet...

One Down



One Started



Means I can take a break? We'll see.

Limiting

I have got to start limiting myself to the amounts....the amounts of food I consume, the amounts of time I spend sitting in the chair, but most of the amounts of time that I spend on my laptop.

Cause I am getting nothin done. I just sit down to read my email and all of a sudden I am off to websites and facebook and knitting blogs and you know the story. I turn around and I have accomplished nothing. Just a mind full of want to dos and want to buys.

So, I am going to have to start being the parent of myself and limit myself....maybe I'll get something accomplished instead of adding to the queue.

Not What I Want To Be Knitting On


The weather is cooling down. It's officially Fall. The babies won't be able to wear their sweaters right away. I want to be knitting for me! This is only the first one.

Okay, I'm whining. But, the deal with myself. Finish this one, then I can take a couple of days to knit on something totally for me!

A Tale of Two Dyes

On the left, the yarn I dyed yesterday, the right is from my dye class in Chicago. I am actually going to use both of them in an upcoming sweater. I am toying with doing the Tomten out of them.


The plan is to alternate knitting every two rows with each yarn...I think it will work.

But first I have to finish those two baby sweaters. Updates on those tomorrow.

Dyeing Day

It was a great day. Cool and Crisp. There were six of us and the consensus was that was a good number. We were constantly dyeing in two pots or at the microwave. Most of it was good colors. A couple will need to be redyed, because sometimes you just don't get what you think you are getting with the colors.

All was well until it rained....and my feet were so tired, that I fell while carrying the microwave....nothing was hurt, thank goodness for the grass that broke my fall.


One of the first dyes cooling...


Oh, what a beautiful morning....


Debbie and Jenny discussing what colors to use


Cotton in the pot cooking..


And mine, sitting out at home in the rain. The dark is what I am trying to duplicate from my first dyeing experience. It's close but not exact, but I am okay with it.

The other one skein is nothing like what went into the microwave. What went in was Mountain Aqua, Ripe Tomato and what came out is more purpley and mauvey...oh well, it was only one skein.

The base yarn is a Bartlett yarn that is so scratchy when it starts but after dyeing and some hair conditioner it turns into a very nice yarn. Hopefully, tomorrow the rain will stop and it can sit out in the sun and dry...then we will see if it is good with the first dye.

Yes I Do

I've been doing it long before the Yarn Harlot...just ask Norma. I always have knitting within reach of the driver's seat. I have stopped knitting and driving somewhat.

You never know when you are going to get stuck in construction....but I actually do most of mine in the car when at long stop lights in Peoria....but before I drive away. I put both hands on the wheel, more for show than anything. Wouldn't want to mess with the other driver's minds.

Or have the state put up some legislation to band knitting while driving.

Have Too Knitting


I'm working on the first of two twin girl sweaters that need to be done in the next couple of weeks....aren't the buttons darn cute?!

Then when they are finished I need to start the 8 sets of potholders/mitts I want to knit for the ladies I work with.....there are so many other things I want to be knitting on!! WAHH WAHH!

I Love Fall


You wouldn't know by the 90 degree weather that we are having that Fall is just a day a way. Soon enough the cool weather will be here...in the mean time, the Fall knitting catalogs are arriving....oooh how I love when the mail arrives and there is a new catalog in it.

But before I can buy I've got to knit a couple of baby sweaters...more about those tomorrow...no, they are not for any of my grandchildren....

My Goal

is to use up at least one bin worth of yarn in the next year. I haven't necessarily decided that it would be the sock yarn bin, but it certainly has possibilities.


I love these Evan Picone turtle necks for fall and winter. I wear them under alot of winter sweaters and like them for the weekends too with some good jewelry. It seems though, that I am on a shawl kick this year and most definitely, small shawls. I am accumulating quite a few patterns for these types of shawls courtesy of Ravelry and particularly a group I just found this weekend, "Small Shawl Lovers". I see a few of them in my future, especially for work, when I don't want to wear a sweater, but need a little something something. And for the weekend too sans jewelry.



My current favorite pattern looks like it is Batkus. This one will go great with the new black and new charcoal turtle neck I bought yesterday at Bergners. The yarn is Regia from my stash....and the two skeins have been around for awhile.

I can't wait to see what this will look like as more stitches are added. It is going to be my t.v./lunch knitting project because it requires very little paying attention to while knitting.

It's A Lazy Sunday

Slept in until almost 10am....that never happens. Fooled around on my farm on Facebook....had a little lunch...watching Cardinals baseball, still in my p.j.s....thinking about taking a shower, finishing up the laundry and maybe working a little in the yarn room to get it straightened out.

Maybe a nap is in order first.

All That Fretting

I literally spent three nights trying to figure out what to do with my Mushishi yarn that I bought at Stitches Midwest back in August.

After spending alot of time looking at Ravelry sweaters and looking at some of them several times, I knew that I could not knit something in the round because of the stripes....I just don't need those things going around me.!

I discovered while knitting Cheryl Oberle's seedling that if you break the stockinette up with stitches that it makes the stripes not so noticeable...I was very close last night to throwing up my hands and knitting the Mushishi up in the Seedling Jacket again, when it hit me.

My most favorite sweater of all time, and the one that fits me the bestest, is Elizabeth's Suspender Sweater. I knitted the pullover version several years back after trying it on at Knit Camp.

Guess what! There is a cardigan version of the suspender sweater and it would be just perfect, I think, for the Mushishi. The panels will break up the striping and hopefully, have a subtle shading effect...and if push comes to shove, I can add stripes of dark green or black as the suspenders.

Feels good to have a plan for it.

Come Dye With Us

Next Saturday, the 25th, Debbie P. and I are doing a dye class at her house. For information, call Knit Four Together. Cost is $30. You will get the basics on microwave dyeing and immersion dyeing.

A day like today would be nice for dyeing....since we are doing it outside.

I'm Searchin

I've spent the last two nights playing with the Mushishi that I bought at Stitches Midwest. I searched on Ravelry for a pattern that I want to knit with it. The consensus for me is that the yarn CANNOT be knitted in the round as stockinette. I just don't need the stripes. I really garter with it.

I'm giving it one more night- I am going to either knit it in a Chicknit pattern or it's going to be one of two Cheryl Oberle jackets. But before I go to bed tonight I am going to have a decision made. Way too much knitting time has been spent thinking on this one.

What A Great Weekend

The kids from Memphis got in VERY early Saturday morning...we hung out and then went and celebrated Grandma Rosie's 82nd birthday. Sunday came and we did a little shopping ( I got a new monitor, a thingy for my iPod so I can run with it, a new wireless mouse and a thumb drive), we cooked out and today, had lunch with Grandma before the kids took off.


Bob and his Mom


Roger and Willie


Susie Willie Grandma Rosie and Roger

And now, I am hanging out watching Oprah and going to do a little knitting. The weather is drop dead gorgeous in Central Illinois. What a great extended weekend we have had.

My New Journal

My first journal that I bought from Schoolhouse Press in 2007 at camp is almost full. I have been using it for various knitting ideas, projects and podcasts notes. It's kind of a mishmash of many things with no real rhyme or reason.

I ordered this second one and have decided to use it just for EZ and Meg designs that I am knitting. At least it will have some real focus.

Happy Birthday Rosie!

I Did Something

I went almost 45 hours without turning on the laptop! Unbelievable.

While I was away from it, I did some cleaning (kids from Memphis are going to be here later tonight) and knitted on Cheryl Oberle's Folk School Shawl. The reason I was knitting on it is that I am having a hard time deciding on what I want to knit out of my Mushishi yarn and a shawl from the Happy Feet Yarn I dyed a couple of weeks ago. As my friend Sue would say, I am having "decision paralysis" on those two yarns and consequently wasn't knitting on anything. Cheryl's shawl is fun to knit and is a no brainer until I decide what to knit out of those two yarns that are calling me.

The problem is with the Mushisi, I have come to the realization that it is going to stripe if I try to knit it as almost anything, and Lord knows as well as I that the stripes thing is just not for me. This yarn is going to need some sort of texture to the knitting in order to break up the stripes. I could knit another Seedling from Cheryl's book, but didn't want to duplicate that one yet. At the moment, I am leaning towards the Epaulet Sweater by EZ. It's all garter and that might be an option.

On my sock yarn that I dyed, the problem is that I have two skeins or around 950 yards. I want to knit it all up in a shawl...I don't want to do lace necessarily, but since I can't find exactly what I want in a garter stitch shawl (read as brainless), I might have to head back to Ravelry and check out the easy lace shawls ( read as not a whole lot of memorization to the lace ) and see what would use about the same yardage.

What did I miss while I was off cleaning and knitting?
A new podcast is up over on A Piper Knits
Franklin Habit has the cutest dang drawing about EZ
Chicknits finished a sweater that sends us to thinking
As always, the Rainey Sisters pull another sweater out of a past magazine...I swear I might as well just let them make the decision as to what I want to knit
And finally, just found on Ravelry another beret pattern the MIL would love....can I knit it in 16 hours?

Happy Birthday Char!

Ahhhh, Another Finished

In time for the shower....now for a little break and knitting for me, just a little before I start twin little girlie sweaters for October.

What I Learned At Camp

I had yet another person ask me if I learned anything new at camp! It's hard for me to pin point just what I learned at camp and even harder for me to explain to a non camp knitter what I learned. Most of them are used to the kind of thing you learn at Stitches or at a class....something like, I learned how to do this or that.

To go off topic for just a moment, let me tell you about my clear bag. It was a gift from Char at Knit Camp. It's going to hold my knitting in the round sweaters. They are two mindless sweaters that I can grab and go when needed.

The light blue is Big Blue from Jared Flood. The pattern isn't out STILL and so I've decided that I can knit it without a pattern. I'm a bright person and armed with a little EZ/Meg, and pictures and old blogposts from Jared, I think I can create a facsmile of.

The brown one is yet another sweater I saw in an ad and liked the colors and sort of the round yoke design. I 'm using EPS and going to knit a yoke sweater of my own design using the colors I saw in the ad.

Thats what I learn at camp. The confidence to say I can knit something I have seen in an ad or on the web or in a store and not necessarily have to buy one more pattern...thats what Meg taught me at camp.

Tam Done - Check

One more off of the list. This is a funny one. A gazillion years ago (around the time of the first Gulf War), I was knitting for fun tams out of one skein of whatever floated my boat. It was a good way to try a yarn that I really didn't want to commit to a whole sweater of.

The tams made their way to our church bazaar and somehow my mother-in-law actually acquired one. I can't remember how, but I do remember the pattern I used. She wore it as a hat pulled down and loved it because it didn't muss her hair. Last winter, while at an appointment she lost it, never to be found. She has hinted around that she needed a new one and was, I think, dissappointed at Mother's Day that there wasn't a new one.

I was a little worried as to wear the pattern got to since I haven't made any in a very long time. I happened upon the pattern yesterday in a binder tucked away in the basement with some other of my patterns from knitting back then.

Just in time for her birthday, here's a new one with a little scarf to go with it. As I recall when knitting them before, I didn't do a gauge swatch, just started knitting with a seven and nine, so that is what I have done on this one.

Hope it fits~ cause there is no ripping back on this one. The Furz yarn ends are buried never to be found again.

Saturdays

Very rarely do I miss a Saturday at Knit Four Together in Dunlap. I'm missing it today. But, I'm still feeling a little punk this morning and didn't want to inflict anything on anyone. Late yesterday afternoon, I came to the realization that this wasn't just a flare up but a true life bug....I had along with other things a headache, chills and body parts that just ached along with just a feeling of not feeling good. And I didn't knit one stitch, so you know how bad I was feeling. That is always a clue for anyone who knows me well. It was a pity too, because it was such a bee-u-ti-ful day! I'm feeling a tad better today, but still not the greatest.

In the mean time, I got two new things in the mail yesterday and today I am going to sit in my chair and peruse them and give knitting a try.
The commemorative issue of the Knitter's Almanac has some color pictures and a couple of new introductions that I want to read. Otherwise it's the same Almanac that I love and read over and over and in hard back...I am so looking forward to it.

The new issue of Wool Gathering features the Lap Shoulder and can I say I LOVE the cover sweater. Makes me want to go in and cast on right now...but I still have 2 things on my list that have next week deadlines. So, I'll have to wait for that.

It's another lovely day in Central Illinois. Hopefully, by tomorrow I'll be feeling great and can enjoy the rest of the weekend like it was a holiday.

I Got A Bug

I feel like crap....woke up this morning around 4 and just didn't feel right...made an attempt for a shower and make up. Decided to hang around home for just a bit instead of jumping into the car to start the last day at work before a four day weekend.

I'm glad I did. Did not even want to drink coffee, so you know this is not your average flare up. For now, I'm going to sit in my chair, watch a little DVR and play with my hand dyed happy feet yarn and decide what kind of shawl it wants to be. I have 960 yards so it can be whatever I want it to be, well almost.

Got an email from the lady who works with me. The boss said we could leave after 2 today, so now, I am just fine with sitting here and doing my thing. It's a lovely day, actually cool....ah Fall.

Socks Done - Check

Made my first deadline off of the list. Norma has her birthday socks.

Next up - Baby Sweater

Hate To Say

Summer is coming to end, isn't it? Even though, the heat would indicate otherwise. All the kids are going back to school. The Labor Day weekend is almost here. For me, it's time to put the summer knitting away and start concentrating on Fall/Winter knitting.

I've tagged some pages in the new Fall Knitting magazines on some sweaters I'd like to knit facsmiles of. But, first, I've got about four projects that have deadlines of September 10th ish. Last night, I fell asleep in the chair with one of them in my hand. Woke up this morning in the same chair at 4 am and started knitting on it, in between taking a little nap and then drinking some coffee, then napping then coffee...you get the picture.

Makes me chuckle when I think what it would have looked like to the casual observer.