Day 2 Week 3

I've been knitting knitting knitting on my Summer Solstice and still I am not done with the right sleeve.  I am anxious to get the sleeve done so I can go the other way.  So far, I've only had that one little lightening bolt of color sinced I started knitting it.  It doesn't really bother me though.

 And Miss Mona Lisa is 3 weeks old.  Gosh, I love her!

Let the Knitting Begin

I am participating in the Ravellinics that coincides with the Olympics.  It used to be called the Ravelympics, but the Olympic committee had a hissy fit, and the name had to be changed.  The jist of it is to cast on during the Olympics opening ceremonies and have cast off by the closing ceremonies. 

One winter olympics I actually did complete a lace poncho.  I remember how good it felt to do that.

This year, I am part of the Team Briar Rose Fibers and using Chris' Wistful.  I hauled my scale out before I started and weighed the first skein.  I thought it might be cool to see how much I knit of it during the course of a couple of days.  And heck, I have the scale, I might just as well use it.

I'm knitting Summer Solstice.  This is some interesting construction.  I'm just at the moment knitting per the instructions. 

On the Mona Lisa front,we were set to go over this weekend, but it just isn't working out.  The Tall Guy is still nursing a nasty cold, Baby Boy B has class, and I would have had to turn around and come home early Sunday.  A smart woman would have left today, but she didn't think about it until noon. 

Oh well, setting up Skype this weekend so I can at least look at her.  Need to get a microphone so I can talk to her. 

Back to Olympics and knitting.

Mona Lisa

Not her real name, but I think is is appropriate.  She will be 3 weeks old this Friday.  Her Uncle and I are heading out to see her this weekend.  The Tall Guy has a pretty severe cold so we are leaving him home to recover so he can go in a couple of weeks.

This photo is on my monitors at work.  My assistant said today, how can you work with that cute little one looking at you? 

Mona Lisa and her elephant.  The elephant is bigger than she is as you can tell. 

Poor thing, too bad, her Grammie doesn't know how to knit!  Seriously though, this is meant for later this year.  I do have the last of the knitting to take with me this weekend for her.  The Tweed Baby Blanket, the Surplice Sweater and another peach shrug to go with an outfit I bought early this summer.

I've taken a wee break from baby knitting for right now.  I am about to start the Ravellenics this Friday and will be busy with a couple of KALs over on Ravelry til probably the end of August.  When, baby fall knitting will begin again.

Where It All Starts

At camp, I love to stand and look down at the scads of sweaters that have all been knitted by Meg and EZ.  It is just unbelievable to see.  Best of all, we can try any on we want.  Look at them, dissect them, plan to knit some of them and some we just covet.

Then Meg does her show and tell.  We sit on the edge of our seats in awe of what is to come.  When can we knit one for ourselves?  What yarn did she use?  Can we try it on?  It's such a great time to see something before the rest of the world has a chance to see it.

 Rachel on the right is modeling the stockinette version of the Icelandic Overblouse from Knit One Knit All.  Linda is wearing the original.  The new one has some waist shaping which I can hardly wait to knit.  I'm all about waist shaping.

Rachel is a cute, young, petite thing so she can wear what will more than likely be the Fall Wool Gathering Sweater. 

 Again, Meg has added waist shaping which is another must knit one for me.  Knit out of Icelandic Unspun which I have a ton of!

Ahhh, this is Camp.

Show and Tell - We've Got Sweaters



There were lots of sweaters, but from where I was sitting, it was sometimes hard to get a picture, without standing in front of someone, so these are the few that I took from camp this year.

This is a beautiful color on Gwen.  But then you knew I would say that didn't you?!

Jaya in her Bohus.  I love these sweaters.  They are so soft.  I have a kit for a hat that someday, I'm going to knit. 

 Maggie wearing Joan Schrouder's Kauni jacket.  This is one of the nicest Kauni's we have seen.

 Renate and her lovely rose sweater.  I love to listen to Renate talk.  And what a wonderful lady.

Every year Maggie brings to camp a sweater that she knits for a local raffle where she lives.  She did not dissapoint us this year.

The Traveler sweater modeled by Holly.  This one has been on my radar for sometime.  It's a lot of rib knitting though, so I think it might stay on the radar for a little while longer.

And last but not least!!!  I love love these colors and how cool is that Meg got up and modeled the original with her.  Can you say cool?

Show and Tell - Part 2

And we have more shawls.  These next four pictures truly do not give you the essence of how cool these shawls really are!  

They are so big, they really could use more than two people to hold them up.

The sheer amount of stitches in these are unbelievable let alone the sheerness of the shawls.

 I love the center on this blue shawl and the way the stitches radiate out from the center. 

 Sharon not only designs the shawls but knits them.  Both the beige and the blue shawl were knit in the past year.  Unbelievable.

 Fibernating is modeling Linda's shawl.  From someone who always says she does not have any good show and tell, I totally beg to differ.

 Reluctantly, my roomie poses with her Wool Peddler's Shawl from Cheryl Oberle's yarn.  This is one cool shawl that we both have made several times and keep coming back to it.  It has so much potential.

I love these center out square shawls.  Cheryl Oberle showed us a new start for them, but I'm waiting for her new set of volumes on center out shawls this fall to really use it.

That concludes the shawl portion of our show and tell.  Doesn't this make you want to head into the yarn room to pick out some yarn and a pattern for one?  It does me and I am bound and determined to have a couple to show off for next year's show and tell myself!

Show and Tell - Part 1

And in no particular day order, because I just didn't do it that way.  Be prepared to be wowed.  And at the end of however many days it takes me to get through them all, you will understand why I come home and want to just start everything.

First we have shawls and tomorrow we will have more shawls, because there are lots to show and talk about.

Freaking unbelievable.  The designer of the pattern (not shown here, but will be tomorrow) designs for Alpaca With a Twist.  Is this unbelievable or what!?

 I wish you could see this in person.  There are an unbelievable amount of stitches on half circle shawl with fine yarn.  So beautiful.

 This is Cheryl Oberle (name dropping) and her Wishbone Shawl.  Yes, I have yarn and this is in my queue to knit really soon.  We are doing a KAL over on the Knitaway Group on Ravelry if you want to see more/hear more.

 Stunning red shawl.  I just love when campers where light clothing and model their stuff.  Note to self for next year.

 Are you getting the drift here on these shawls???  An incredible amount of knitting goes into these and I am really starting to be a shawl fan!

Two campers from the north and the south knitted the same shawl from the same colorways.  How do you like that coincendence?

Tomorrow - Part 2 of Show and Tell and more lovely shawls!

Knitting Under the Influence

This year's theme at knit camp.  There was so much baby knitting going on that I just did not quite get an entry together.  I started one and then decided I was spending way too much time on it, instead of baby knitting, so I abandoned it.

This is the 1st place winner, knitted by Jane.  Last year, she did a shadow knitting of a piano keyboard.  This year her entry is obvious.  What a knitter!

Freaking, unbelievable if you ask me?! The only other picture I have of the contest is the one with Cheryl and her duo of everything she wouldn't do, she did. 

Next year's theme is Night Sky and I already have a thought for it, just need to bring it to a product.

What Do These Have To Do With Camp?

Brigid brought these to our attention while at camp.  And if you know me well, you know I am a sucker for shoes.  And when it comes to a knitting theme, I now am the owner of three pairs.  The above Danskos, a pair of red Birkenstock clogs with the sheep face on one and the sheep butt on the other and a pair of clogs with blue fair isle machine knitted into the tops of the shoes.

It didn't take me long to put these in my cart at Zappos.  Then I took them out, then I put them in and finally yesterday early I pulled the trigger and they arrived today!!!

Camp Finds

I'm going to start the camp redux blogs a little different.  Usually, I start with Day 1 and give you the low down.  This year Camp was a little different-Joyce Williams was sorely missed by all.  Char was missing from our group from Central IL as were others.  It seemed like just a little tough year for all.  But, Camp was fantastic as always and my mind is just making mental notes of everything.

I did not take as many pictures of show and tell this year, even though there were tons of great ideas.  And I did not take the usual run down of pictures of the contest entries.  It was just too difficult to make way through the crowd to do it, but suffice it to say some were hilarious, well thought out, amazing knitting pieces.  And the prizes were great and well deserved.  All received prizes for entering.

Anyway, what I really wanted to start out with is all the wonderful purchases I made.  Once again, I came home with too much and the consensus in our car coming home was that it is really time to get a knitting plan for the stock we have.  You know the story if you are a knitter.

So here we go-
The very first night, there were bags from past knit camps for $5.  Like I need another bag, but this I could not pass up.

I didn't even get out of our room until I had purchased yarn from Linda.  I have made a shawl out of the Bluet Dancing Colors by Cheryl Oberle, and have wanted to make a second Fundamentally Faroese for sometime.  I had planned on buying some from Cheryl on Saturday, but Linda had this goodie that she had bought twice so we made a deal on it.

My new best friend, Chris of Briar Rose has been diligently dyeing yarn to help me find a decent match for my Long Collared Coat from Knit One Knit All.  She came to class on the first day,with huge bundles of possibilities and we found this one that is a great coordinate for it.  Chris is simply amazing and so generous.  Her yarn is pretty darn good as will become evident!



The first table I always go to is Cheryl Oberle.  She too is my new best friend is such a lovely lady and knitter.  She is so warm and her yarn. Can you say ohhhhhhhhhhhh,  ahhhhhhhhhhh?  She has these great colors that she dyes and she must never stop doing it.  Oh what would I do.  This little goodie is Gossamer. 

As it's name implies, it is just like Gossamer.  It will be a very fine shawl one day.  I have been thinking about this one forever and finally it has made its way home to me.

This is Sea Pearl from Chris at Briar Rose.  I probably could have gotten away with one skein since it has great yardage, but now I am so glad I did buy two.  After seeing Susan Rainey's Vitamin D in progress and talking to her about changes to make to one for me, I think this is destined to be one.

There are quite a few shawls out of Sea Pearl over on Ravelry and that is where it first caught my eye and my list for camp purchases.

 Ah,Wistful, also from Chris at Briar Rose.  Yes, I bought this last year in another colorway, but I love this yarn so much that I had to buy it in a new colorway.  I just love the feel of this yarn and could not pass up more.

Last year, ChicKnits knitted a really neat simple cardigan out of a color and yarn similiar to this.  She added red buttons to it and I was sold.  I have been thinking about it ever since.  I had it in my mind that Ultra Alpaca would be perfect for my rendition of it.  I am going to use a pattern from Knitting Pure and Simple to duplicate the look later this year.



One of the cool finds this year from Schoolhouse Press was this really pale lavendar Ultra from Jamiesons.  This is going to be perfect for a shawl from Bridget Roerem that I have wanted to do since I bought the pattern last year.

This makes quite the new stash doesn't it.  So much so that I have decided not to go to Stitches Midwest this year.  I love my new group of yarns and am anxious to jump in and knit a couple of them, well at least swatch!

Lest you think that was it, there were a few books I could not leave on the tables.  On the first day, Meg always gives us the low down on what is coming out and what is new in the line of books.  These are new acquisitions to my library.

And finally, even though I don't cook, I do like cookbooks and I had to get Meg's sister's cookbook.  Fellow campers have talked about it on Ravelry and so it goes.

Lest you think this is it, Brigid had a pair of Danskos that has a knit theme.  I ordered them this morning from Zappos and will let you know how I like them when I get them.  Several campers bought them on their way home and ordered them while at camp.  For me the jury will be out until I get them.  I'm a sucker for knit theme shoes and clogs - but that is another post for another day.

Back From Knit Camp

There will be blogs-a-plenty on Knit Camp in the days to come.  But for today, I am going to sit back and enjoy a nice evening in my nice comfy chair with my knitting and a ball game.

As always, we had a great time with a great group of people.  Linda and I gravitated to a little group and spent quite a bit of time with them.

I learned a lot, bought some yarn that I'll show later this week and tell you what I am thinking about doing.

Linda and I had some great laughs, talked about where our knitting needs to go in the next year and just life in general.  We are already in planning mode for next year as the wait starts for another year to go by. 

Wishing our lives away it would seem.

Gone to Knit Camp

Spending the Day

Getting ready for camp.  It's a major under taking - just ask Linda.  I settled yesterday what clothes and shoes needed to be packed tonight.  This morning, I've packed my show and tell.  Also, in my smaller suitcase, I have two balls of yarn (not all of the yarn) for a possible Wishbone Shawl; the Long Collared Coat along with the some of the old yarn and some of the new yarn that Chris dyed for me so she can see the contrasts (she is going to help me find something to go with it).

Now, I just need to settle today what I want to take to possibly knit on.  One has to have options (as Rachel Zoe would say).  You never know when the mood will strike you to be knitting on something else while you are there.

So in this bag, I've got a shawl I have been working on, the Cusco jacket in progress, the new Walpole that I just cast on yesterday (can I say this is going to take a while at 6 stitches to the inch and on size 2 needles - thats how loose of a needle I need.)

In my grab and go bag, I have my green Sublime sweater and will throw in a baby project that has yet to be decided on what it will be. 

There are other bags that I am taking but I am not going to bore you with pics.  Suffice it to say, there is still my snack bag, my laptop case, my camera bag and possibly the bag with my spindle and fiber (if I decide I really want to take it or make this weekend all about knitting)that have to make the car.

Seriously, I don't know what I would have to do if I actually had to fly to one of these things...I'd never make it!