Weekend Knitting

Dh had the camera last night, and I never thought to ask for it, so I don't have any pictures. However, I did get quite a bit of knitting done this weekend! I finished the first Lacy Mock Cable Sock & am well into the heel flap of the second one. I'm really trying to get these finished as I'm starting Sockapalooza and Sockamania, soon. I'm really looking forward to these, but don't want to have more than 1 pair of socks on the needles at a time!

I also worked on Snowmen & Skates. I have it done almost to the bottom of the armhole. I'll be casting on extra stitches for the steeks soon! I've never knit steeks before, so this will be a new adventure. I'm really looking forward to this, as well.

Knitting Meme

I really like this one that I copied from Needle to Needle.

Mark with bold the things you have ever knit, with italics the ones you plan to do sometime, and leave the rest.

Afghan
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with banana fiber yarn
Domino knitting (=modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Baby items
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffiti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Continental knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book
Scarf
Teaching a child to knit
American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Knitting to make money
Button holes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dying with plant colours
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cosies...)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items)on two circulars
Olympic knitting
Knitting with someone else's handspun yarn
Knitting with dpns
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn
Steeks
Knitting art
Knitting two socks on two circulars simultaneously
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener BO
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac
Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with self patterning/self striping/variegating yarn
Stuffed toys
Baby items
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mits/armwarmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

Snowmen Finished!

Last night, while watching the movie "Freedom Writers," I worked on Snowmen & Skates. I finished the snowmen! They're looking pretty even, but I still think that they will require a good blocking. I do like knitting in fair isle and will start another project in color work. I'm thinking of trying mosaic color work for my next project. I like Arietta, that just came out from Knitty and this is a technique that I have not, yet, tried.

By the way, the movie was great and based on a true story. It was well acted by all and I think Hilary Swank did a great job as the influential and dedicated teacher. However, this isn't a film that I would buy as it does have gang violence & language (these give it a PG-13 rating, but it was necessary to convey how those kids lived.)

Here is the commuter project that I've been working on for the last week and a half. Usually, socks don't take this long, but I do have the heel gusset almost done on the first sock. The pattern is great & I've loved working on this one. I don't think there will be any issues starting the second sock!

When at home, Snowmen and Skates has been my primary project. Here, you can see the ribbing & about a third of the snowmen. I am having some slight troubles keeping the stitches even when needing to strand the blue behind the white and gray. I've been pulling at it, and it already looks much better than right after it came off the needles, so I'm guessing that a good blocking will work wonders.

Good News

My shoulder is finally feeling somewhat better! Yay! I managed to get through most of the ribbing on Snowmen & Skates. Its looking good. I'll have to get a picture, tonight. I also managed to start the heel flap for the Mock Cable socks. It, too, is looking great.

New Projects...

Despite my shoulder pain, I tried knitting this weekend. I don't really have anything to show for it, though...On Saturday morning, I met a long time friend at Village Yarn and Tea. We both brought WIP with us, but then purchased yarn for a new project. We agree that planning and beginning a project is so much fun! (Of course we like having things finished, but not enough to do those last pieces of finishing work to make a WIP a FO! LOL)

I bought yarn for the winter vest, Snowmen and Skates, that will be a Christmas present for my nephew. When I had almost finished the snowmen part of the chart, I realized that they were puckering. Not being happy with the way it looked, I frogged the whole thing. Just before starting to rip it out, I measured, and found that I had cast on too few stitches. It would have been too small! Last night, I tried casting on again. I made it through the ribbing, and started to work on the fair isle. At the end of the first row, I had too few stitches to finish the pattern repeat. It took forever to figure out what happened. I had miscounted the number of stitches per repeat! (I am using different yarn and needles than those that the pattern calls for, so there are changes that I have to make. These changes were all based on a 17 stitches repeat, when in actuality the repeat is 32 stitches!!) Now that I have the stitch repeat counted correctly, I knit a swatch, which is something I should have done before, and am now ready to cast on for real. It is so much fun to knit, that I'm hoping to re-cast on tonight.

Also started, are my Lacy Mock Cable socks. The pattern is turning out great! They are a very easy pattern to memorize and I am almost to the heel flap of the first sock. There have been no problems with these, and I like the fact that socks can be such quick knits!!

A Package!!

I left work early, today, as my shoulder is causing me quite a bit of pain...I'm not quite sure what I may have done to injure it, but it sure hurt! (Yesterday, I was home from work and could not even knit most of the day because of the pain...) When I arrived home, there was a medium sized box waiting!! I knew I hadn't ordered anything, so I was hoping it was from my Secret Pal. IT WAS!! My dh brought the box in & set it on the counter where I could open it. She enclosed 3 skeins of yarn, 2 kinds of dried fruit, some blueberry tea (mmm), cat food (which I'm sure one of my kitties will love!), a scrapbook, and a sock knitting book that I've been wanting for a while, now. Wow, what a great package. I can hardly wait for my shoulder to heal so that I can start another new project!! My biggest problem will be deciding what to knit. Do I start some socks with a yarn from my stash, or do I use the new yarn and look for a new pattern? As it will take the shoulder a week to heal, I do have time to decide.

Dashing in Green

While beginning my Stash page, yesterday, I found some green Classic Wool (from Patons) that was left over from knitting my husband a pair of felted slippers. It looks like the right amount of yarn to knit Dashing from Knitty.com. I've been wanting to knit this pattern, for a while, and wanted a quick project that I could finish quickly. I didn't want them to be so long, so I shortened the number of rows between cable rows. They're looking great! I have the first one finished, and the second almost ready to knit the thumb. This is the first time I've knit an afterthought thumb (or toe, or anything) so it has a been a good learning experience. I like it so well that I may even try it on a sock sometime soon.

Last Christmas, I knit a pair of lacy, fingerless gloves for my brother's fiance (now wife.) She absolutely loved them & seemed to always have them on. The last time I heard about it, she said 1 had been misplaced at her aunt's house. Apparently, said aunt is so disorganized that there is little hope of it showing up. I keep hoping, but no news, yet. However, I know how much my SIL likes the gloves & find it difficult to know what to give her for her birthday. Although its in May, not the coolest time of year, I think I'll give these to her, then. Before you ask, no, I'm not really worried about her losing another. Once gifted, I rarely worry about my knitting. The only thing that I care about is whether the person will really like what I've spent time knitting, and whether or not they'll use it. In use, there is always a chance for an item to get worn out, ruined, or lost. I'm just glad she wears what I've made. [smiling!]

Updated to include a picture at 1:18PM.

More Stitch Markers

I've been working almost solely on my CWS, lately. I did get 2 full weeks behind, so I'm trying really hard to get caught up to the rest of the KAL. However, I needed a break, last night. So I worked on these! Some may be for an exchange, or not. I really could use 16 more markers for my CWS. The repeats are getting long enough that having 2 repeats between each set of markers really are too many.

New Finished Project

I finished my Purple Mix, Sockotta socks. They fit great! These were knit from the pattern Tidal Wave Socks.

Back Home

We left home early Tuesday morning, following my parents up the mountain pass to Coeur D'Alene. As we drove, we hit snowfall at the summit! It was beautiful and was not sticking to the highway, so I loved it! Since dh was driving, I had the opportunity to look out the window, taking in the beautiful scenery.

Coming back down into the valley, the sun was out and it looked so warm. However, we stopped to view the Columbia River from a lookout, it was so windy that we felt like we might be blown down the hillside!

When we arrived at our condo, my mom and I took a few minutes to unpack the food we brought & then headed out to take the 25 minute trip back into Coeur D'Alene. We found the scrapbook store and spent about 45 minutes looking around. I found some great camping/ATV-ing papers and stickers. Afterward, we went looking for the yarn stores. We found 2, but they had already closed.

Most of Wednesday we spent scrapbooking. I finished my album for Christmas 2006, except for a little journalling that still needs to be done. Then, I went on to work on my camping pictures from last year. I was certainly glad to have the papers & stickers that I purchased the day before, as I forgot the notebook with all my outdoors-y stickers & embellishments in it! Although I didn't catch up on any of my knitting, I feel a great sense of accomplishment getting so much done on the scrapbooking.

We needed to be back home by Thursday evening, so my dh & I left around 11AM. He offered to stop at a yarn store, before going home! Isn't he great? I found 2 skeins of Sockotta sock yarn that I loved & we were back on the road. I, of course, immediately cast on! :)

As we drove, the sun was shining & it looked gorgeous, until we arrived back at Snoqualmie Pass. This time, it was raining pretty good!

By the time we arrived home I had about 3/4 of a sock finished in the Purple Mix colorway.

To top off this great trip, I went to the mail box, and what did I find? A great package from Mildred on my Stitch Marker Exchange! She sent some great, purple markers and a skein of sock yarn!

Luna Moth Shawl

Earlier this week, on my Civil War Shawl group, someone mentioned that she wanted to do this shawl as a KAL. After clicking on the link to a free pattern, I decided that I wanted to do this one, only now! So, on Thursday night, I sat and ripped out a completed shawl that I never have liked very well. (The knitting was great, but it didn't fit the way that I wanted.) Then, last night, I cast on. I really, really don't need another project on the needles, right now, but its coming out so great, and I just love new projects!!

Green Gable is coming along. I have only 2 balls (out of 6) of yarn left to knit. I have a feeling this sweater is going to take nearly all that I purchased. It doesn't look much different than last time, so no picture, yet.

On the Sewing Front

These past 4 days, I've not been knitting at night, like I usually do. I've been sewing! Its been quite a while since I've done this, but I decided that I would sew an Easter dress for myself. The process has been going very well. I've been taking lots of time, ironing each step as I finish it. The results are great! After 2 nights of sewing for a couple hours each night, I have almost finished! I need to add a second row of trim on the top of the waistband, add 2 rows of trim near the hem, put in the zipper and hem it. I figure that I'll work on it another 2 hours, or so on Saturday and it will be all ready, and just in time, too! Since lavender is one of my favorite colors and it seems to fit really well, I think that this one will become one of my favorite dresses. Now, I just wish that I had time to knit a purple shawl to go with it!

Vacation!!!

First, Green Gable news: I have finished the second sleeve and am about to begin the remainder of the body! I'm satisfied that I've completed this milestone.
Meanwhile, my dh & I have been invited, by my parents, to join them on vacation in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho. I'm excitedly planning, now. Mom & I have been talking about what food and entertainment to take with us. I think I will scrapbook with her, while we're away. (We're only going for 3 days and 2 nights, but they are all mid-week, so I'll be off work!) I need to clean out my scrapbook bag, re-organizing it and removing anything that is finished or that I won't be working on while over there. It currently weighs about 80 pounds!
I'm also planning on taking Green Gable to knit on in the car, since dh will drive most of the way. Its about a 6 hour trip, so that equates to plenty of time to knit on it. Hopefully, I'll finish just before we arrive. This way, I won't feel guilty when we go scrapbooking & yarn store hopping and I buy a new project to start. I love to buy yarn at "new" stores. Its one of my favorite things to do while on vacation. I'm probably going to buy yarn that can be used for this month's Bag of the Month. I wasn't very excited about last month's bag, and I only joined at the end of February, so this would be my first project knit with the group. Its a beautiful slip stitch pattern that creates a nice felted bag. Add some lining and a sturdy bottom & its just about perfect!!

Green Gable

I finished Green Gable to the point of removing the sleeve stitches from the needle! I knit about an inch on the body of the sweater, and then went on to finish a sleeve. Since they're short sleeves, it didn't take too long, except I was using a 60" circular needle and the magic loop method. Every time I knit a half round, I would have to stop and pull 60" of the circular through the work! This seemed to take forever, so I really need to put a shorter circular needle on it. (I'm using KnitPicks options needles, so this will be no problem. I just need to remember to grab a shorter cable!) I'm really loving the way that the yarn is knitting up, and so is my mom. She still thinks that the sweater is for me, and, of course, I'm not correcting that mis-belief! I figure that I have it at least half way done. Hopefully, I will get a picture posted this evening or tomorrow.