Knitting & Camping

The Curvalicious Cardigan is finished (see picture at left)! I managed to get it all done in time for our camping trip. It was the perfect weight for the somewhat overcast, warm weather we had over the weekend. I rarely took it off, and yet didn't really need another coat, either. (Since we were renting a 1 room cabin at the KOA and our friends had their trailer, we were indoors or sitting around the campfire whenever it was cool enough to need something heavier.)
On the one and a quarter hour drive to the campground, I worked on Snowmen and Skates. After unloading the car into the cabin, I continued to work on it...until I ran out of cream yarn! I'll need to go over to Village Yarn and Tea, to buy another skein. At this point, I switched over to Green Gable. Finishing the skein I was on, and barely starting the next/last one, I tired of the stockinette stitch in the round and moved on to the Luna Moth. This one, I kept working on until Saturday afternoon, when I purchased yarn to start the Leaf Lace Socks from Fiber Trends.

On Saturday morning, our group met to make breakfast. After the cleanup, the kids and guys rented some bikes from the KOA office. They rode around for a while and even let us (my friend C and I) have a turn. They were fun, but made us all use muscles we're not used to! Around noon, we made lunches and took the 20 minute drive to Lake Padden. The kids were happy to run and play on the playground while we took in the beautiful scenery. After eating, we packed the stuff back up to the car, and then walked around the lake. Its about 2.5 miles. The day was so gorgeous and the sun came out just enough to burn the tops of my shoulders around the back of my neck just a little.

After our walk, C & I took the kids and dogs and the guys went for a game of golf. While they were golfing, we went in search of a yarn store. We found NW Handspun in downtown Bellingham. They had a 20% all yarn sale going on for Mother's Day weekend. Who could withstand that temptation! So, I purchased a ball of Louet Gems in a medium purple and the Fiber Trends Leaf Lace Socks pattern. I started immediately, as I was not driving. We also visited Michaels in search of items to make stitch markers. We found some great charms on sale.

At this point we met the guys at the golf course to pick up the keys to the trailer. They offered to take the kids, so we had about 2 hours to sit outside and knit away. By the time I went to bed last night, I had the first sock about 75% done! It looks great, but the yarn is a little heavier than I realized, so they'll be very warm socks, that I'm sure I'll love to wear.

More Curvalicious Frustration

I continued working on the May Day Socks and the Curvalicious Cardigan, last night. The first sock is almost done, but the cardigan? That's another story...I ripped 2/3 of the edging out again so that I could make more of it pink instead of brown, around the hood. I really want to take this sweater with us as we are "camping," this weekend, so I will, hopefully, finish it tonight. A hooded sweater will be just right for the 70 degree weather we're expected to have!
We have a one room cabin reserved at a KOA, up north, for two nights. Friends of ours will be bringing their trailer and the 6 of us (4 adults & their 2 children) will spend most of the weekend together. The guys plan to golf, early Saturday morning, and we gals plan to spend as much time possible knitting and catching up. We're all really looking forward to it! I just have to decide which WIP to take to work on. I will probably not take socks as the needles are small and would be easy to lose. Right now, I am thinking about taking my Civil War Shawl and Green Gable. Green Gable is now approaching a deadline (June 3rd) so it really needs to get finished. The CWS has not been worked on lately, but is a tricky knit, so I'm not sure about taking it. I may substitute Snowmen & Skates. Whatever I decided to do, I should have some wonderful progress to show on Monday!!

More Progress

I worked on the May Day Socks some more, yesterday. I almost ready to star the toes decreases on the first sock! I, also, started to sew in the zipper on the Curvalicious Cardigan. However, I really don't like the way that it looks. I think that I should have blocked it before deciding on the front edging. When I tried it one, the zipper is keeping the center front pulled up higher than the rest of the hem. I guess I'll be ripping the zipper and the front edging out, again, so that I can block it, put the edging back on and then the zipper. This one is driving me nuts!

Decision Made

I kept thinking about the May Day Sock all day during work, yesterday. I made even more time to think about it by working on Green Gable. As I knit about 1/2 skein into it, I made the decision to frog the sock and restart on the smaller needles. This morning, I worked on it for about 2 hours and finished the first pattern repeat for the leg. It looks great, and I am sooo glad that I made the right choice. I've measured it, and the circumference is just perfect for my partner. I think she'll love them.

I've also been working on the Curvalicious Cardigan. I ripped a little of the hood so that I'd have the yarn to edge the front. I started working with this yarn and made it all the way to the last 15 stitches, when I ran out of yarn, again!! Now, I'm using some leftover brown yarn and am starting to re-knit the applied i-cord edge. I plan to knit it brown for the part that will be attached to the zipper and use the pink to edge the hood and the part of cardigan front that will not be attached to the zipper. I'm hoping it will look good.

I am pretty proud of myself that I've mostly worked on old WIPs these last 24 hours!

One FO, 2 new UFOs

This weekend, I did manage to finish the Blue & White socks. I stayed up a little late, last night to get the ends woven in, but they look great!

On Friday night, I finished all but the hood on my cardigan, and for that I only have about 11 inches left to finish knitting. I'm excited to see this project almost done, as it will make a great Spring jacket. Our weather is warming up, after the snow last week, and so it is feeling like Spring, again. This will be some good motivation to finish the sweater.

I started 2 new projects this weekend. On Saturday, I went to my LYS to return the extra 2 hanks of yarn from the cardigan, and ended up exchanging them for some of Elisabeth Lasvold's Hempathy. I'm going to make the Green Gable for my mom for her birthday, in June. I finished off one of the six skeins of yarn on Sunday afternoon. Its looking good. She saw me working on it, and absolutely loved the soft hand to the fabric and the lace at the front neckline. I asked her a few questions about the style, which she answered as though the sweater was for me, but with an answer like, "If it was me, I'd..." This was perfect!! Then, she had a favorite sweater drying in the bathroom, so I measured it for length and width at the underarm. Green Gable should be very easy to knit to those specifications. I really want to make a new favorite for her.Finally, I started the Huskies socks. I am using my favorite pattern, Wendy's Generic Toe Up Socks, which I have re-calculated the number of stitches to fit a foot that is 11 inches instead of 8. I finished the toe, as seen here, and then worked another 1/2 inch or so on my way into work, this morning. The yarn is so soft and squishy. These socks would be hard to give away, if they would fit me. Of course, they won't, though as they will be way to big!

Shawl Begun

I started the Civil War Shawl, yesterday. I knit to row 45, this week's assignment. It felt like a quick knit, which I love. I started out with a size 5 needle, but that was way, way to big for this lace weight yarn. I went down to a size 2. Now, it looks great.

Before I could get started, I had to finish a few more stitch markers. I needed 15, and only had 12. (There are 16 repeats, but I use 1 plastic coiless safety pin for the start of the round.) These little flowers were fun to make, especially since no 2 are exactly alike. I do plan to make 16 more, so that once I get up to the point where there are 32 pattern repeats, I'll have one to mark the beginning of each repeat.

I also had some time to work on my cardigan. (Still no pic, but maybe soon!) I have a little over half the sleeve decreases done. This is one project that I really want to finish. With our recent bout of cold weather, it will be a great layering sweater, or once it warms up, will work well for a casual, spring jacket. The colors are working out perfectly, and whenever I knit on it in public, people always make positive comments about the pink/purple with the brown.

Off and on for most of the day, yesterday, we had snow! It almost never snows in the Seattle area, but here it is almost March and its coming down, again. I love to watch it, and like the sound of the silence that is so easy on the ears. My dh took our cats outside (normally they are indoor only pets) so they could experience the cold, wet, white stuff! I don't think that either of them liked that

too well!

Over night, we had 3 1/2 inches come down. See?

Lots and lots of knitting!!

This weekend, I took Saturday as a day of rest and knitting...I finished both sleeves on the Curvalicious Cardigan! After all the ripping I had to do on Friday, I was a bit discouraged, but now I have a sense of accomplishment. (The cardigan won't photograph well as I have it scrunched onto a 24" circular. Once I get to the hood, maybe I can get a picture posted.)

On Saturday, I received this in a package from my "Think Green" Stitch marker exchange. My partner even sent some of my favorite flavor of tea! I've even had the opportunity to use one of the markers while knitting my sleeves on Saturday. I'm hoping to finally send out my exchange packages to my partners, this coming weekend. (Packages for both the Tote Exchange and the Stitch Marker Exchange.)
Also, in Saturday's mail were my KnitPicks needles for the Civil War Shawl KAL. Just looking at the cables is enough to make me fall in love with these needles. Typically, I use bamboo needles, but with the increasing size of the shawl, I think that having an interchangeable cable size will be more cost effective than having to buy 3 different needles for the varying widths of the shawl. I'm really hoping to get my cardigan finished before Thursday, when this KAL begins.
Today, my husband will mail out the 2 squares that I finished for the Gracious Parcels Project. I hope that Firefly receives them in time!!

Frogging...

Yesterday was the day of the frog. I finished turning the heel of the second blue & white sock to realize that I had started my short rows on the wrong needle & so the toe was 90 degrees off from the heel. Frog...Then, I started working on the sleeve to my cardigan. The pattern calls for a 12 inch cuff! I could just see those needing to be pushed up all the time, so I did some recalculating and cast on again for an 8 inch cuff. I finished most of the increases and realized I was increasing too quickly and all the increases would be finished in 10 inches instead of 16. So, frog...I did manage to get about 5-6 inches re-knitted before going to bed. It was a very frustrating day. Hopefully, I won't have these problems when I sit down to knit later today!

Curvalicious Progress

I had about an hour to work on my cardigan, last night. It is finished to the bottom of the sleeves! Feeling a great sense of accomplishment, I really wanted to start a sleeve, last night. However, I knew I needed to get some sleep, so I postponed starting it.
On another note, I have been working rather feverishly on the Blue & White Socks and have the second one almost to the heel. I really want to get these done so that I can start working on the Huskies socks. Maybe, I'll get to start those this weekend.

Fulling finished!

Here is the fulled bag. (It is still drying & so you can see a little of the Tupperware container that I'm using to help it keep its shape. This weekend, I plan to sew on the handles, and sew a lining into the bag. At that point, I'll really be finished. I hope my secret pal loves this bag as much as I do!

While the washing machine was working on the fulling, I made some more progress on my cardigan. I am almost done with the decrease rows for the waist shaping.

Curvalicious Progress

I've been happily knitting on my cardigan. It is knit intarsia-style, in the round completing the bodice as a whole, so I'm quite pleased to announce that I have 3 1/2 inches done!! I'm almost ready to begin the waist shaping, which adds interest to the knitting, making it a bit more challenging.

For tonight, I'll leave you with a funny picture of one of my cats, Thor. (So named, by my Sci-Fi loving husband after the little gray alien in Stargate SG-1.)


Yes, that's a cat in a washing machine! This crazy cat crawled in here when the washer was half full of dirty clothes. Imagine the surprise when my husband went to finish filling it!

A Day of Yarn Shopping

On Saturday my friend and I, along with her 6 year old daughter, took the day to go yarn store hopping. We visited a store in Tacoma, Fibers Etc. Wow, the owner had a ton of different yarns and was great help when asked about her stock. Unfortunately, we really didn't know what we wanted, so we left without any purchases, but the store sure was an adventure to shop in!

On our way back north (toward home) we stopped at Ikea for lunch, and then continued on to Main Street Yarns in Mill Creek. We liked this store, and wandered around for almost an hour, but still didn't find "just the right thing." I'm really not sure what we were looking for, but whatever it was sure didn't bite.

We finally ended up at Pacific Fabrics. Although their selection was much smaller than Fibers Etc., we each made a purchase. I decided to start knitting a spring sweater for my self from Big Girl Knits, Curvalicious Cardigan. I decided on these colors:

I found and loved the pink, Cascade 220. I tried looking for an espresso color that would work, but couldn't find anything I really liked, even with help! However, our time had slipped away. So, on Sunday, I went to the Village Yarn and Tea. They had Berroco's Ultra Alpaca in a dark brown. I loved it! I was so excited for a new project that I went home and finished the first inch before I went to bed, last night. I'm really loving the contrast in the colors and am excited to see it continue to take form.