Knitterykate 2

I found a really really interesting pattern for a sweater on-line a while back. It's for a sweater that would be really fun to make. It's made from a varigated yarn and you use two balls of yarn at the same time. Instead of pulling from the same end you pull form opposite ends and thus get the beautiful colorway.The only problem is that the yarn costs a fortune. Just not in the budget right now...Maybe I can get the yarn store owner to put it on lay away indefinitely or something. Other news: Heidi's leggings are done. The yarn was so soft and would have been fun to work with if I could only get it to stay on the needles! Note to knitters: do not use slippery metal needles with alpaca wool. Only use bamboo or something similar -- like chopsticks. That allows the needles to grip the yarn. It seemed I spent as much time picking up dropped stitches as I did knitting.

Hi Mom, This is the yarn that I was telling you about. Is it the same one that you mentioned to me? Anyway it is 100% acrylic and, as you know, I like to work with yarn that has some wool in it. But this one is okay to work with... Then look at Lion Brand wool-ease. I made Keren's latest socks out of that...the ones she had to pull off immediately after putting on because it was so hot!!! (Note to self: never try on wool socks in the middle of the summer) It has 25% wool and 75% acrylic. Washable too. Don't worry too much about it. I will be glad to work with the 100% acrylic

Fair Isle Bag - Interweave Shared via AddThis

Lest you think I have a too much spare time to knit let me tell you of an incidence that happened to me last week. I was sitting at a stop light on the way to the store and I looked over at the car next to me only see a man, woman and young girl laughing and looking at me! All I was doing was knitting - taking advantage of the spare minute the red light afforded me. But I do get more done if Bruce is driving. And he doesn't knit so I might as well be in the passenger seat when we are together. I love long road trips for that reason and often plan what I am going to bring to knit before I decide what I am going to wear. Clothes? Pack a few skirts, a few tops, a sweater or two and some clogs and off I go. I'm already thinking of what to bring for my trip to California later this month to visit Mom. I'm flying and as you know the airlines are very particular about what they allow through security...at least the security company is. Some knitters suggest bringing wooden circul...

I told Aunt P that I thought I would not start any new projects in the month of March. I would just work on the ones that were under construction. Never, never, never put yourself under law. That being said I did finish two projects. This is my version of Elizabeth Zimmerman's Pi Shawl. I had a lot of fun making it and experimenting with different stitches. The concept for making this was to double the number of stitches on the needle every time you doubled the rows. So after casting on nine stitches and joining in the round I knit for two rows then doubled my stitches by doing yarn overs to 18. Knit for four more rows and doubled my stitches to 36 and so on til I got to 576. I could have gone on to 1000 something - I had enough yarn but I had been working on this long enough. Looking back I kind of wish I had since the finished shawl is a little small. For the edge you just cast on eight or so stitches and work back and forth catching an edge stitch on the "forth" for...

Ha! And you thought I was never coming back. Well, I told you it was a long winter. It's not over yet. Yesterday (or was it the day before?) we had some more flurries but they didn't stick. On the way to work from downtown Bruce drove down our old street to bypass the train we didn't want to get stuck waiting for. Well. We drove by the house and I said, "They have peacocks!" When we lived there it was not unusual to see pheasants meandering down our 200 foot driveway so Bruce told me I must mean pheasants. "No, back up." And this is what we saw. I remember it being unusually warm on this side of the house. That must be why he is here. On a sunny day in the middle of winter you could sit out here, close your eyes and dream you were in sunny southern California. And guess what? We didn't miss waiting for the train.

Yep! It's snowing again. We woke up to snow and it's still snowing now. And winter only started two weeks ago! Check out Laura Ingall's Wilder most boring book: the long winter You will find that book perfectly describes the long winter they had where she lived that year. Just like the book itself - long, tedius and boring. (By the way, I really did like her books for the most part and read through them several times). And that describes what we are going through right now only to a less severe degree.

I have "startitus". Now, before you get the crazy idea that I have some terrible terminal disease let me explain. It's not a physical ailment, it's more mental. But it is an ailment. Maybe it is incurable. I don't know. I'm working on the cure right now. The major symptom is this: An incessant desire to start a new project (be it knitting, in my case) without finishing previous ones. Now, does that sound too bad? Let me tell you my reasons for this "startitus": 1. There are too many cute patterns out there. Too much temptation. 2. There are so many different kinds of yarn that one must try a skein of each. 3. There are so many projects that beg to stay on the needles because of a dilemma or problem that needs to be figured out. Left to simmer on the back burner. 4. Some huge projects do get boring. 5. Some projects are more portable and thus more suitable to working on in the grocery line. I mean, you really don't want to see me knitting away on...

Happy New Year!! What better way to celebrate than with a new batch of snow?!! Yep, it happened again last night. This morning we woke up with a new blanket of the white variety. I love it. After meeting last night there was a new year's celebration of a sort. Most of the ladies brought goodies and those with kids brought games. We did eat our selves silly but the games stayed in the boxes. The kids had more fun with charades. Brought back memories of our young peoples' celebrations in the 70's. Only they played a very modified version. Example: Bethany stood up and hugged herself and you were supposed to guess "Hugging". Tara put her two fingers up to her hair and you were supposed to guess "Hair cutting". All fun. Those girls are dramatists for sure. And then ladies all brought out their yarn. Check out Chatty's blog for photos. Bruce and I stayed at the meeting room as long as he could stand being awake. (I had my knitting so I was prepared for t...