It's Amazing

What a summer! Can't say I'm going to miss it and hope the door hit it in the butt on the way out. We weren't tortured with the horrible storms of last summer but the humidity and heat? Geesh! Enough already. 

At least you can breath in and out without feeling you need to take a shower and a nap. 

Anyhoo. I did something yesterday I haven't done since last spring. I PUT ON A CARDIGAN. A CARDIGAN FRESH OFF THE BLOCKING TABLE. No photo proof yet. I need to put a finishing touch on it. Later, promise.

What I can show you is an amazing process. Below is a ball of wool. Just a few yards of fiber spun and dyed. I picked up two sticks with a plastic cable connecting the two. I made some loops on the sticks.

 I wove the loops this way and that to create a fabric tube.

 I added tubes of knitted fabric and cut the largest tube up the middle of what I called the front. I picked up more loops and wove some more.

 When I finished the woven tubes I had a cardigan to wear when the tank tops are put away; socks replace flip flops and soup is on the stove.

And then I started the process all over again. 

I don't care how many years I do this, it NEVER gets old. 

Red Green Gold & Blue

Not sure the posey pictures justify the finished sweaters any better than flopping them on the table but you're stuck looking at them anyway.
Red
Simple. Plain Vanilla. Valley Yarns "Longmeadow"
Green
Little problem with curling at the top and bottom even though it was finished in seed stitch and I-cord. I think it just wants some steam attention.
Gold
The front and back darts made the fit on this gold number perfect. I used a 5 needle. At first thought maybe it would be too tight and stiff but it worked so well I'm repeating the process for my current project minus the dyelot mishap.
Blue
The red turtleneck was such an instant favorite I followed up with this blue number. A little less ribbing.

Voting in Massachusetts
Senate race today. So glad on so many levels. Most of all because Martha Coakley and Scott Brown will STOP CALLING MY HOUSE!!!!!! I got so tired of it I recorded an answering machine message just for them. This kinda back fired. The pollers (?) calling found it amusing and told their co-workers about it so they called to listen and giggled in the background. The second good thing is the commercials these two have been torturing us with. The only time you could get away from them was by watching PBS shows that did not involve politics or news. I am sooo much smarter and well informed about Belgium, coyotes, bears, radiant heating...you get the idea. I got alot of knitting done. Just have to bust out some sleeves on the current w.i.p., give it a block and it will on to the next project. Crank, crank, crank.

Don't Stamp

I'm knitting. Honest. But there has been a lack of enthusiasm. A reduction in mojo if you will. To top it all off, I had a near catastrophe involving a sweater freshly off the blocking table and a bottle of red ink. You may want to sit down for this.
I constructed a plain vanilla cardigan in charcoal grey. Nothing to blog about, nothing to get up about. I finished it and said to self, "eh." (if you check back a blog or two this is the same grey that was frogged for being unloved.) I put said sweater in the soak, gave it a spin in the washer, laid it out to dry and next morning, donned it.
Whilst at work, I went into my desk drawer and picked up the bottle of red ink that I use to replenish my date stamping pad. Before I got to the task I was interrupted, put the bottle down, turned to my computer and clutched my sweater at the waist.
Then I looked down at my hand.
My index finger was red, a large horizontal stripe of red was also on my sweater. The bottle had leaked without my noticing. After a few curse words under my breath I remembered I had soda water in my office. Here's a hint: soda water will not remove ink from wool. So what do you do? You call mom. Mom knows stuff like this when your brain is all crazy because you can't believe you did something so STOOPID. Her response was: hairspray. I tried it, some of it came out. By this time I gathered my senses and googled the situation. She was right of course because alcohol does a pretty good job. I got home, applied more alcohol, soaked and dried and by golly, you have to get pretty close to tell. If you do get that close, I'm pretty much gonna pop you one for invading my space.
So there you go you lucky little devils. The lesson is: don't pick up the red ink bottle. Let that ink pad just dry up.

London's Calling

The construction of Dicken's London is ongoing in my living room. Apparently snow was heavy this year because it's everywhere in the house. When finished there will be no room to place Christmas gifts under the tree. Pics of London at a later date.

My gryffindor inspired sweater has no buttons. They're in my purse. Although the distance between my purse and sweater are mere feet I have not joined the two. Could it be my mojo is

waining? Hmmm, more like a case of startitis. I have another project or two going but indeed having issues finishing things up. Probably because I need another sweater like a ....you can finish that sentence. I'm thinking the London snow is not enhancing the pic or the sweater, but that's just me. (I can't stand it, it's EVERYWHERE!)

In our effort to conserve heat in the Town Hall I constructed a pair of fingerless mitts to wear on our frostier days.

The pattern is a broken rib and the yarn is a cotton/acrylic. Not wool? No, these will get filthy and I want to just throw them in the laundry. Yes, I've heard of superwash wool but I didn't have any at hand and as you can see they are constructed of bits and pieces of other items. I made of bunch of hats for our Warm the Children collection out of the original skeins. Did you notice the bracelet? Did you? I taught myself to do a bit of stringing. I call this creation my Chanel bracelet. Matte black and pearl white beads with a touch of gold for bling. I prefer to create wire jewelry but want to explore other venues because you never know when it will become helpful. There are those that knit with wire. I can't say I cherish anything I've seen yet.

I doooo like chain maille. I'm hoping Santa will put a Byzantine Chain Maille kit in my stocking this year.

If you'll excuse me I have to get the lint roller and remove the snow....from everything.