Miscellany

Have you ever worked with a yarn that you just can't get enough of? I've worked with alot of Cascade 220 but this has to be my favorite. I think it's called skyblue heather. I tried to check on Webs site but it was taking too long and we all know I have the patience of an amoeba's flea. Continuing on, I love the color, the weight and the halo and I haven't even blocked it yet. This particular pattern is killer on the hands but I just couldn't put it down this weekend. Front and back are done to the underarm. I forsee purveying more of this wool for another project.

I went to Michaels and bought a stencil cutter for my quilt project. I'll be doing some maple leaf collecting for the quilting design.
I also purchased a quilting thimble. It resembles a guitar pick 'cept worn upside down for quilting.
My tennis injury has healed--good thing, I have another lesson tonight, if it stops showering. At the moment the sun is shining and we have rain coming in sideways. Never dull weatherwise in New England.
And Manny-best of luck to you in LA. All I'm gonna say.

Toys

This is a fun widget. Kay showed it to me and found it here.

Tennis led to a personal injury last night. I airballed a serve and tweeked the tendon in my arm. Now I'm all whiney and it hurts when I do that. Pretty funny airballing a serve though. Had me giggling...Whoosh! We played two against the instructor and LOST. EVERY. GAME. Apparently 3 lessons may not be enough to hit the tennis circuit with the chance of any success.

With my injury I didn't progress on my knitting either so basically I have nothing to share! Maybe tomorrow.

Tennis Anyone?

I'm progressing positively with my tennis game. If I could get more of my serves OVER the net it would be better for my game. And if my opponents are keeping track all they need to do is force me to use my backhand and they're guaranteed points in their favor, but I'm not discouraged. The Williams sisters have nothing to fear-yet.
A new knitting project has arisen due to not being able to find one of my sweaters. My aran has hidden itself so I won't carry out the threat of removing the neckline for a redo. I also said rude things about the wool always looking dingy no matter how many times I soak it so it's feeling abused I'm sure. I made up the pattern myself featuring honecomb, rope and crab cables which all conveniently twist on the same row and will reuse said pattern for my new sweater. Instead of traditional off-white I'm using a blue heather Cascade 220. I didn't bother to take a pic of two rows, I'll save that for later. The two sweaters will look different (if the orginal ever shows up again.) due to the fact that the original was knit from the bottom up and the new one is being constructed from the top down. Only the crabby cables will be the tell.
With all these finished socks and sweaters I'm looking forward to cooler weather. Not that I want summer to end just yet but a week of day temps in the 70's and nights in the 50's wouldn't be so bad would it? It could even thunderstorm every 6 hours like it has been if it wants. I did spot a red maple leaf this morning-a little reminder of what is to come.

What I did on My Summer Vacation

A week away! Nothing planned so anything my little heart desired and weather permitting I did.

This was a double rainbow. Much prettier in real time, you can barely see it here.

A pair of socks with broken rib stitch pattern. Yarn-Plymouth Happy Feet. This pattern stitch can take up a bit of yardage-looks harmless enough though I'm glad I didn't start the pattern from the toe, the calf bit would have been too short for me.
Did some sewing and turned this into:
this! And if you look very closely to the glider in the background you will see Andrew lounging. My cats nap outside. How odd. They had a rather harrowing experience with a young german shepard on the loose. Andrew's tail never looked so big around before. Practically angora! It's all good, mom was there to shoo the offending pooch away. Back to the quilt, it started as a wall hanging. It now fits across a full size bed. My gameplan is to hand quilt maple leaves on the patches and a linear design along the borders. That'll take a while!
I'm happy to report that my bike still functions and we made it halfway on the bike path before we had to high-tail it back home due to --ANOTHER THUNDERSTORM. I know, hard to believe. I thought my legs were made of sawdust when I got off but relatively no muscle soreness. Tennis also went well and have another lesson tonight. Oh, I almost forgot!

Fireworks for the Christmas in July celebration held by the Boat Club at Barton's Cove. A view from my front porch, how convenient!

And that's how I spent my summer vacation.

Missed Wednesday, It's Thursday

Not that Wednesday was extraordinarily unruly but time got away as usual.

Today is mom's birthday.

Andrew helped her open her present-that cat can smell sock yarn a mile away. As a new sock knitter she was very excited. There's no photo cuz she was in her jammies and well, we have a rule at chez Miss Sandra, if your hair looks like you combed it with your pillow there will be NO photos.

I did zap a couple of my w.i.p. I swear this camera is on auto-blur.

Meet zip up cardi. When zipped to the top it will have a stand up turtleneck. I still need to get the proper length zipper. One thing bothers me. The colors are bright, summery, perfect for warm weather wear. What's bothering me is that it's worsted weight wool. Not perfect for warm weather wear. Is it going to look odd in the fall & winter? Apparently I think so. It fits perfect. No jog joins thanks to several websites and Ravelry tips on the subject. I'm one of those -NO WEARING WHITE AFTER LABOR DAY kinda New England gals. I'll just have to get over it or find a pair of white ski pants and make a fashion statement. Not like I've never done THAT before! Bev-stop laughing, I can hear you.

For some cosmic reason I made extra wide hem facings and it made quite a difference on how the sleeves and bottom hem hang. Good for me!

After reading Brooklyn Tweeds blog on tubular cast on I was quite intrigued so I investigated more. Definitely will give that a shot the next time I do a "bottom up" sweater.

I have to get everything cleaned up in the office today before I escape for a week. I am so looking forward to it I can't tell you.

Tuesday

I'm going on vacation next week and I'm trying to do a weeks worth of stuff in 4 days. I know I'm forgetting something. Not that the town will shut down or anything but the residents always feel so inconvenienced on a daily basis that I really don't wish to listen to additional whining when I get back. I haven't given a thought about what I want to do on my vacation. Just anxious to stay away from the job. I did sign up for tennis lessons that will start during my vacation. Why an over 40 knitting spinster with 2 cats would want to take up tennis is beyond me. I will take to it like I did golf and downhill skiing. I don't golf in the heat, rain, I have nothing to wear or whatever other excuse I can come up with. My lack of athletic enthusiasm shocks me to be quite frank because it's what I lived for prior to the knitting obsession. My car trunk holds all my sports equipment and clothing. I live in "outdoor recreation valley", bike path, cove for boating/fishing, hiking trails, cross country skiing...it's embarrassing! The fact that I have all this and I prefer to sit on my beehind manipulating wool--never would have crossed my mind 20 years ago. I have a school friend who just completed hiking 160 miles on the Long Trail in 16 days with her son and all I could think of was: "I couldn't go THAT long without full bathroom services." The visual of my hair without its daily shampoo/blow dry ritual...Heck, I couldn't go a day at this point. (well I could but don't WANT to. Oh my, this isn't helping.) I've got a whole week to tune up my 10-speed and hit that bike trail. Do you know where this bike has been? When I bought it I had it rigged with every bag available and rode it constantly. I used to travel to Galilee RI and get on the ferry to bike around Block Island. I would pack up my art supplies when I was in college and trek from Turners to Greenfield--EVERY DAY! (I hated taking public transportation that much.) Now where did I put my helmet?

Monday

I have crochet steeked the jacket and bought a zipper but I think it's going to be too short. The zipper that is. The Jacket is not fitted so I don't need to consider zipper bulges. And the steeks came out beautiful.

Progress

(this post will make no sense if you don't read the last one-just warning you.)
Now I have 3 shrubs shorter than the rest so we've kicked goofy looking front facade up another notch. Lawn maintenance was the order of the long holiday weekend in my neighborhood. Not a day went by without someone crankin' up the lawnmower or weed wacker to shatter the silence. Even the kid next door (30 year old that acts about 12) who allows the grass to grow 8" before doing a mow got his licks in late yesterday evening. Haying is more the word for it. But anyhoo...
My current Large project is a cardigan with a challenge: a zipper front. Why that strikes fear into me I do not know. I conquered cotton steeks for pity sakes! And if the zipper thing turns into a fiasco I can always do a button band. There, that should calm things.
It's kitty flea drop application time and the boys HATE it! It's the only time they run away from me and hide. I've never had any problem with my other cats. Beau walks around after the treatment squinting his eyes as if I put acid on him and the fumes are too strong for him to open them normal. Yes, I've checked the skin to make sure it's NOT burning them and it's fine. There must be a smell to it that I can't perceive but they can. I try to reason with them about the whole lack of flea business but has anyone had any success reasoning with a cat? They get over it, so do I.
I need to go buy a zipper.

Never ceases to amaze me. With all the cushions, rugs and a cat condo, the porch rail at 3" wide with one claw in the screen for support is the best sort of nap. Yes, Beau is sound asleep. I caught his head as it rolled off the rail but couldn't grab the camera AND cat to get that photo.

He woke up enough to readjust and allow me to go back to whatever menial thing I was doing.

Primarily it's sock knitting and sweating. There, my life in a nutshell. Every time I attempt to do something extraordinary outside like shrubbery trimming or weeding, the sky turns black, thunder rolls, I put away my toys and go inside. My front facade looks rather goofy with one shrub 6" shorter than the rest. Hard to tell what was trimmed on the rhododendrum but, there you go. I have 4 more to do. I have been a victim of weather.

What?! Another Storm?

Okay, we had a wacky snow filled winter. Now we are being pounded with thunderstorms and though I love them, they're causing damage. We're talking power outages (three hours yesterday) Trees down. House on fire. No, not mine but the next street over. NOT GOOD. Repeat of storms again today. So dark you can't knit. We've had 2 and another just announced over the weather radio. Oh, let's add flooding today. Geesh!

In between storms I finished Happy Feet #12Started Happy Feet #1. I do like this sock yarn. The socks are heavier but my gauge is the same.

During a break in the weather Beau was consumed by the garden ivy.

Then laid on his back to sun himself. Odd cat...

...while Andrew stayed in this position for a couple hours just waiting for a bird to suddenly drop out. It never happened. In fact, we have babies. Cheep! Cheep!

Beau took up the position and went one step further. Climbed up the door casing, grabbed the birdhouse with a paw on each side and stuck his nose in. (a picture would have been better but for the sake of the the birds I ran over to peel him off.)Took all my strength to wrench that cat off the bird house. No one was hurt. Well, maybe the boys pride as I shortened their leads to stop that from happening again. I'm no fun.

Rut, Indecision, Inspiration

I don't know if it's a rut or indecision. I've got stash but no inspiration. I've started oodles of projects that begin as vests or sweaters just to frog them the next day. What to do? I've not been in this predicament in ages! The only saving grace is a sock-in-process in a new yarn for me called Plymouth Happy Feet color #12. (insert photo that doesn't exist here. You can log onto WEBS and search Happy Feet, though I must say my hanks have less yellow and more green/red in them.)
I have an appointment in the Northampton area today so a stop in to WEBS will be the therapy I need for sure. If for nothing else to pick up more Happy Feet yarn. I'm feeling better already!

Southern Belle I Ain't

90's
Humid
Whining
Nova Scotia's looking just fine right now. They have to be cooler, you can't get more north east coast. No, I don't want a geography lesson so save it. Yes, you can add crabby to whiney.
Though I can't pictorially prove it at the moment I did finish Turtle Dove. No idea if it fits as I refuse to try on a wool worsted long sleeve turtleneck sweater. I'm funny like that. I have a "before blocking" pic but the humidity is refusing to upload it.
I have a mood adjuster outside my office window. Mr. & Mrs. Grey Squirrel are out collecting snacks and Baby Grey is testing his mother's patience. She says something to him and he scoots back up the tree. Red Squirrel is doodling around doing what red squirrels do. Pleasantly amusing.
Well, until I can upload pics I guess that's all I have to say about that. Keep cool ya'll on the east coast!

Update: Here is Turtle Dove in it's unblocked state. Resembles thermal underwear don' it?

Pattern: Top Down Drop Shoulder Double Broken Rib Mock Turtleneck

Gauge: 4.5 spi 6.75 rpi

Needles: U.S.8 circulars, 32"

Material: Casacade 220 Grey Heather, White

It Makes a Mother Worry

When you send your little one outside to play first thing in the morning you've already taken the precautions to ensure their safety as best you can. You check on them often to see what they're up to. When you go to the door and find your little one is nowhere to be seen your heart immediately slams into your throat. You throw on whatever is close and fly out the door. Not in the yard, not in either one of the neighbors yards. You look up in trees because it's a possibility given their nature. You walk the neighborhood calling their name intently scanning yards and open garages. You probably look like a stalker but who cares, my little one is not safe any more. Trying to be logical is laughable. What were they wearing? What color are their eyes? What interests them?

After two hours of walking the neighborhood you head for the house to call the police. As you get to the door you look over and there sits your little one, pleased as punch with himself on the neighbor's front walk. The brick on your heart lifts. If you call to him he'll run in the other direction. Play it smart. Get a treat. Damn! he's out of sight again. Go to the open garage. Offer the treat. Darn if he doesn't come from behind you. Grab him, give a big hug and tell him what a naughty boy he was for leaving the yard.

Andrew snapped his lead this morning. Not only was he loose but he was wearing a harness, leash and 6ft of rope lead attached to the leash with metal connectors. I was more afraid he would get all that extra baggage caught and be stuck somewhere I couldn't reach him.

When he showed himself he was wearing nothing but the fur he was born with. Someone in the 'hood has a harness and rope and won't know why or how. I would hope no one would release his harness and just let him free. I prefer to think he Houdini'd out of it. My baby is in the house and just itchin' to go back outside. I locked him and his brother in tight and went to work. Breathing a sigh of relief.

I may have another gray hair.

Squooshy Knitting

The past two projects have been DK or fingering weight yarn. I cast on for a drop shoulder sweater in Cascade 220 worsted with size 8 needles. Gigantic in comparison to the 2's I've been working with. Needless to say progress is much faster. Here we see the back to the under arm complete and the front to the center join. The pattern is a double broken rib. Being a rib it has plenty of stretch where I need it and hugs in where I don't. No need to do much shaping.

I joined back to front and continued in the round until I ran out of the working yarn. Picked up the sleeve, knit to 18" and put it on hold. I'm on the second sleeve and will put that on hold at 18".I had to stop myself from knitting several times over the weekend to attend to other duties. I also stop and squeeze it because its so gawl darn squooshy.

Rumor is the temps are to go up to the 90's with humidity this weekend. Not good squooshy knitting weather but I should be done with it by then. Woolie vest is on the blocking board and I found some interesting buttons for finish. Yeh, I shoulda taken a picture of the buttons-I am never going to get the hang of this blogging thing.

Springtime in New England

I had hopes of finishing knitting stuff. I came close. This cotton cardi refuses to dry.

Woolie vest is ready for blocking.

One and a quarter pair of socks for the Oncology Dept. at the hospital-done.

On the non-knitting side of the weekend I took advantage of the gorgeous weather we had to do some home-owner stuff.' Patching a sidewalk with suprevision. Andrew had to step in it afterward but left no mark.

Deweeded a few brick walkways. Lost the moss in the process. Bummer.

Beau found some feet.

And I'm not sure if he's holding Andrew down or trying to get a better view of something down the lawn. I don't question bizarre cat behavior. And the ivy is getting ready to take over. It looks all neat and tidy now but this stuff goes nuts.

It was a lovely weekend.

Ummm

Okay, I got my Ravelry invite and I have that deer-caught-in-the-headlight feeling. What to do? It's too exciting! I have stuff but where to begin? I think I'll stroll thru Ravelry a bit more before launching pill balls at them. Yes, that's what I'll do.
Last night I picked up stitches for the vest in progress. Around the neck and armholes is going to be small turned finish and with the curling of the steek it makes a binding similar in looks to I-cord. Hmmm. No, wait, first I undid the tacking down of the steeks, then I knit. I liked it at 10pm. I put the vest, the cats and me to bed after that.
Now please excuse me while I have a look at Kay's Italy pics again then take a wander in Ravelry land. Memorial Day weekend, I should have finished objects to show by Tuesday!

Let's Go Back To The Captain...

My, my that last post was a tirade wasn't it? I admit it, sometimes people just suck the life out of me. I regroup quickly and move on. It's all good.

Knitting has been stalled to socks only of late. I have a cotton sweater that needs blocking and buttons, a vest that has been snipped of steeks and needs button bands. While I'm on that, tacking down the steek edges was tedious and unsatisfactory. How can I change that? I don't like the finish and I usually cover with grosgrain but there are so many steeks in this project I've stopped looking at it. Not good. I have a rule, no new large projects before the last is complete and I've already broken that rule with the lack of finish between the cotton cardi and the vest. Thus the reason for socks only. And by the way, these socks (donated sock yarn)are for the Oncology Unit at the local hospital so I de-guilt myself. They're for an excellent cause and not for moi. I tried something...I tire of self striping yarn so used a slip stitch pattern and found that it made an interesting blend of stripes. Every 4th stitch extended into the next row.

The under side of the foot (toe up method) shows the normal stripe pattern.

Unfortunately, I didn't take a pic of the sock before I was ready to turn the heel. Hee, Haw! The slip stitch pattern shortens up the length and made the toe end curl up! The bottom of the sock was a good inch longer than the top at that point. I should have seen that coming sooner but chose to not pay attention. Just knit, knit, knit, happy as a clam. After I stopped laughing I ripped back to toe and started again. Plain vanilla self striping sock. And yes, the pattern would work fine for the all around leg area. It would be quite squooshy. Why didn't I? Who knows.

Don't Give Me Sharp Objects

I usually have the patience of a nightcrawler. Yesterday was one of those days where 50 things were going on in the office, no one wanted to wait their turn and I was apparently the only one with the answers. I could feel my teeth turn sharp and pointy as I watched MY work get farther and farther behind. I don't mean to be selfish but I'se got stuff of my own ta do. Pickin' up what I'm puttin' down here? Mail has to get out. Paperwork distributed. You get the picture. MEOWWWW! HSSSS!
Not much knitting has occurred. I finished the bottom edge of the vest and turned a sock heel. I short rowed the heel without wraps on the first sock and couldn't remember how I did it for the second. There was alot of tinking but I managed to pull it off. Since I have been working with nothing but fingering weight I'm looking forward to designing and working on a larger gauge item. I have scheduled a WEBS visit for Friday and have plenty worsted weight in my stash to create.
Now I have to go file down my teeth to a more rounded, calmer shape.

Mom's Day

The waffles came out perfect.

The weather behaved beautifully, regardless of the weatherman's prediction of clouds and rain.
The walk along the river was gorgeous and a bonus trip to a photography show was a treat.


The front porch is open for the season and knitting was accomplished.
The yarn for this has been marinating in my stash for quite some time. It's Jaeger extra fine fingering weight merino. It's going to be a button front vest. If my camera took closeups better I'd zoom the detail in the center. It's a slip stitch pattern with a row of burgundy and a row of navy with each row's color extending into the next every 5 sts. I steeked everything. Neckline, armholes (which have already been cut) and obviously the front which will be cut later. Mom is new to steeking and could not grasp the concept of the neck and armholes. After snipping (a painful process for her to watch.) she was amazed. "And the ends just curl right in!" It is pretty cool. The bands will be done in the accent colors. Very fall-ish.

She's a fairly new sock knitter and whipping them out like candy. She was taught to knit socks as a kid. Took her 3 years to finish a pair back then and couldn't wear them. Kudos to my teaching skills I guess.

And how angelic do these two look!? They posed themselves. A perfect mother's day gift.


"Honest mom, we don't know WHO made a hole in the porch screen. Must have been the cat next door. He's ALWAYS causing trouble."

So I Was Thinking......

....and after conferring with Kay I came up with a way to steek cotton. Now, more than likely someone else already came up with this scathingly brilliant idea. I don't knit with non wool fibers often and purling is not my favorite thing to do along with sewing pieces together. So step by step, inch by inch, here's how it went last night.
I marked the center of the steek with contrasting thread. (okay, that's normal) Below shows the neckline and front steeks. (For clarification this is a top down seamless set-in sleeve construction.)
I flipped to the wrong side and applied fusible webbing. I would recommend using the roll version because you can get various widths with perfectly straight edges. Did I have any wide enough last night? No. I cut my own from sheet fusing. A light touch of the iron was all it took. I toyed with the idea of using my 1 1/2" barrel curling iron. Maybe next time.
I sewed down each side of the steek with a ridiculously small zigzag stitch. I don't want these stitches going ANYWHERE!
Don't you hate it when the kids borrow the car and leave the gas tank empty! Arrrgh! Since I haven't used the sewing machine in 10 years (no exaggeration) it took me longer to figure out how to load a filled bobbin than to complete the project.

A view of the underside after sewing (albeit blurry)
Snip, snip
SWEET! (the white stuff is leftover from the center marking thread. I've picked it all out. I was too excited to do so before it's photo shoot.


I haven't picked up the stitches around the neck or button band yet. Don't forsee any problems either. The edge is stable--no stretch which to me right now seems like a plus with the way cotton stretches out of shape. So the only problem was reloading the bobbin! I hope to finish this one up this weekend and offer a FO pic soon.