Pre-Olympics FO

I was a test knitter for Kala over at Vegan Craftastic. Her Slippity Do Da Cowl is a quick & easy knit. Here's a photo of the finished project.

Yarn: Vanna's Choice in Purple Print and Dusty Purple.
Needle: Size 10 (6mm) 16" circular

No! NOT socks - Knitting Olympics Updated AGAIN

Changed my mind - no socks. I remembered another project I could do instead: the Dove Moebius Scarf & Hat. A free pattern at tahkistacycharles. Using Knit Picks; Andean Silk in cream.



I tried to post to Stephanie's web page about the change, but it's not showing up. Oh, well. She won't send the knitting police after me :-)

I just took a photo of the balls of yarn.

I owe, I owe, so off to work I go....

2010 Knitting Olympics

Change of plans. Not doing the Feb. Lady Sweater during the Olympics. Not since signing up for Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's 2010 Knitting Olympics. Rules state that the project has to be CO during the opening ceremony (was going to do that anyway.) Rules also state that the project must be finished before the end of the 2010 Olympics. That eliminates the sweater!!

So, I'll be doing socks for me :-) Yarn: OPAL Cotton 2008 in #2092, & using a "generic" pattern -- actually Stephanie's Step-by-Step Cheat Sheet for Socks (pg 144 of Knitting Rules.)

The socks will (and I emphasize WILL) be finished by February 28 - so they will also be my February SAM9 entry.

WooHoo!

I woke up early this a.m. with a sinus headache. The weather is changing - and not for the better. My first thought was, "Dang, I don't feel bad enough to call in sick at work." So, I got up, took some Rx and fixed a pot of strong coffee. Then I sat down at the computer to check emails & blogs. The first blog I checked was SAM9 and right at the top of the page I saw in Big Letters:

JAKKIMITCH

My first reaction was the same as I get when I look in the rear view mirror and see a squad car - Now What Did I Do?

It's all good, though! What I did was finish a pair of socks in January and post to the SAM9 blog. Yay! I won sock yarn & a circ. And I was just thinking last week that I need a pair of bright green socks. Double Yay!

OTN Update: One sock [refer to previous post] finished for my sister, 1" of second sock completed - that means 18" more till the toe decreases. :-| Photo eventually.

As Requested

My grandson, Buster, told me that he wanted mittens "outa the same yarn as my socks." Yeah, those Fern Rose Jacquards in the previous post. So, I bought a second ball of yarn, used double strands, and was able to match the color repeats fairly well. I didn't get a photo of Buster's mittens before he started wearing them. The mama says he loves the mitts and wears them all the time. He wore them over here a few days ago, but didn't want me to photograph them on his hands. So here they are - needing a good wash and a few fuzzy bits trimmed.

Sport said he wanted me to knit him a pair of mittens, too, but, he wanted to pick out different yarn. Surprisingly, he selected HL's I Love This Yarn in Boo Ombre. I used US 3 needles to get a tight fabric. This photo was taken before I gave them to him. He wore them to school last week :-)

Pattern: Panda Man's Paw Warmers as a guide.

OTN: another request (!) My sister in SC (recipient of a previous pair of socks) asked me to knit her a pair of tube socks. She sent yarn (actually enough for two pair) and pattern. Paton's Stretch Sock yarn in Plum & Paton's Spiral Tube Sock pattern (click on the "Free Patterns" tab.) She's tall, so I'm using the larger size -- knit 19" and then dec for toe. I've got 9" on the first sock done. Easy pattern, but 19"?? Hope the ball of yarn lasts!!

Grandsons' Socks

I knit these during November-December '09. I took the grandsons, separately, to HL and let them pick out the yarn for their socks.

6 yr old Sport selected Walk Away Sock Yarn in Pettitoes - a black, grey, white variegated yarn. 70% superwash wool, 23% polyamide, and 7% PBT [what's that?] This colorway fits him to a T.

I tried to steer 4 yr old Buster to several variations of blues, but he insisted on Patons' Kroy Socks in Fern Rose Jacquard. Funny thing...THIS colorway screams "Buster"! As I mentioned in an earlier post -- busy, bright, fun :-)

If you enlarge the photos, you'll see lots of nubs - they've been washed a lot.

First FO of 2010!

DD2 asked for socks - and picked out the yarn from the online photo at Knit Picks.

Pattern: generic rib - K6, P2

Yarn: Knit Picks' Stroll Multi in Pansy

Needles: size 1 [US] / 2.25 mm circulars

Knit for: DD2

She's happy with them. :-)

Also introducing Sock Blockers - a Christmas gift from my niece!!

Gotta hurry & get this posted. My ISP has been unreliable the past few weeks. Never know when it's going off line. Bummer.

Knitting keeps me out of trouble, too!

I like to knit (OK and crochet sometimes) to unwind after a hectic day. The big plus is that I've got something positive to show for all the time I spend on it.

While catching up with the Scotland news at the Beeb online, I found this. What a great project!

My Almeara Gloves: FOs

They are finished - finally - and surprisingly warm. Must be the garter stitch on the palms and all that cabling on the tops. :-)

The cables don't show up very well on this photo [the best of several I took.] And I think this colorway is not the best for showing cables anyway. But, they match the scarf my Dear Friend from England sent me last year [or the year before? Sorry, J, I'm notoriously bad with details.] And that was my goal - to have gloves that went with the scarf - and at the same time make those gorgeous Jared Flood Almearas. See my previous post. And Jared's.

I Gotta Knit!

Traditionally we have had the week of (or before) Christmas off - depending on what day of the week it fell on. But, this year we're doing a "better business" model and were open M-T-W. So I took some vacation days last week to finalize my Christmas shopping, etc.

Today the freezing rain started about noon. Then the power for the whole complex went out at 1:15 and was off 30 min. I called security and asked if there was any chance we would be sent home early. Hmmm...learned that there was no one at work who had the authority to shut us down. ARGH!!

Only two of us in my dept worked this week - everyone else took vacation time. V. and I were each working in different areas of our building when someone came in and said, "Didn't you get the email - we've closed." DUH. No we weren't at our desks.... I verified that we were shut and then we were out of there!!

Icy drive home, but I got here safely. Gotta unwind with yarn!

Happy Christmas to all!!

Grand dog's new sweater

DD3 emailed this photo of Q, the grand dog, in the sweater she knit him. :-) Not sure how Q feels about it, but I think it looks great.

Blogoversary #3

I've really not done a good job on this blog lately. I'm still knitting, but not "active" in the blogging world. I used to have about 25 blogs bookmarked in my favorites and would read about half of them each morning with my first cup of coffee. But, haven't done that in a long time. And then, my computer crashed. Most of my files were recovered, but none of my favorites OR emails in Outlook. So, I'm slowly rebuilding my Blog Favorites. Sadly, I can't remember all of the names of the ones I liked to keep up with. Hey...I just remembered two more. I'll be back....

Got 'em saved. Whew!

So, yes, today marks 3 years since I started this blog. I've spent some time reading through the first few months worth of posts. Great reminders! I have never been a diarist, but this blog comes close to being one.

While I've been not blogging, I've done socks for the Grandsons. Sport actually asked for a pair! Yay! I took him to HL and showed him the available sock yarn. He picked out Yarn Bee's Walk Away in a black/grey/white multicolor. He's very happy with the socks :-) And several times while I was knitting them, I discussed why I didn't want him to wear them to the daddy's on the weekends. (My excuse was that they needed to be washed in a special way. They're supposed to be superwash, but this way I know they won't get lost, or misplaced down at the dad's.) He's helped me wash them in Woolite.

So Buster wanted a pair, too. I tried to steer him to the variegated blues, but he selected Kroy Sock in Fern Rose Jacquard. The colorway is definitely Buster - busy, bright, fun.

I'll try to get photos of the boys socks one of these days soon. For now - they loved playing in the first snow of the season!

Finished a pair for myself a few days ago:

Pattern: Sunday Swing by Kristel Nyberg in the Knitty.com Summer09 issue.

Yarn: Malabrigo Sock in "Stonechat" -- however, all of the photos I've seen online for Stonechat are not even close to the color of my yarn. This looks much darker in person. However, this colorway is Perfect for my work wardrobe.

Needles: Two 24" Size 1 [us]/2.25mm circulars

Knit for: Me!

I'm Baackk!

And with a new computer. The old one was terminal, and I knew it. When it finally died, I didn't want to spend the $ to get a new one. But, it's difficult to carry on a "normal" life without a computer. So, here I am with a super fast HP Pavilion. Pages load in a snap - and I mean snap!

When I logged onto my computer at work on Thursday and it took all of 5 seconds to load my desktop, I was starting to feel impatient after 3 seconds.

Windows 7. I'm liking it, too. 20" flat screen monitor...takes a bit of getting used to. But... watching tv (hulu.com) or movies is awesome on it. :-)

I've done some knitting. Will report on that next time. Still need to get photos of the grandsons with their socks on. They were not co-operating when I tried last week.

More to come.... later.

This is for you, MG

I found this video on Howcast. I'm sure there are other videos out there for lefties. If you use another method to "load" the yarn around your right hand fingers, use it. I use the same method for knitting as I do when I crochet.

Stitches on the Bridge

One of the events for Homecoming Scotland is a knitting project stretching across the 1,640 ft Skye Bridge.