Because I Just Really Wasn't Knitting That Much for Awhile There
Someone pointed out to me recently that my last
blog entry had snow in it. Well, it seems we've come full circle now, haven't
we!
I really did just stop knitting there for awhile. Since we moved out of the city I've been wanting to spend my time out in my garden, or out in my kayak, or at the beach (I did finish the other tiger sock as my beach knitting this summer) and not inside sitting around. (If I could knit and hike I'd be all set but really, I'm so clumsy that it takes everything I have to just walk without falling down). And then the election really sucked out all of my remaining available brain cells. Thank goodness that all went well in the end.
However, it's winter again (as evidenced by what's falling outside the window again), we've already missed two days of school and the knitting mojo appears to be creeping back. There's a pair of socks on the needles for the first time since Labor Day, two sweaters that are each more than half done on other needles, and a package just came from Peace Fleece with yarn for sweater number three. I know the rest of you are usually searching for the softest merino but some part of me feels like it's not really knitting if it's not scratchy and full of straw. That's probably why I live here on the rockbound coast (none of that sissy sand for me).
So what's on the needles?
I never expected intarsia to be the thing that got me knitting again but this is the project that I sped through. Winter Star Jacket by Di Gilpin from Interweave Knits Winter 2005. The yarn is Elspeth Lavold Silky Wool in blue, gold and gray. This has a back, a front and should have its other front by the end of today. This, and a Librivox download of Willke Collins's The Woman in White and suddenly I was knitting again.
Most of the fall was taken up with this:
That's Wedgette by Norah Gaughan which is a free pattern on Ravelry or the Berrocco website. The lacy skirt is knitted from side to side and then the bodice is picked up from there. (I like to use the word "bodice" when Eli's descriptions of Star Wars become too involved--my lesson that different people have different interests seems to be falling on deaf ears). The pattern is being released in pieces and the sleeve part hasn't been released yet which is fine as I seem to have stalled on the endless stockinette of the back of the bodice. The alpaca is lovely and all but I'm a bit bored with it. Oh sorry, Frog Tree DK Alpaca in grey. I've changed the cap sleeve shaping because after years of trying to stuff these shoulders into fitted sleeves (you'd think I would have learned this the first time around in the late seventies) I've realized it isn't going to happen. So I changed this to a modified dropped sleeve and I won't have to give it away (sorry, Daphne, this one is mine). I know it doesn't look like much tossed on the floor like that but the blocked ones I've seen on Ravelry are lovely. Please go look at someone else's and imagine mine looking just like it but in grey.
I've also started Caroline again with the same sleeve cap modification--that's about half done as well though I'm a little stalled because I haven't figured out how long to make the sleeves before they're felted (I know, swatch, measure swatch, felt swatch, do the math).
Socks? Harry Potter house socks from Charmed Knits in the Griffindor Colorway from Van Calcar Acres. No pictures yet and not enough light to take them today in the blizzard.
Anything else? Not really. It was a mostly uneventful summer. We did go to Canada and Michigan for ten days. This time we drove (last time we took Amtrack as Eli is mad about trains and we knew we weren't all going to fit into one sleeper car much longer) and it was wonderful. Eli made a little backseat nest and read (he is in that little window of time when you are able to read in the car without getting seasick) and when he wasn't reading he listened to his ipod or we listened to Harry Potter on audiodisc. I had forgotten how beautiful upstate NY is--mostly like here but greener and fuller as there are no ocean winds to make life difficult and we saw the Erie Canal and Eli swam in an outdoor heated swimming pool on a chilly night in Seneca Falls and we spent another night in Niagara Falls and did all of the tourist things and then went on to Detroit and saw Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum again and stayed with family and really had a wonderful time. I should have told you about it at the time. Ah well.
Oh look, the snow is coming down diagonally now.
We are supposed to go to the New Year's Eve parade in two hours but I'm not sure that's going to happen.
Oh, I almost forgot the requisite picture of the cats!
And the requisite picture of the child!
This was actually two days ago--it wasn't really that warm but the children thought it was. We had just walked up from the beach, out of the wind so maybe in comparison.
Happy New Year to the two of you who are still reading! Perhaps we'll chat again soon.
I really did just stop knitting there for awhile. Since we moved out of the city I've been wanting to spend my time out in my garden, or out in my kayak, or at the beach (I did finish the other tiger sock as my beach knitting this summer) and not inside sitting around. (If I could knit and hike I'd be all set but really, I'm so clumsy that it takes everything I have to just walk without falling down). And then the election really sucked out all of my remaining available brain cells. Thank goodness that all went well in the end.
However, it's winter again (as evidenced by what's falling outside the window again), we've already missed two days of school and the knitting mojo appears to be creeping back. There's a pair of socks on the needles for the first time since Labor Day, two sweaters that are each more than half done on other needles, and a package just came from Peace Fleece with yarn for sweater number three. I know the rest of you are usually searching for the softest merino but some part of me feels like it's not really knitting if it's not scratchy and full of straw. That's probably why I live here on the rockbound coast (none of that sissy sand for me).
So what's on the needles?
I never expected intarsia to be the thing that got me knitting again but this is the project that I sped through. Winter Star Jacket by Di Gilpin from Interweave Knits Winter 2005. The yarn is Elspeth Lavold Silky Wool in blue, gold and gray. This has a back, a front and should have its other front by the end of today. This, and a Librivox download of Willke Collins's The Woman in White and suddenly I was knitting again.
Most of the fall was taken up with this:
That's Wedgette by Norah Gaughan which is a free pattern on Ravelry or the Berrocco website. The lacy skirt is knitted from side to side and then the bodice is picked up from there. (I like to use the word "bodice" when Eli's descriptions of Star Wars become too involved--my lesson that different people have different interests seems to be falling on deaf ears). The pattern is being released in pieces and the sleeve part hasn't been released yet which is fine as I seem to have stalled on the endless stockinette of the back of the bodice. The alpaca is lovely and all but I'm a bit bored with it. Oh sorry, Frog Tree DK Alpaca in grey. I've changed the cap sleeve shaping because after years of trying to stuff these shoulders into fitted sleeves (you'd think I would have learned this the first time around in the late seventies) I've realized it isn't going to happen. So I changed this to a modified dropped sleeve and I won't have to give it away (sorry, Daphne, this one is mine). I know it doesn't look like much tossed on the floor like that but the blocked ones I've seen on Ravelry are lovely. Please go look at someone else's and imagine mine looking just like it but in grey.
I've also started Caroline again with the same sleeve cap modification--that's about half done as well though I'm a little stalled because I haven't figured out how long to make the sleeves before they're felted (I know, swatch, measure swatch, felt swatch, do the math).
Socks? Harry Potter house socks from Charmed Knits in the Griffindor Colorway from Van Calcar Acres. No pictures yet and not enough light to take them today in the blizzard.
Anything else? Not really. It was a mostly uneventful summer. We did go to Canada and Michigan for ten days. This time we drove (last time we took Amtrack as Eli is mad about trains and we knew we weren't all going to fit into one sleeper car much longer) and it was wonderful. Eli made a little backseat nest and read (he is in that little window of time when you are able to read in the car without getting seasick) and when he wasn't reading he listened to his ipod or we listened to Harry Potter on audiodisc. I had forgotten how beautiful upstate NY is--mostly like here but greener and fuller as there are no ocean winds to make life difficult and we saw the Erie Canal and Eli swam in an outdoor heated swimming pool on a chilly night in Seneca Falls and we spent another night in Niagara Falls and did all of the tourist things and then went on to Detroit and saw Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum again and stayed with family and really had a wonderful time. I should have told you about it at the time. Ah well.
Oh look, the snow is coming down diagonally now.
We are supposed to go to the New Year's Eve parade in two hours but I'm not sure that's going to happen.
Oh, I almost forgot the requisite picture of the cats!
And the requisite picture of the child!
This was actually two days ago--it wasn't really that warm but the children thought it was. We had just walked up from the beach, out of the wind so maybe in comparison.
Happy New Year to the two of you who are still reading! Perhaps we'll chat again soon.
Posted: Wed - December 31, 2008 at 01:57 PM
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Published On: Dec 31, 2008 02:03 PM
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Published On: Dec 31, 2008 02:03 PM