Rhapsody In Blue

Ah ecstasy--there is great progress on the blue Cashmerino sweater.  The back and front pieces have been stitched together and the sleeves started.  I realized yesterday that I need a shorter circular needle since I decided to knit the sleeves on instead of sewing on after knitting them flat.  I've ordered a 16 inch needle and I'm working on the big collar while I wait for the needle to arrive.  

 

I have also started the EZ Summer Cardi with Knit Picks Palette.  I said in the last post that it is lace weight.  We all know that's not right!!  Palette is fingering weight.  I always seem to have problems with lace weight yarn so fingering weight is about the lightest weight I use.  Anyway, the sweater is airy and peachy and promises to be very pretty.

I received the yarn for a scarf I like a lot.  Knitting Daily recently posted the chart for a fair isle scarf  called Ajiro.  Since I can calculate the number of stitches needed for myself, I do not need to buy the pattern.  Is that cheating?  It might be under different circumstances but the writer outlined exactly how to make the scarf, including the ends, so I don't feel like I am stealing the pattern.  What do you think?  On the other hand I am told that the book the pattern comes from is a good source of information for fair isle knitting, especially dealing with long floats.  So if you are interested in great patterns and sound knitting instruction you might want to buy Vintage Modern Knits.  I'm hoping the plug will make up for me making the scarf without buying the book!

 

Our family visitors moved into their new home last week and we took the opportunity (while the big guys were moving things) to add some new furniture pieces and spiffy up the living room and guest room.   We added something I have wanted to get for a long time--a new recliner for DH.  In order to fit it into the room we had to remove the loveseat that was Macy's perch.  I hope he enjoyed the recliner for the five minutes Macy let him sit in it because now it is hers!  She seems to think it is much more comfortable than her old back-of-loveseat accommodations.  Dh says he has always preferred sprawling on the couch anyway.  It's a good thing!!

 

Oh, I almost forgot--one mitt is finished.  Yippee!

Life is good.

Seven Things

Sweet Grace bestowed a Style Award on me and several others  and I am thrilled to start my new blog location this way!  These self-revealing things, however, are very difficult for me.  My mind goes blank when I sit down to write about myself.  Anyway, here are a few things that you might find interesting/strange/funny about me.

1.  My family calls me the "Technology Queen".  The big bag I carry everyday contains an iPod Touch, iPhone 4, and an iPad; I read with a Kindle, and I work with both a PC and a Laptop on my desk.

2.  I collect antique fountain pens and tea pots. 

3.  I've been a vegetarian for many years.

4.  If anyone could convince me that chocolate is not a vegetable I would be thin! 

    

5.  I have been owned by five dogs during my life but Macy is my favorite.  She holds my heart in her little paws.

6.  I can remember freakishly long lists of numbers and can remember phone numbers and addresses for years back.  (I would like to say it is my claim to fame but people seem to find it just weird). 

 

7.  I spent three years (25 years ago) as a Chicago Correspondent for the National Enquirer.  I couldn't find an accounting job and it was loads of fun and good money!   Don't hate me.

Anyway, I'm digging out from under the work and hope to have some knitting related stuff here soon.  Thanks Grace.

Life is good!

Once In A Blue Moon

The new project on my needles is a pair of fingerless mitts from Knitty called Spirogyra in Blue Moon Hand Painted Sock Candy in the Delicious colorway.  Sock Candy is 96% cotton and 4% Elite, an elastic that they say "wears well."  The color is so yummy I could eat it and the stretchy yarn is not bad either.  I thought it might be as hard to use as Fixation but it is not!

It took a while to get my Sock Candy.  In the past I have plugged the wonderful yarn and service of Blue Moon Fiber Arts.  I even convinced myself that their excellent and quick delivery of my orders was because they valued me, me, me above all customers.  Man did I have a rude awakening!  Many of you know that they have had a rough month.  They were short a dyer and were hit hard with unusually large number of orders.  After three weeks of hearing nothing from them I called and was told--well, pretty much what I just told you.  My point being that once in a blue moon even Blue Moon messes up, but it doeesn't make me love their yarn any less.

 

I received an order from Knit Picks in short order--a seven day turn-around.  The lace weight Palette in peach will be knit on size 5 needles to create an airy summer sweater called E-Z V-neck Cardigan.  Can't wait to start this one.  I am coming to the end of the second front piece of Victoria from Knitty, and will make quick work of the sleeves (I hope).

Knitting time is at a premium, but it is too important to ignore.  Move over work.  I.  Must.  Knit.

Life is good.

Anything That Can Happen...

Before the WordPress blog went down the drain I posted about Caller Herrin, the Fair Isle hat that I started about two weeks ago.  It has been slow going because I have concentrated on the sweater.

I love Fair Isle and haven't done any for quite a while.  There was my year of living dangerously and completing fifteen Fair Isle hats for Christmas gifts.  Since then I have been resting on my Fair Isle laurels.  Caller Herrin was a natural for slipping back into stranded knitting. 

Then, work on the hat stopped abruptly.  All it took was a slice through my left forefinger with a very sharp chopping knife.  When I knit Fair Isle I use both hands.  I know knitters who use only one hand and switch yarn colors as they throw or pick.  Nope, I use two hands with a different color in each hand.  A very sore, heavily bandaged forefinger makes that next to impossible!

I was at the top, ready to begin the final decreases when this happened.  Now the hat waits in the knitting basket for the day when my finger is healthy enough to play its part in the program.  Good news--I just started the last front piece for the sweater. 

Life is good and the finger is healing.

Where It All Started

I love to hear how knitters got started knitting.  I don't think I have ever shared my own story so in the spirit of starting a fresh, clean blog I would like to do that.  You probably know by now that the old blog is kaput.  Dead.  Sadly gone to the land of internet contamination.  

  

Anyway, the story:  as an only child I was accustomed to being alone, listening to music, reading, and playing with stuffed teddy bears and bunnies.  I didn't like dolls.  I had my dog and stuffed toys to feed tea and biscuits and put to bed, each in their own little doll bed with pillow and blanket.  Never could get that dog to stay where I put him, but I digress.

At age nine we moved into a little red brick craftsman cottage across the street from my Mother's closest friend, Stella.  She was Suzy Homemaker.  Stella decorated her little cottage with handmade style.  She sewed the slipcovers for her furniture, hooked the rugs on her floors and was adept at throwing the pots and vases she used to artfully arrange flowers, plants, potpourri, and balls of yarn around the house.  She even knitted the pale pink cashmere sweater that she wore with a black pencil skirt--her trademark outfit.  At nine I wanted to be Stella.

Imagine my joy when she asked Mom if she could teach us (me too!) to knit.  I was deliriously happy and determined to become the best nine year old knitter in the world.  I wanted to make Stella proud of me.  I succeeded but Mom didn't.  It was then that I came to believe that knitters are born not created!  Mom did take to crochet, however, and it became her lifetime crafting love.

Thankfully my Mom took pleasure in buying me all the yarn I could use.  I developed a love for Barbie Dolls and baby dolls when I realized I could knit for them.  Add to that the thrill of discovering that my cranky little dog loved the sweaters I knit for him and I was a busy little knitter!  Even DH, who at nine was my best friend, came to understand that the yarn and I were a unit.  If he wanted a lifetime with the odd little redhead with the needles permanently attached to her hands, he would have to get used to hauling the stuff around and living with it.

We hauled, we lived and I knit through all of it.  So that's how the blog fodder started.  I would love to hear how it all started for you!

Life continues to be good.

Mishmash

My Mother used to call an assortment of unrelated things a “mishmash.” That’s as good a word as any for this post.
Scarves are “where it’s at” at the moment, and since I have two finished, two started and the infamous prayer shawl still waiting in the wings I am well on my way to making this The Year Of The Scarf!

The Noro Silk Garden scarf is a variation on the oh-so popular scarf being made in droves by the knitting community. I, however, have not included the k1, p1 rib in the body, opting to do straight stockinette between borders of seed stitch. It’s turning out beautifully which is saying a lot because I dislike knitting with Silk Garden! Love the colors though!

The white cashmere scarf in an ingenious pattern that knits up fast, and is mindless knitting great for TV watching!

Here is one of my favorite Christmas gifts. It’s from dear DIL#1 in Chicago who knows how much I love/adore THE CUBS. This is a night light that stays plugged in and turned on in the living room. Friends and family who visit and see it (knowing how much I love/adore THE CUBS) just laugh and shake their heads.

Finally, Macy waiting for me, like one dog waits for another, under Mom’s blanky. Life is good!

Motivation Photos

Fair Isle iPod Touch case

Malabrigo scarf

Alpaca lace

Winter Comfort Zone

The Comfort Zone ad in Interweave Knits brings to a close another year of happy knitters discovering the comfort, color and pleasure of knitting with CZ's. Thank you to all of our customers and the repeat customers who have become friends. Thanks for being so vocal about your love of Comfort Zone Needles. Please don't miss our ad in the winter Interweave, one of the best knitting magazines you can buy.

What am I knitting? What are the plans for Christmas? Who is getting what knitted-by-me gift? It's all at The Comfort Zone. Join me there for the knitting fun!

Macy says "Hi."