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.