good-natured ribbing

Here are two of my sweethearts: 1) Ava in her hat, still at the hospital and 2) Marty in Ava’s hat, when she grew out of it (almost immediately).

So cute.

P.S. I’ll have some new knitting to show soon!

It has been a while since I’ve been able to knit. I think I needed the break because I haven’t really been into it lately. I’m hoping the break will do me some good and I’ll raring to go soon. Kind of like that guy from the KLF and his No Music Day (which was yesterday). OK. Maybe not, but maybe the time away will do something for my enthusiasm.

In the meantime, I have not been craftless. I’ve been occupying myself with the sewing machine. Over the weekend, I made two of the scalloped baby blankets from Bend the Rules Sewing. One turned out OK and the second turned out really well. The second was given as a gift.

I really love the fabric – I was lucky to find it amongst all the duds at Joann. Ava is keeping the first one (the yellow one) for herself and her baby, Sootie.

In the rest of my spare time, I’ve been furiously sewing Knitzi bags to put in the shop. If the sun ever shines again, I’ll take some pictures and get them up. I think I’ll have to do that today, light or not, since my last batch is just about gone.

And just to get me thinking, here are my in-progress projects that I aught to be working on soon:

1. Minimalist Cardigan – the back and most of one front half is done.
2. My Nutkin Sock (the pattern is written up and I’ll select a test knitter tomorrow!)
3. Drunken Bees Sock – I just need to make one of them!
4. Baltic Sock – I’m to the heel on the first sock.
5. Endpaper Mitts – I made one this time last year then got distracted with xmas knitting… never went back.
6. Embossed Leaves – One sock done.
7. Hat for Ava – this hasn’t started yet, but she’ll start nagging soon. It is meant to match her mittens.

Not too bad. Once I get going again, I be able to fly through all of those, I think. Of course, I’ll need a few new projects to keep things fresh!

I do, but not for the shopping. I get so many ideas from the constant stream of catalogs that start around Halloween for the holiday season. So far, a couple things have jumped out at me.

Of course, this one is already in progress. Doesn’t this look just like the Minimalist Cardigan? I do think the sweater pattern has nicer details than this one – namely the cuffs. I’ll take a little gathering over the covered buttons any day! This was from one of the many Chadwick’s catalogs – I get several per week for some reason.

I’m excited about this one. As soon as I saw the rack at the top, I could see all my knitted socks hanging to dry. I tend to wash mine all at once and don’t really have a good drying solution. This just looks perfect – doesn’t take up any room but there when you need it. I’ll be requesting that Nick make one of these for me – between Knitzi orders, of course! Anyone else think this is a great idea? I’m not so crazy about the extending ones at the bottom.

My favorite catalog for sweater inspiration is Robert Redford’s Sundance Catalog. I’m always tempted to order sweaters just to study the construction then send it back (no, I’ve never done it). Take a look at this lovely! Oh, and this one. And this one.

I figured out what my problem was.

Nick now has a Ravelry account (since he is in charge of the Knitzi advertising). He’s been poking around and found my stash (!!!!). I guess it isn’t so obvious when it is all stuffed in the closet. He said: “I’ve looked, most people don’t have 55 balls of yarn in their stash! Why do you have so much.” Of course the answer is that everyone does, they just haven’t taken pictures of it all! Anyway, he actually guilted me into using yarn in my stash to make the mittens. There just wasn’t anything appropriate, but I tried to make due. Bad move.

So I took Ava to the yarn store (Knit A Round in Ann Arbor) and let her pick out her colors. I settled on Berroco Ultra Alpaca and she picked pink (of course), lavender, and blue violet. I was a little surprised by the dark blue. We got home and I charted out the design. Unlike the other ones I stared, these mittens have purpose – they were meant to be. As a side note, I recently purchased Knit Visualizer and I love it. It was so easy to chart these mitten (it just about killed me charting these by hand!).

Ava is very thrilled with these mittens. As she was falling asleep last night, she managed to say that she wanted to go to Grandma Lucy’s to show her the mittens! She was very disappointed that they hadn’t finished drying by morning. I think I’ll have to attach a string to them so they don’t get lost!

So I seem to have been forced into a second career. On Friday Erin lured me to the yarn store because she needed some yarn to make some holiday gifts. Although I thought I was just a pleasant shopping companion, what Erin actually expected of me was:
1. Find yarn for Erin (she picked the colours!)
2. Wind Erin’s yarn
3. Design a pair of mittens she can knit with one of the skeins

Here’s the yarn she selected and Blake in the bag the yarn came in:

So it seems that as Erin’s personal yarn stylist, it is my duty to select the yarn, wind the yarn and design the project. Am I supposed to knit it up too???

But don’t worry…I have a “helper” at home!

Yesterday, I was informed that the kid needs new mittens. Last year’s are lost. My new IK also came yesterday and as we looked through it, she picked out a pair from an ad. I humored her by telling her I’d make them then proceeded to design my own two color, stranded mitts – on the fly. That doesn’t always work out for me.

I got just over half way done the first, just to the neck of the cat design before I realize that I totally screwed up. I tried to rip back, but it didn’t work so I pulled the whole thing out. Before I could even take a picture. And what’s worse, I had to toss the yarn because the thin metallic thread in the yarn broke in several places.

Poo.

I had a long day on Saturday – buying yarn, visiting with the family, etc… I got home quite late and was exhausted, but I perked right up when I saw that I got a package in the mail. Woo hoo, it was my single sock from Christine. She picked Drunken Bees for me, a pattern I had been eyeing already.

And that lovely yarn is Yarn Nerd‘s 900 MHz in Red Wine. Isn’t it great? What you can’t see is how soft it is. I can’t wait to get going with the matching sock. Here is another shot for you:

And that wasn’t all. Christine also sent me and extra skein of yarn. It is Colinette Jitterbug in Florentina – bright purples, blues, and greens.

Thanks Christine! I really love that sock. It fits perfectly, by the way.

Yes. Even when there is no time for actual knitting, I can always squeeze in a little yarn shopping. That is still considered being productive, right? I went to visit my Dad in Windsor yesterday and made sure to stop at a recently relocated yarn store. It had been located in a part of Windsor that I never, ever got to. Now, it is much closer to where my Dad lives and could even be on the way. It is called Knit One Purl One. They have quite a nice selection (a little too much novelty yarn for my tastes though).

This is Araucania Ranco Multi sock yarn. I really can’t decide if I like it or not, but I was really intrigued by the coloring. We’ll see!

This is Sublime Extra Fine Merino Wool DK – destined to become fingerless mitts.

And this is some simple pink sock yarn that Ava picked out for herself. It is Fortissima Socka.

They also have a giant cheesy mural on the outside of the building – a comfy chair with lots of yarn, a cat tangled in the yarn, a spinning wheel in the background… I’ll have my camera with me next time I go!

This past week I was in Monterey, CA for a conference. Of course I had to see if I could pick up some “souvenirs” while I was there. I took a little excursion one town over and went to Monarch Knitting and Quilting in quaint Pacific Grove. My goal was to pick up some single-hue yarn to knit up my Forest Canopy mitts again as a test-knit for my pattern writing. I came away with two things:

A lovely green worsted weight alpaca and some Trekking sock yarn for more fingerless gloves. The picture was actually taken on a rock along the coast as I walked back to Monterey. The picture isn’t very good because I had to hurry and take it. Not only was the yarn blowing away, but I was getting a lot of funny stares from passers-by.

I had a lovely time in Monterey, and I have about a million pictures, especially from the aquarium. Unfortunately, I did not get much knitting done, except on the planes. In fact on the last leg of my flight home (Phoenix to Detroit), I had much interest in my Pomatomus fingerless gloves I am knitting and the Knitzi that was holding my needles. In fact, while the plane was grounded due to mechanical difficulties, I put on an infomercial for the Knitzi products. Beth – I want commission!!!

I’ve been working on converting Cookie’s Pomatomus sock pattern to fingerless gloves. This pattern is very difficult to knit for me, but very beautiful. And I love the colour I picked – Ink (KPPPM).

It’s been slow going, but I will finish!!! I’m just at the point where I have to figure out how to do the thumb gusset…wish me luck!

On a recent flight I managed to finish my item for the infamous “exchange“:

I am really pleased with how they turned out. I might want to do some tweaking on the thumb gusset pattern, but overall I’m happy. Now the challenge will be writing the pattern up neatly and in a way that other people can actually understand. I’m ready for my socks Sherry!!! ;)

I really liked knitting this pattern and I’ve already started knitting the next test version!

I forgot to mention that I went to the first ever Fiber Expo in Ann Arbor on last Sunday. It was pretty small compared to the Michigan Fiber Festival, but it was really nice. I’d guess that there were about 100 vendors. There were also several classes which I did not attend. There was lots of yarn, spinning fibers, and wool-related products. I did get a couple skeins of handpainted yarn.

I got these at the Artisan Knitworks booth. They have a shop in Gross Point Park and carry hand spun and hand dyed yarns produced by designers around the country. The multi-color is Butternut Woolens Superwash Sock and the orange is Dicentra Design Superwash Sock. Both very lovely.

Ava went to the Expo with me and it was strange how many people asked her if she know how to knit. She always replied in the affirmative and everyone chuckled. Once, I prompted her to talk about other things she knows how to do and spinning came up. The woman looked at me with a “Yeah, right!” expression on her face but she played along. She asked Ava if she did the treadle and Ava showed her how. Then she asked if Ava drafted the wool and Ava showed her the hand motions, in perfect form. The woman was blown away!

Oh, and speaking of that darling child of mine, I have to share this:

These pictures were taken at work where she did some early candy collection. It was just warm up for the evening’s festivities. We have too much candy!