March Roundup

Before it becomes May and I lose a whole month, let's do the March Roundup.

I was much more productive in the beginning of the month, finishing several small things.

1. I found red sock #3, so knitted red sock #4 and added a grey border at the top to distinguish them from socks #1 and #2.

2. The Big Basin socks were a success. There's been enough cold days that I've worn them several times. They fit right and look smashing.

3. A replacement camera bag was made with leftover Big Basin yarn. Less than 24 hours after completed I discovered what happened with the first camera bag. (At DD#1's house. Have I received it yet? Nope.)

4. I did some planning and made 3 dishcloths out of 2 balls of yarn--all on the Miami trip. (Perfect airplane knitting.)

5. A CIC denim vest and

6. a CIC striped vest were completed for the current challenge. (But alas, not mailed. They're piling up on my bookshelf, so I'll be having to go to the post office soon.)

7. The cutest pair of baby soc-a-moc were made. They're adorable and fun to make....I see casting on for another pair in the near future.

8. Elizabeth Zimmermann's Mitred Mittens were completed in March, even though they weren't blogged about til April. As clever as we were spelling "C-A-T", here's a better picture.



)Plymouth Outback, 44 sts, sz 7 dpns.)

Little things

Today someone asked me if I knitted.

"Yes, all the time."

So then she asked what I was currently knitting.

Hmmm... err...well....

I had a hard time thinking of what to answer.

This. is. a. bad. thing.

Why couldn't I immediately spout off several things?

I have a baby hat on the needles, and a toddler sweater done, but still in pieces. Otherwise.....

No big socks. No sweater. Nothing interesting.

I'm going to have to fix that immediately.

In the meantime, here's a couple of little things that I finished.

The fourth sock. A row of grey crochet was added to distinguish between the two pairs.



A pair of baby booties.

Everyone say it together now:

"Ahhhhh......"



(They really are the same size. Staging them for the picture was the problem. One would get fatter. One would get longer. One would fall over... etc.... )

They are the cutest things. They're called baby moc-a-soc, and the pattern is sold on this etsy site by BEKAHknits. The tan is sport weight and the sock is fingering weight (leftover from socks since they take just a small amount.) I'm seeing several more pairs in my future!

Okay, now to go cast on something big. That I can remember.

24th on the 24th

DH and I just celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary--on the 24th! Most years we just go out to eat, the majority of the time at Red Lobster. (Which we did last night since DS#2 had baseball practice on our actual anniversary. That's the way things go around here....)

Anyway, not usually a big deal. Or presents.

This year, however, DH surprised me with a stack of presents.

Here's the first two:



If you don't immediately recognize them, they are both volumes of A Treasury of Knitting Patterns by Babara Walker. Not just one, but two! (The dog looks like he's checking it out, isn't he?)

He didn't stop there, but also got me the three Harmony Guides (of which one is still in transit):




This is significant in several ways:
1. He's actually buying me knitting stuff, and getting what I want.
2. He actually listens to me. I think I mentioned that I needed a new book on stitches only one time, so he listened the first time I said something. (Maybe I don't really need to tell him everything four times....hmmm..... interesting concept.)
3.Not only did he get what I want, he also did his research.

He registered on a knitting forum, just to be able to ask the following question:

"I am a husband of an avid knitter. Our 24th year anniversary is approaching and beside all the loving romantic gifts I will be showering my sweetie with I wanted to get her a Knitting Dictionary and/or Encyclopedia.

However after much Reading, Reviewing and researching I find my mind is now in a permanent knot of yarn which no amount of skill can unravel.

Since I consider my wife an accomplished knitter (could be a husband's blind devotion), (having sold countless projects, written her own patterns and keeping a knitting bloggy thingy for years) I did not want to present her a dictionary knitting book for beginners. However after looking through the internet and various book stores I found I could no longer think straight.

So I am asking the people who know about these things to give a guy a hand. As we all know by now nothing says "I love you" to a knitter than something about knitting."

Thanks to the knitters who helped him. It was a great present.

My husband.... he's a keeper!

P.S. Dear DH,

If you want to be really incognito, come up with a code name like "knittingforfun" or "sticksandstrings" or "Cleanhousenever--Knittingforever" (although that might be rather long). A code name of "Javelin727" would give it away in a second (if I went to those forums, which I don't.) Hey, I've heard those graffiti stories....

Happy Easter

(I'm going to pretend that I'm not posting this a day late. I couldn't interrupt the Sound of Music to post yesterday. Sigh. I love that movie.)







(We were lacking some in the food department, but we did have the colorful extras.)

Wishing you a blessed and glorious Easter.

More quizzes and a vest or two

I'm still busy taking the quizzes from yesterday. I got 80% on the spelling quiz (and took several more tries to figure out which words were wrong.)

http://www.justsayhi.com/bb


I can take on 15 5-year-olds in a fight (I might be using them as weapons), but would not make a good human shield. I can name 33 colors in 5 minutes (and almost missed purple). Who knew that grey asparagus was a color?

Errr.....knitting, you say? Have I been knitting?

Well, yes. Just too lazy to take the pics. Hang on a minute and I'll take one or two... (Just talk amongst yourselves.)


(This was actually about 3 hours later, but you can pretend it was only 10 minutes....)

Here are two CIC vests that I recently finished.

This one was finished on the plane coming home from Miami. (If they didn't make us stand up just to wait in line for 10 minutes, I could've finished it before the plane.)


Paton's Classic Merino--denim marl. Parts of 2 balls. (1 ball might've done it. Hard to tell.) Leftover rust yarn.

Then I started this one. See why holding 4 balls of yarn would be a problem in a tiny space?


Paton's Classic in plum and leaf green. Chaco in maize. Leftover rust. I did the bottom border, then 8 rows of each color, then 4 rows of each color, then 2 rows of each color except the last which became the upper edge. This was fun--I might do that formation again. (Anyone want to hide my ends on the next one?)

I passed 8th grade science

I got a B- on an 8th grade science quiz. Considering only a few of them I actually knew, I guess I'm good at guessing. How well can you do? Just click the picture to find out.

I knew I wasn't crazy

My most common blog themes:
1. What I've knitted (important to list this as #1 since this is a knitting blog)
2. What I've frogged
3. What I've put in time-out to be either knitted or frogged
4. What sports my kids are doing
5. How I embarass my kids (always a fun one)
6. How I like to make lists
7. How I no longer can spell or do grammar
8. What I've lost
9. What I've found

Numbers 8 and 9 show up way too often for my comfort.

For example, baseball season for DS#2 was upon us, and his glove was lost.

I've ripped apart 3 rooms of the house looking for it. (Threw away a bag of trash as an unexpected bonus).

Finally resigning myself to buying a new glove (to go along with the new cleats that he needs every year.)(Mr. Bigfoot), I looked in a somewhat logical place and... there it was! Who would've thought it would've been put away? Not me. I looked under his bed THREE times, but where it was logical? not at all.

And I probably wouldn't even have told you about that except that just one day later (meaning today, as of 10 minutes ago...)

I found this:



I knew I wasn't crazy! (It was in my pile of to-be-mailed CIC stuff. Who would've thought to look there?)

I found the third sock before I mailed the other two, and before I lost the matching yarn that's being saved to make matching sock number four.

Now if only there's enough...

Library sale

Every year our county libraries collect used books and have a once-a-year book sale. For the past 3 years I haven't been able to attend, and this year was no exception.

My friend RB, being trained in the lookout for all knitting-related items, found these books for me:



I've done a quick look through, but look forward to a long, leisurely read.

Isn't it wonderful to have friends like that?

Suggesting a Trade

Nothing new happening around here today. I've been good at wasting time, but not good at getting anything done. Including knitting.

So, I'll just show you this picture from over the weekend.

Here is my camera bag in my huge orange purse, with its essential supplies.



I pulled off the bag from my camera to take a picture, when DD#1 said, "I have one of those at my house."


What?


Do you mean the purple one that I lost eons ago and have been looking for ever since?

Thinking back, I realized that it must've migrated to her house last August.

Now, DD has a busy life, going to school full time plus working. She's very independent and I try to give my kids space by not calling them every day. I encourage them to call me now and then, when they get a chance (and if you're reading this now, DD or DS, feel free to call your ole' mom. And not just if you need money. Or are hungry. Maybe....just to say hi!)

I digress...

Anyway, she's had the camera bag at her house since last August and has never once mentioned it. I don't talk to her every day, but I have talked to her several times since then. (At least several. Maybe a bunch. But definitely not every day. "Save that time for studying, hon!") I've also seen her here and there. (Not all the time, but most major holidays.)

Maybe I should suggest a trade:
DD, if you're reading this, send me the camera bag and I'll send you some cookies.

Holidays and birthday

Is anyone else feeling crowded in with all the holidays? St. Patrick's Day and Easter are in the same week. Valentine's Day just finished. (Or rather, I just put away the heart tablecloth. And finished my chocolates. Yep, they lasted until last week.) There are also two birthdays happening in our house in the next month.

My baby just turned 11 years old. He was 11 on 3/11, which he's been looking forward to for months. (He's also mentioned how many years ago I turned 12 on the 12th. Not quite so funny.) My, how time flies.... (and the hair grows....)



There's also evidence of spring.
Janice, this is for you:

Trip

(I'm still in a state of exhaustion, so please excuse the lack of cohesiveness....)

If you hadn't guessed, we went to Miami over the weekend to see DS#1. There were lots of baseball, lots of hanging out with family, lots of eating, and lots of knitting.

Sometimes all at the same time.



(This is not a picture of DS. He pitched a night game and no flash was allowed. Check here if you want to see pics of him from this weekend.)

I used up my dishcloth cotton. Two balls of yarn make 3 dishcloths. Not of the same size, mind you, not even when doing the exact same pattern with the exact same size needles.

These ones were done (from left to right):
1. on the airplane
2. at game #1
3. at game #2



I didn't knit at game #2. DS pitched that game, plus it was c--o--l--d. Crazy, huh?

The bleachers were cement. Yep. That's as comfortable as it sounds. (I was right--my huge orange purse fit right in. Plus it's the perfect size for dishcloth yarn.)



The UM Maniac and DD#2:



In the airport, some of us did this:



While I did this:



(Yes, that is my belt in my purse. I took it off when I went thru security and never put it back on....)

I started a 4 color striped vest on the way back. It sounded like a good idea, but... 4 colors means 4 balls of yarn dangling around and getting twisted together. Not such a good idea.

Preparing...

When I wasn't working today, I was preparing for a trip.

Since I lost my camera bag, I decided to make a new one.



It's approximately the size of a pack of cards. The pattern is coffeebean (I love it so!).



I'm packing some yarn. Will this be enough?



I didn't think so either, so I'm also taking this:



Somehow this still worries me. I feel like I still need more (not that it will fit in anywhere, but still, it worries me...)

Can you guess where we're going?



(P.S. The laundry was all done at 8:30. How 'bout that?)

Socks are done

The socks are done.



I love them.



These are Big Basin socks from the Six Socks KAL, size 10, using 5 size 1 dpns. The yarn is Shaefer Anne in a really pretty pink colorway with some brown stripes (meaning I don't know the name, but it sure is pretty.) I used an i-cord cast-on for the toe and a picot bindoff.

(Did I mention that I reknit the start of the second sock? It's looser and fits and looks better.)

There should still be some cold days to wear them this spring.

Have I mentioned that I love them?

Regularly

I"ve been boring lately, I know. It's not always a bad thing to have nothing to talk about. That means that life is just moving on "regularly".

Knitting has been moving on regularly also.

I decided as time went on that maybe I HADN'T knit that second red sock, so I did it again just in case. I'm going to try to remember not to use up the leftover yarn in case the other sock shows up one day.

Valeria suggested that I look behind my dryer for my missing sock. That is a violation of sock rule #6: "Socks never hid in the same place twice. They must always hid in a different spot to confuse the owner."

The completion of my red socks meant I could finally take a group picture. Everybody smile:




This grouping is for a pattern that I wrote for CIC. It's been sent off to the test knitters to be tested. And knitted. (What better than redundancy than more redundancy?)

Meanwhile, my Big Basin socks are reaching completion.



I had thought to finish them tonight, but the pattern proofreading, picture taking, and taxes-filling-out all got in the way.

Maybe tomorrow.