CIC stuff

(Breaking news: Booties were fixed today, with hopes of being finished tonight.)

I finally mailed a CIC package today. You've seen all this stuff before, but this is what I sent:



3 toddler sweaters (2 were BSJ's)
1 bigger kid sweater (and boy, is it heavy)
4 vests of different sizes (great for using up leftover yarn)
2 pr. toddler socks

Along with that, I have started a new CIC sweater called "Waffles for Brunch". Doesn't that make you hungry?

Jean is hosting a Knit-A-Long, posting new directions every couple of days here on her blog.

I started it on Saturday during a softball game, so spent the weekend playing catch-up. (Wait, maybe it was Thursday during a baseball game.... The days are blurring together. Yes, definitely before Saturday at some kind of sports event.)



It's knit using bulky yarn (Brown Sheep for me) and size 11 needles. Very fast, and fun with a well thought-out pattern.

Anyway, I'm all caught up now and awaiting the next clue. In the meantime I'll do the booties.

Errors

Every now and then I hear about a knitter who has made a big error in her knitting.

It might be using one sized needle from the left front, and another sized needle for the right front.

It might be making two right fronts on a cardigan.

It might be sewing a sleeve into the neck opening.

You know, a really big error that was never noticed. How do you miss an error like that? Isn't it obvious that you check things like that before you start? That as you go along you lay it out and admire it, making sure that everything is okay before continuing?

I do a whole lot of ripping out (you know, that gauge thing), but I don't think I've even sewn a sleeve into a neck opening.

Is it a matter of not paying attention? Or getting ahead of oneself?


Errors like that are puzzling, and they look sorta like this:



Can you see what I did? The split in the cuff is off center. By four stitches.

The seams were seamed, folding it in and out and moving it all around. The ends were hidden.

The cuff was folded down, all set for me to admire.



I even know what I did. I had to k2, p2 5x, so I counted:
1,1,2,2,3,3,4,5
(which may not make any sense to you, but that's the way I count ribbing like that.)(Well, I should count it:
1,1,2,2,3,3,4,4,5,5
which is exactly where I messed up.)

Seriously, how does this happen without noticing?

I guess I should be glad it's not two right fronts on a cardigan.

Finishing and Buying

I've been on a bit of a yarn buying spree lately. Here's some yarn that came yesterday. It was a great deal on ebay.



Here are my purchases from Carol's The Sheep Shed Studio. I'm really liking Brown Sheep, so needed more of it.



I wanted the orange Cotton Fleece for a new sweater for me. (All this knitting of orange and green stuff makes me want my own.) Also, I'm starting a CIC knitalong and needed some bulky yarn. Plus....why not some cotton sock yarn for summer socks?

That'll keep me busy for awhile....

In the meantime, more finishing has occurred.

My Green Gable sweater (that's not green) now has a picot hem. I love it. The sewing down of the hem edge didn't even annoy me.



After some debate about sleeves (meaning....drink another cup of coffee while I think about it), I stuck with original pattern that did a 1x1 ribbing. The neckline has a row of purl, the bottom is picot, so it seems like a mishmash (if I had kept with the pattern's original idea of bottom ribbing it would've matched but now it doesn't.)



I have to hide about 6 ends and then block it.

Hmmm.... two sweaters finished in two days. It must be time to cast on!

Proof that I didn't fall asleep on the couch

Breaking news:

CIC OGOG sweater is unblocked, but done. And the ends are all hidden!



Specifics: Sweater for CIC, size 6-7. Used Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride, 4 skeins. (If it was a solid color, 3 would've been fine since I have more than half a skein left of both orange and green.) Size 8 needles, enough stitches to go around the circ. comfortably. I need to measure the arm length, and maybe stretch them out a bit when blocking--they look short.

I don't fall asleep on the couch every night!

Azaleas, too!

It's a couple of days after the lilacs, and my azalea bush has also hit its peak.

Here are DD#2's pictures again:






The bees like this one much more than the butterflies.



There's also been knitting going on, and hopefully tonight there will be some finishing. Soon....some pictures.

Lilac time of year

It's the time of year when the lilacs are in full bloom. It's also the time of year when I ask DD#2 to take the yearly lilac pictures, and here they are.



The butterflies just flock to the flowers.






Let me just say that this is the fullest that my lilac bush has been. As always, we picked a couple of blossoms to put inside only to have them wilt by the next day. For one day though, it's lovely.

Liking it again

So far, the kids in our family have played the following sports:
-football (1 kid)
-baseball (3 kids if you include tee-ball)
-soccer (all 4 kids)
-field hockey (female kids)
-track (1 kid)
-basketball (3 kids)


DD#2 decided that it was time for something new, so fastpitch softball has been added to the list. (Sorry for the little photo, but you get the idea.)(And maybe you can click on it to make it bigger.)




She had her first game last night and seemed to enjoy herself. The rest of us froze. I had my favorite sweater on, plus some wool socks, so I did okay.

Guess what I'm doing in the following picture:

Am I:
1. Clapping as the team made a good play?
2. Praying that the game will end soon?
3. Spit-splicing my yarn?







That's right. Spit-splicing my yarn. I'm now on ball #4 for my Green Gable sweater (that's not green, but that's the name).

By the next day I stopped slogging through the stockinette and started enjoying it again. After trying it on, I ripped out 4 rows of the armhole which I figure reduces the circumference by 8 stitches.

I had bad math 'cause it actually reduced it by 16 stitches. (Those pesky double increases will get you every time.) After trying it on again, it seems good so I'm continuing on. It's now almost 4 inches past the armhole and getting time for the waist shaping.



I didn't just do that stockinette project, though, I also worked on this one:



The CIC toddler sweater (called CICOGOG for CIC orange-green-orange-green) now has 2 yokes, a neckband, and the start of a sleeve.

I'm glad I'm liking stockinette again, or this could be a very long knitting week. (And to answer any curious readers.... no I didn't cast on a new project. Aren't you proud of me?)

Slogging along in stockinette

Ever since Wednesday, I've felt like I'm slogging through a sea of stockinette. Most of the times I really like st st, or garter st, or something really easy. This time....it's beginning to bore me.

This is the Green Gable sweater from zephyrstyle.com.

It's knit top down and the first several inches have an interesting lace pattern.



After that, though, it's all plain knitting. Usually I pick a project like this on purpose, since I like just knitting along, but this time it's bugging me. I think I really am going to like the finished product, but in the meantime.... ho hum.

It's to the point where I need to try it on and adjust accordingly.



To postpone that, I started on my UM sweater again. This is the one that I started during the Duke game, having no pattern, but just casting on the number of stitches that went nicely around my needle. It needed some measuring to continue, so tonight I measured. And continued.



While it's still fun to change colors, it's still only stockinette.

Hmmm....maybe a sock. No, wait. It's stockinette too.

Maybe cast on something new?

Thirteen

In the busyness of the weekend, I totally missed blogging a very important event.

Sit down and prepare yourself....



Ready?




There is a new teenager who lives here, and this is what she looks like:


Sweet and innocent looking, isn't she? (However, I've been through this twice before, so I know that looks can be deceiving. Maybe I'll be wrong. Hey, 7th grade is 75% over and no major issues, so maybe we'll all survive the teenage years.)

Check out the skinny scarf that she's knitting. It's a fun Red Heart yarn that makes stripes. Looks just like a roll of LifeSavers.

We all enjoyed her birthday very much.



In knitting news, I finally finished this CIC sweater, hide the gazillion ends, and blocked it. I'd say it's a size 2. (Yes, I'm blogging about this and the crazy hat in the wrong order. The hat used up the leftovers from this project, not the other way around.)


(I totally don't have time to find the pattern link right now, but it's in InKnitter's 2004 charity Knitting supplement.)(Baseball practice in 25 minutes, and we need to eat supper first.)(Yes, I know I should stop blogging and go eat, but I'm almost done.)

Here's the mitred mittens that I finished in March but have been picture-less. I thought it would be fun to spell a word with them, what do you think?








Aren't we clever? (It took awhile to think up a good word, which we couldn't, so this is the default. Then it took awhile to get 2 of us together to take the bad pictures. Sigh... If I didn't have to eat supper right now, I'd work on this....)

My Monday Adventure

Guess where I went yesterday.






If you read any knitting blogs at all (and since you're reading this, I assume that you do), you will have already guessed. For my friends and relatives who only read this one, I'll explain.

I went to a book talk/signing by the author of "Things I Learned from Knitting" by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka The Yarn Harlot. (Check out today's entry for her view of the book signing.)



I've been reading her blog for years and own 3 of her books, so the chance to see her in person was so incredibly exciting. (The fact that my work held its once-a-year inventory on the same day did nothing to deter me. It made me really tired, but it didn't deter me.)(Check out this book: RB pre-ordered it in preparation of the event. THAT's a friend. Even if she doesn't knit, she understands what it means to me. :)

I took along DD#2 and my friend RB, we left home as soon as possible after work, and arrived in Annapolis an hour before the event. We were excited to find that we still had seats, but had signing numbers of #140 and #141. (Not as exciting as they were called up in groups of 25. We wandered the mall for awhile inbetween, but it still took almost 2 hours afterwards before our books were signed. We got home at 11:30. We're all dragging today, but very happy. However tired I am, I can't even imagine what The Yarn Harlot goes through--flying each day to a new city, giving a talk that has high expectations of being funny (and she didn't disappoint. Have you read her Calgary story?) Also, while we were waiting for 2 hours, she was signing her name, jumping up for a picture, sitting down to sign her name, jumping up for a picture....)


I had such a busy weekend that I didn't even prepare what to knit, I just grabbed a ball of yarn and some needles and stuffed them into my really big, really orange purse. (The book and my camera also fit. Have you heard how much I love my purse?) Here's my start of a sock:




This was our view for the talk. Notice the good view of the escalators? Well, it was during business hours in Borders bookstore, so customers would ride up--take an astonished look around, and then either snake their way through the crowd, or immediately ride down again.



Here we are with switched socks: (I look extremely huge in this picture.)(This is my Knitter's Olympics sweater--it seemed appropriate.)



Here's RB getting her book signed:



Did I get any pictures of DD#2, RB and I together? Nope. Not even with hours to kill and pleasant knitters surrounding us.

Speaking of pleasant knitters, the gal in front of me found my yarn end before I ripped half the guts out of my skein. How many complete strangers will do that for you?

Here's a closeup of my sock and how much I knit.



I bet you're wondering why I included a picture of my button on a wrinkled shirt.



Well, it's because this is MY button, while the yellow one at the beginning is DD's. When I was taking pictures I couldn't find mine. (Sense a familiar theme?)

I wore it to work today, and when I came home I very carefully took off my button and my watch. I only put my watch in the bathroom (where I keep it)(don't even ask) because I didn't want the button to rust with the steam of the shower. Instead, I put it on my dresser.

Then, I couldn't find it.

Guess where I found it? While taking clothes from the washer to the dryer. Yep, I never took it off my shirt.

THAT'LL keep it dry.

Anyway, it was a fun event and now it's time to veg out before bed. And maybe knit.

Another hat, and a swatch

As previously stated, I wasn't done with hats. Here's hat #5:



It was easy to use up oddballs and still make this hat look like someone would actually want to wear it. (A baby might not complain a whole lot, but then again, she might.)


I have more oddballs left, but I'll have to come up with a plan on how to use them. Maybe I'll fall back on the ever useful plan of "stripe them with black, so even if they look bad together, the black will make it all seem better."

In the meantime, I've moved on to swatching.



Not that swatching ever means a whole lot to me, since as we all know....swatches lie.

But, I go through the motions anyway.

This is Uruguay DK in a kahki color. I bought a bagful on sale, so now I have to figure out what to do with it. I'm swatching for a summer top pattern. Even if the gauge doesn't come out right, I'll probably still buy the pattern and adjust it accordingly. This will guarantee at least 3 more times of ripping it out before it fits.

I'm off to measure my swatch (and then ignore it.)

I Love My Sweater

Here's the picture I was trying to get. (DH helped me out.)

Not very important, but I wanted to show you my sweater that I absolutely lived in over the weekend. It was cold in North Carolina, more so than at home, and rainy to boot. I had on a long sleeved shirt, a tee shirt, and my wonderful sweater. (You've seen it plenty of times before, but I'm just so thrilled in how warm it is that I had to show it again.)



I lasted for several innings, then put up my hood. I had a blanket wrapped around me, and as long as I didn't move I was fine. I was able to knit for most of the time also, but finally my fingers got too cold.

That's it.

I Love my sweater.

Kntting little hats

I'm still on a roll, trying to use up bits and pieces from my yarn stash. I've had some lovely 100% pure wool hanging around, but not enough to make anything. They were just little oddballs that I hated to throw away. Finally, I came up with the idea of making little hats--newborn size according to a standard sizing chart.

I knit not just

one hat


or two hats


or three hats


but four hats!


They varied as my oddballs sizes varied. Hat #1 is a bit too tall and skinny, but has ribbing at the bottom to be folded up. The rest are 66 sts on sz 6 needles, seed stitch until the yarn runs out, increased to 70 sts, knit for 4-4.5 inches (it varied), decrease 7 times around every other round until several stitches left (maybe 7?). Yarn is pulled through and voila! a hat.

I have another one on the needles and then after that, I might stop. Or not.

Sweater or hat?

Well, I spent awhile looking for another photo to add, found it on DH's computer, changed it to jpg and saved on a thumb drive. Brought it over to my computer and it wasn't there.

Sigh. I was feeling so proud of myself but it all came to nothing. (I feel that searching on DH's computer for the proper photo is like his searching my purse for a safety pin. A bit scary.)

Anyway, I'll get it up soon, but in the meantime I'll put up this picture so that you know I've been knitting. (Have you been worried?)

This was done during the Miami vs. Duke baseball game #2 last weekend. Notice how UM's orange and green is covering Duke's blue. That's the way the game went, too, winning 7-1.



The blue is actually a sleeping bag that DD#2 was huddled inside. Yes, it was THAT cold. The concession stand did a brisk business in coffee and hot chocolate.

The knitting is actually a toddler sweater, casting on the right number of stitches to fit around my circular needle. I stopped when I realized there is measuring to be done so that the armholes will be in the right place. We don't need any really long and skinny sweaters or any really short and wide sweaters, so looking at a size guide is the thing to do right now.

While I'm calling this a sweater, I was tempted to use it as a hat. It fit around my head, and if it got any colder, it would've ended up there, loose ends and all. The kids threatened to go sit on the other side of the stadium if was on my head, but hey, warmth is the name of the game. (And anyone sitting inside a sleeping bag doesn't have room to talk.)