Knit & Nosh

hurry up and finish

Last week, as I was preparing for a Knit Night, I realized I did not have a portable project.  The needles held a lace shawl; in the large stage, and the sock yarn blanket; in a stage that is even larger.  I really did not want to start something new, but I could not show up to Knit Night empty handed.  Those empty hands would have too easily been filled with martinis.

So I grabbed a skein of self patterning sock yarn.  A nice mindless sort of knit.  It worked out well for that night and another knitting event and some waiting patiently while in the car.  I enjoyed the colors of the yarn and it was patterning in unexpected ways.  But still, it was not getting any action at home.  Until tonight.  Tonight it was ridden hard.  Why?

It’s all Woolgirl’s fault.  See I signed up for her sock club, and lace too, but that is another post.  The first sock club shipment is not expected to arrive at my doorstep for a good month.  That left me plenty of time for my Knit Night socks to be on the needles, slow and steady.  Then this evening she put up a special Valentine Day sock kit.  She enticed me with Madelinetosh yarn, chocolate and other goodies.  Then to be certain I could not resist she listed the ship date as February 6^th.  There were only 25 kits available, I had to act fast, which of course I did.  I am so excited to receive some Madelinetosh.  I have purchased this yarn as a gift, but not had the chance to knit it myself.

Back to February 6^th.  Woolgirl is in Oregon, that means the sock kit will most likely arrive at my house on the the 8^th.  Which means I have one week to finish the current socks.  One week for a pair of size 13’s for Husband. 

I had finished the gusset decreases this morning while waiting in the car.  I picked the sock up around 5:30 this evening and by 10pm had finished sock #1.  All this while drinking champagne.  Multi-tasking has a whole new meaning with me around.

 

twitter

I have a friend doing the twitter thing, so I signed up.  I have not decided if I like it.  Do you twitter?  If so, let me know your screen name and I will follow you.  I am knitandnosh.

the graveyard book

For quite a while, Oldest Daughter has been telling me that I should read The Graveyard Book to Youngest Son.  I have not been listening.  Probably because of the title.  Monday, The Graveyard Book won the Newberry.  OK, now I am listening.

I sent off an email to the owner of the local book shop and asked her to either set aside a copy,  or order one.  She emailed back that a copy was being held for me.  I figured I would pick it up Wednesday morning.  I hope it was not a mistake to wait.

This afternoon Neil Gaiman, author of the Graveyard Book, was in New York taping a segment for NPR.    Neil twittered that the engineer of the show informed him that there was not a single place in Manhattan that had a copy of his book.  No amount of money could scare up a copy.  Wow.

A quick check at Amazon tells me that they too are out of the book.  Amazon.  Out.  Wow.

It is possible the last available copy on the planet is sitting under the counter  of the local book shop with my name on it.  I hope it is still there.  I will be at the shop when they open, fingers crossed.

making leftovers

I am feeling a bit better this morning. After re-reading that last post it will be good, for all involved,  to get off the cold meds.

The weather forecasters said snow.  No snow here, but wicked wind.  I am beginning to think that the "forecasters" use their fancy computers to play video games and then look out the window and guess at the day's weather. 

Last night I came to an executive decision.   Of my nine skeins of stashed sock yarn, there are three that will not be knit into socks anytime soon, maybe not ever.    I decided that it would be OK to add them to my sock yarn blanket.  Yes, the blanket is suppose to be for leftovers, but it is better the yarn be used than sit on a shelf.  No?

Here is the progress so far. 

It is now 57 inches wide (tall).  I had to stand on a table to get the whole thing in the picture. I am able to add four or five squares a week (more when sick)  and I will soon be finished with the first run  through of the leftover yarn balls.  Because the blanket is now as wide as it needs to be, I will begin knitting squares across rows.  This means that the end squares will have stitches picked up and cast on.  I do not like knitting stitches that have been cast on in the middle of a project.  The first such square will probably be knit several times as I try to figure out a tidy and attractive way to deal with a finished edge.

While I have been knitting the blanket to use as a, blanket, Husband has a different idea.  He thinks it needs to go on the wall.  There is a wall big enough, that happens to be empty. Because how do you fill a wall that big?  HHMM

nyquil knitting

I have been hitting the Nyquil (and Dayquil) pretty hard.  In my drug altered state I am convinced there is a book in there. 

~Nyquil Knitting:  Projects for when it is too hard to remember to switch yarns or count to four. 

~Nyquil Knitting:  Projects that look great when you can’t see straight. 

~Nyquil Knitting:  Knits you won’t have to rip in the morning.

This all sound great now, tomorrow morning, probably not.

 

This morning I met some knitting buddies at the best coffee shop in town and had the most enjoyable couple of hours.  We knit and chit chatted and got to know each other.  SO much fun.

Within 20 minutes of coming home I knew I was sick.  I had been fighting off the cold for a few days, I really thought I was going to be able to avoid the whole nasty affair.  As soon as I was home, that was it.  Kleenex, drugs, garter stitch knitting.  That has been my afternoon and evening.

Friday I had a bit of dental work done.  Nothing serious.  There was bonding placed on most of my front teeth and I have to admit that my smile looks much better.  Middle age is a bitch on teeth.  My issues are not due to a lack of care, but just plain wear and tear.  Enamel can become cracked and pitted over time, who knew?  Anyway, bonding.  While the bonding that was done looks great, there is a wee bit of bonding on the backside of one of my teeth that did not get ground down properly.  It feels like a mountainous ridge, similar to the Rocky Mountain ridge, running down the back of my tooth.  Do you think I could be a grown up and stop playing with it?  I mean, we have already established that I am in the middle-aged category.   No!  It is crazy.  The tongue is the strongest muscle in the body.  If I am not able to get back into the dentist on Monday I will have worn a little sore spot onto my tongue and pushed this tooth right out of my head.

I am going to throw myself a bone here and blame it on the Nyquil.  Nyquil Knitting:  Projects to keep your tongue in your mouth.

the next big thing

A swiss army knife type tool for knitters.

from glad to sad

It has been a couple of months since I relinquished all volunteer duties.  Just now, I am beginning to feel the loss.  I have been happy to pass the torch.  My job as a Girl Scout volunteer is not only to grow girls, but to grow adults.  It is a job I have taken seriously and had a great deal of success with.

A few days ago an email went out from the new camp Director about this year’s camp.  It was a good email, it rallied the troops and got everyone motivated.  The email indicated a possible need to change venues, and I was happy I did not have to deal with it.  As I finished reading the email I knew that I would have to let the new Director know I would not be at camp this year, at least not everyday.  There is another event scheduled at that time that I may attend.  In a reply, I confessed that I had spent the past couple of months “off” writing a book, and that the selling of the book is now top priority.

All of this done, the new Director firmly holding the reins, my admission that I would not be at camp, I sat back and breathed and enormous sign of relief.  A relief I had not yet let myself feel.  It was good!

Then, I was surprised at my sadness.  For years, my life has revolved around this camp.  On Thursday, the day before the last day of camp, I would go before the girls and confess that it made me sad to think that tomorrow was the last day of camp. I was not just Whistling Dixie, I really was wistful.  For years, I spent my Fridays asking the girls if they would be back next year.  Of course they SCREAMED yes.  The other adults at camp were upset by the screaming.  It filled me with joy and made me laugh out loud. Such exuberance, such passion.  I stood on the stage, facing the girls and told them that I would be right here, waiting for them.  And now I will not be there.  The sadness I feel has caught me completely off guard.

sunshine and a warm hat

It is 4:40 in the afternoon and it is still light outside.  How great is that?!

A new project is in the works.  Danish Tie Shawl #3.  This one will begin all white, then move to pinky and white stripes, then move to a multicolor which includes the pinky.  I hope it works.  The dyed rovings are merino/bamboo from Dragon Fibers.  The plain white is a merino/tencel.   I could not find the bamboo blend and the tencel blend has that shiny quality so I bought 8 ounces.  It is a pain to spin.  First, I am trying to spin it nice and thick, which it does not seems to like.  It would spin into laceweight no problem.  After the first bobbin my right hand was cramped and the yarn was just passable.  Thick and thicker parts, not too much thin, some over spun.  I felt like a brand new spinner.  I will see how it feels after a soak.  I have my fingers crossed that it will even out and bloom and all will be well.

To keep me off the wheel we have an immediate needs project.  Oldest Daughter has asked for a warmer hat and I had already planned to send a package off to her on Monday.  I am embarrassed to admit that I actually considered heading over to REI to purchase a hat for her.  I know, how lame is that?   I have cast on and am knitting round and round like a crazy person.  The optimist in me is quite confident that I will be done by Sunday night.  The realist in me, not so much.  Especially when I decided to make a nice hemmed band so that her ears will covered by a double thickness of fabric.  What was I thinking?  Come Monday morning, if you see a frantic looking woman rummaging through the hat bin at REI, that would be me.

Oldest Son has begun the application process to the Coast Guard Academy.  OY!

 

surprise, surprise

I received a surprise package from Tan.  She had a contest that I did not win, but because I am geeky enough to play her Guess the Roman Inscription game, she sent me a prize.

The colors are just lovely.  Add it to the stash total, and I now have sock yarn for eight pairs of socks.  Yikes.  Too bad I am not in the mood to knit socks.  Of course that will change, and soon.

 Saturday I had the opportunity to meet some knitting buddies at the local coffee house.  After  a morning of running around in the cold rain I returned to my warm, dry house and I knew I would not be leaving again.  When given the choice between heading back out in the cold or staying home and baking cookies, the cookies won out.

While relaxing in my warm, cookie smelling house, I worked on a new project.

These are  the Fingerless Garter Mitts from One Skein.  I am using STR lightweight, Mustang Sally and size 1 needles.  The knit fabric is dense but drapey.  I just love the way it looks.

This is leftover sock yarn (surprise, surprise) that was used to knit a shawl for Oldest Daughter.  The yarn came into the house as part of the 2006 Rockin’ Sock Club and she about peed her pants when she saw it.  As an Anthropology student she does not have much opportunity to wear a shawl, but I think she is going to get a lot of use out of the mitts.

The mitts will be finished in a couple of days, what next?  There is a big spinning project in the works, but I need to procure some additional fiber before that adventure beginning.  It might finally be time to cast on Luna Moth.

SYB mods

Liz (Hi Liz!) left a comment about the Sock Yarn Blanket  (SYB).  The SYB is not my idea, it came from the Heathen Housewife and can be found here.  There is a list of steps in her sidebar.  This was my jumping point; there have been mods, many mods.  Here they come.

~First off I chose to use size 2 needles.  This is my normal sock knitting size.  I knit the individual squares using double points.  When picking up stitches down the sides on the squares I begin with a circ and switch to double points when I am down to about 36 stitches.

~I did not use a provisional cast on, just a plain ol’ long tail.

~For the nice edging chain I did my preferred method for garter stitch, which is to knit across the row and at the last stitch slip it purlwise with yarn in front.

~ The original pattern calls for 30 stitches per square.  That felt way too small for me and I intended to do 60 stitches per square.  For my original square/swatch I used the Long Tail Cast On and ran out of yarn at 50 stitches.  I took this as a sign.  So all of my squares are 50 across.

~The original pattern requires you to calculate the width of the finished blanket and make the appropriate number of individual squares.  That made my head hurt.  I wanted to start making a blanket NOW.  So I knit up four individual squares and began from there.  Those four squares led to lots of picking up and knitting of additional squares and the beginning of a blanket, which made me happy.

~One of the suggestions given is to pick up stitches along 4 squares and knit a double sized square.  I think this looks well in a blanket using similar colors of yarn.  My blanket has a wide variety of colors and to make one of them twice as big as the rest would, I think, look funny.  Feel free to disagree with me.

So far that is it.  My blanket is working up in a triangle shape.  Once thee triangle is complete I knit an individual square, attach it to the bottom row and work my way up the triangle.  Once the bottom row is as wide as I need it to be I will begin working on the side squares.  I am sure there will be mods involved there as well.

I have many years worth of leftover sock yarn balls.  In order to keep it random I collected all of the balls in once container.  As I use a ball to knit a square it goes into a separate container.  Once the first container is full I will begin again.  As new socks are knit I will place the leftovers right into the mix.  If you do not want such random results you could knit up all of your red yarns into squares, and then your blues, and then your greens...to get a more striped feel.

As I type this it is dark, I will post a good picture of my blanket in progress tomorrow.

If you decide to make a blanket please post pictures.