I’m setting sail for sleeve island… No ETA for my return from sleeve island, but hopefully it won’t be too long of a cruise.
Seeing as this is my first ever trip to sleeve island I’m not sure if I’ll develop sea legs or sea sickness. Anyone have any tips to ensure that I return from sleeve island?
Well, I survived the whirlwind road trip to Iowa. Other than the 25 hours spent on the road between Thursday and Sunday, it was an enjoyable trip. I didn’t think I was going to have much progress to show for my hours on the road as I ended up doing a lot of the driving and a couple of the times when DH had taken the wheel I slept. But, I do have about 8 inches or so of Wear-Everywhere (it needs a shorter name) to show now, which is about 6 inches more than when I left. Yeah! On Friday I had lots of little short bits of down time when I could sit down and knit a row or two and that was when it really flew. It wasn’t enough to get my hands sore, but added up over the course of the day it ended up being about 4 inches when all was said and done.
All of the family thought it will be a great sweater. I’m also really impressed with the back side of this fabric and may consider using this rib or a similar variation of it in a scarf…
We did a lot more than knitting while we were there. We were only there two full days, but we packed in a lot. Friday morning I went to the YMCA pool and swam with my MIL to help work out the kinks from the long car ride. Then we drove around Charles City to see where the rest of the family who is in the area lives and we went to Wildwood Park where you drive through the river and then we went to a nearly century old swinging bridge and also drove past a Frank Lloyd Wright house that is on the Cedar River. We had pizza (complete with sauerkraut) and then all the family in the area and some family friends whom I had never met came over to the house that evening. On Saturday we headed into Mason City where we finally got to tour the Stockman House (another FLW house), and then we poked around in that area of Mason City looking at all the other prairie school homes. We had missed one last time that we had read about in American Bungelow a long time ago. Then we walked across the Meridith Wilson Bridge to see if we could get a different view of the house, but there were too many leaves. Then we drove to Forest City to visit DH’s step grandfather, Wendell who seems to be doing pretty well in his new assisted living digs, though he doesn’t appear to be socializing and feels some guilt about grandma Catherine’s death.
So, we were there only a short while, but it was crammed packed. It was kind of sad saying goodbye, but as we were pulling out of the driveway early on Sunday morning it was like a new sort of American Gothic - two new retirees with salt and pepper hair wearing light colored terry robes standing in the doorway of thier 1960’s white ranch in small town America and waving goodbye…
It’s good to be home again though. Having Emma back home (with a brand new bed now that we have the accidents under control) and sleeping in our own bed with our own pillows is nice. Also, it seems we both got terrible allergies while in Iowa or we caught a bug as we are both rather miserable right now.
Now, everyone go give Snow some birthday wishes!
Miraculously my car is working again. Don’t ask me what the trouble was. It hadn’t been driven since Saturday morning so it couldn’t have been vapor lock, plus if it had been that I think it would have tried to turn over. But, whatever it is, my car started for DH last night. It’s still going into the shop for a once over and the oil change and all that fun maintenence stuff. I’m glad it’s working again, though there are more than a few things that could use doing other than sitting at the garage for 1.5-2 hours this afternoon. We leave so soon and DH just sent me an alarmingly long list of “to dos” that he wants done before we leave (thankfully most are on his plate but then I usually feel I’m in the way if I’m not helping with something). This is another of those annoying things that bugs me. He suddenly gets a bug to have everything completely spic and span - including mopping kitchen floors and doing all possible laundry (even down to the unmatched socks) right before a trip. Nine times out of ten it means us leaving 2-4 hours later than he has told me we were going to leave.
EDIT: Can we tell I’m PMS-ing? Not exactly prime time to be prepping for a long road trip with little time at the destination. *sigh*
I see much knitting to reduce stress in the next 1.5 days….
Here is where I’m at on the Wear-Everywhere Pullover. I’m working the pattern on the smaller needles and am roughly 1 inch from switching to the larger needles. Once I switch to the larger needle I’ll be moving Leaf Lace onto this circ, even though it is a ridiculous 47″ long. I’ll get into why tomorrow (and hopefully I will have it moved by then if I’m lucky). If only I had a circular knitting needle fairy *swoon* . . .
Oh, and I just remembered that one of my favorite bead stores is within walking distance of the garage so perhaps I’ll browse their selection for the beads to put on my leaf lace shawl . . .
I was hoping to have some great modeled photos of an FO for you all, but it is taking *forever* to dry! So, hopefully a picture-filled post tomorrow or Wednesday.
I’m thinking it’s about time to take Skyway out of her timeout beneath the bed. I think it has become very evident that I’m not a “finisher.” Not that I won’t finish Skyway, but more that I don’t enjoy the process of finishing a garment, which causes me to procrastinate for an unacceptable amount of time. By the time I finish it, it will be too big (down 15 pounds and three inches on the hips) and too hot to wear (even though it is sleeveless, it is fairly heavy with the cotton content).
In spinning news, I *think* I’ve made a decision on the spinning wheel. I visited the library this weekend and am reading a few books.
My decision is mostly driven by economics, as there are other wheels I think I might rather have. I don’t doubt DH would spend an additional $200-$400 over what he was originally thinking it was going to cost when he told me a wheel would be my birthday present. However, this last month has been one of lots of expenses. We did a ton of home improvement/cosmetic things to the house to prepare for his parents’ visit before Memorial and we finally purchased a gas grill. Then, we have some sprinkler repair and house painting coming up and would like to also get our patio put in. There is also the issue that our inner spring futon mattress is really not working for either of us anymore and we think we will be graduating to a real mattress. Well, if I spend an additional $300 on a spinning wheel that could mean we need to wait until late fall to get a new mattress, which might actually cause the end of our marriage as we both are getting increasingly crabby from a lack of quality sleep…
I need to do a little more “research” before I make the official announcement on what my decision is and I won’t get to that until at least Wednesday, if not Thursday, so stay tuned! In the meantime, please share with me your favorite spinning blogs to read or let me know if you also blog about spinning on your knitting blog.
Last, but definitely not least - Stitch ‘n Bitch tonight at Catalyst Coffee for those in the area. 6-8pm!
We’ve been watching a lot of TV on DVD lately (Millenium, X-Files and All Creatures Great and Small - posts coming soon on Culture Catalog), so I’ve picked back up the camo sock. I’m about an inch or so past the gusset and am getting a little nervous about having enough yarn to complete the sock. DH doesn’t have huge feet (Sz 10.5), but that ball of yarn is feeling awfully light, and I don’t have anything that would coordinate for a toe in my stash right now, and I don’t think DH would have been happy with a shorter leg in his sock either… *sigh* Perhaps this will call for a shopping expedition again in the near future…. I’ll probably know in a couple of days I guess.
Here, Emma shows off that I have edged one arm hole and have picked up the stitches for the other. I’m in crunch time now for my on-line classes (they start next Wednesday) and I feel it requires more attention than I can give it while taking in the previously mentioned TV shows so progress has been slow, but steady.
Here is a closer look at the edging. Keep in mind that it has not been blocked, but that this stitch pattern does block flat. I think it’ll be good. I’m really going to have to phsych myself up to do that neckline though. It’s 45-46 inches long! That’s a lot of lace knitting followed by a lot of 3-needle bind off! Phew! I’m hoping to be done next Wednesday, but with the classes beginning next Wednesday, I’m not sure that is possible.
Lastly, for anyone wondering about the quietness here, please see my visual art blog. It should shed a little bit of light….
Option #3 appears to be a go. With some blocking I think it’ll be perfect!
More later….
Well, I removed Skyway from her resting place beneath my bed yesterday afternoon. I figured nearly a week there and she had done her penance. I tried an edging solution on one of the arms, but in this weight yarn, it was just too much. Especially for under the arm. I was able to save the picked up stitches so I just have to reknit another edging option and see how that goes. I’m debating between two or three… I need to look more closely at them and see how they will fit in with the stitch count of picked up stitches as well as how much bulk they will be. I don’t think she’ll be going beneath the bed again though. I’ll try one more today and then move on to other work that needs doing.
Due to this work and my tiredness last evening, DH’s camo sock got some time once again and there is now a heel and the very beginnings of a gusset. It shouldn’t take too much more to complete sock one. I always find once I’m to the gusset the sock seems to fly.
I promise pics soon, but right now there isn’t really anything worth photographing. If you really want to see some pics (though not many are knitting related), head over to my Flickr account…
Well, I still haven’t gathered up the good mood and courage it requires to work on the finishing of Skyway Scoop yet. I *may* get there today, hopefully I’ll have a little done before SnB tonight. But, I do have other work that needs doing as well.
It seems like to give uncooperative projects a nice *looooong* time out under the bed. Yes, I don’t even put them in the corner. I stuff them into their bag and stash them under the bed, where they are out of site and hopefully mostly out of mind, LOL!
And, a reminder that tonight is Stitch ‘n Bitch!
After a week or so slump, the Spearfish blog is alive and thriving this week, with Ann finishing her pair of socks, before Anita in their own private race. Paula and Clementine each have one sock completed and are on their way on the second sock. Clementine has set a goal for Sunday evening, as she is going to gift them to her BF’s mum! Good luck, Clementine!
In the Gathering of Lace Along we have some new members - some new to lace, some veterans. We’re at ten people total, including myself and my co-host, Snow. Some are still swatching and choosing yarns or patterns. Others are incredibly frustrated 
It isn’t too late to join the fun! I’ve been so focused on Skyway Scoop that I haven’t gotten any farther on my Shaped Triangle.
Speaking of Skyway Scoop - she looks the same as yesterday (just scroll down), except perhaps the stitches along the neck line are a little stretched out. I knit on the neckline (all ~45-46 inches around) only to rip it last evening. I was devastated, but I was having an incredibly crappy day. Thanks to helpful suggestions and kind words from friends I’m doing better today. Though I may leave Skyway Scoop in the time out corner for today and focus on getting the pattern written up, properly sketched electronically and extrapolated into the other sizes. Just let myself calm down further. I’m still a little wound up from yesteday’s goings on…
I did take a little field trip to Target yesterday to pick up Gilmore Girls Season 3 and did a little impulse shopping/retail therapy. Spring Squatty found a friend…
It looks so good! It is smaller than my previous tri-fold wallet that was black and stuck out like a sore thumb as it sort of peaked out. This one tucks in completely and coordinates with the bag. Plus, it has a large section that has all kinds of accordioned sections so I can sort out all those frequent shopper cards etc. I also love the detail in the zipper pulls. They had a lot of really cute and compact wallets/coin purses in fun spring colors.
Also, while there, I saw that Debbie Macomber’s book, The Shop on Blossom Street was out in paperback and 25% off MSRP, so I picked that up as well. By bedtime, the day had sucked so bad that I couldn’t make myself read the book club book, so I decided I deserved reading something I enjoyed and before I knew it was 100 pages in! There will be more over in Culture Catalog in the next few days probably.
Lastly, much thanks to Margene for bestowing the honor of “Zen Blog of the Week” - my stats have gone through the roof! I some of you peeking in here will come back!
I am nearing the home stretch! I had the official first “try on” of Skyway Scoop at SnB last night. Everyone said the shaping was great and that the back looked nice too!
It did, however, take all of my self-discipline to not stay up all night doing the finishing around the neck and arms. I’ve spent some quality time this morning with some of my books that include finishing discussions to find it not terribly helpful. I was sort of expecting that. I already have two ideas in mind and I’ll start with the first one that I most want to use and hopefully it will work. Sometimes I like to “research” things to death. It would be *really* awesome if I completed it today, blocked it tonight and could wear it to Textiles a Mano tomorrow afternoon/evening!
I have two people locally willing to test knit it and model it for the official pattern. So I just need to extrapolate the additional sizes and get the schematic into electronic format etc. and get one or both of them test knitting soon.
In other news, Ashley, one of the first few to come to SnB regularly left us for three weeks to go play and steek in Denmark (okay, so she was over there for work, but with all the goodies she showed us last night from her adorable steeked infant cardigan to the stash expansion stuff she’s not fooling me 
) was back finally! Oh how we missed her! Me, especially as we tend to also get together on the weekends sometimes as well and my weekends were void of knitting buddies while she was gone… However, she made up for her absence by bringing me a birthday present from Denmark . . .
Colinette Mohair, color 26, Turquoise
What gorgeous, rich color! I’m open to project suggestions on this one (except the scarf in Scarf Style in the feather and fan stitch pattern, I’m sick of that stitch pattern - call me fickle). It seems my mohair stash will soon rival that of my cotton stash unless I get knitting. Unless of course I fall prey to KnitPicks new yarns they’ve been releasing lately…
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