little bit of crazy leaking out

I stopped by my LYS for a cup of tea and a bit of knitting today.  While at the store I saw several knitter friends and chatted a bit with Ellen, she may have even gotten me to sign up for a Peace Fleece KAL at the shop in January.  I cast on a sweater vest for Bubba, from stash, it’s nice to not have “Mom, mom, mom . . . mooooom!” when trying to count over one hundred.

I usually go to the LYS on Saturday, but yesterday we went to Emma’s for a fun filled fiber fest.  Hubby had to work so I was only able to go for a couple of hours.  I played with her drum carder for a bit and carded up these alpaca batts from some fiber I bought this summer.

The cinnamon fiber was quite nice but the gray was a bit of a mess, second cuts, lots of vm, you get the idea.  I only bought a couple of ounces of each, next time I’ll be sure to check them more carefully.  Live and learn.

 Very tempting to do after getting most of it cataloged into Ravelry along with photos in Flickr.

So far 41 pictures in the sock yarn folder and I’m sure I’m missing a couple . . . so lets call it enough yarn for 45 pairs of socks.   Sweater amounts of yarn were definately fewer and mostly kid sweater amounts . . . 16 total . . . 2 in amounts for sweaters for me . . . maybe 5 average adult sweaters of various types . . . 9 or so in kids amounts.  The rest of the stash is mostly in ones and twos, sure there may be a four or five here or there, but mostly it’s ones and twos. 

What the heck am I going to do with all those singles.  Yes, I have One-Skein Wonder and several other books with small projects but I could be knitting hats, scarves and mitts until I’m 60.  Guess I could do a couple of Baby Surprise Jackets and tuck them away for gifts, same with the hats, scarves, and mitts.

But, really, almost half the stash?  I guess the thing that sucks it that almost all of those ones/twos/threes were purchased for specific projects.  This all goes back to the “talks a big game, follow through sucks”. *sigh*

Like a fool I signed up for the NaBloPoMo.  Ha, what was I thinking?  I mean, yeah, I talk a good game, but when it comes down to it, the follow through sucks.  Case in point, Socktober, had ever intention of knitting lots and lots of socks. How many did I knit? None. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Last year I had 27 posts for NoBloPoMo, close, but no cigar.  We’ll see how it goes this year.

Oh, and just because that isn’t enough torture, I also doing the NaKniSweMo.  I didn’t sign up officially for this one, but I opened my mouth and told the Saturday knitting group “sure, I’ll knit a sweater in a month with the rest of you.”  (palm hits forehead)

I finished two hats this week.  I loved knitting both of them, the patterns, the yarn the finished product, loved the whole process.  I took pictures of them at the LYS, they have these great wooden heads for displaying hats.

Hat the First . . .

pattern:  Odessa by Grumperina 
yarn:  Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK
needles:  Clover Bamboo
cast-on:  Oct 20, 2007  cast-off:  Oct 22, 2007 
notes:  I ended up running out of yarn 5 rows from the end, it happens.  Luckily I had purchased 2 ball of yarn so I was able to finish without a run to the yarn shop.  The beads were purchased at Pacific Fabric.  This is the second time I have knit Odessa and it doesn’t disappoint. 

Hat the Second . . .

pattern:  Spring Cap by Woolly Wormhead
yarn:  Frog Tree Alpaca Sport  
needles:  Clover Bamboo
cast-on:  Oct 25, 2007  cast-off:  Oct 27, 2007 
notes:  Another quick knit.  I held the yarn doubled and it gave me a nice warm fabric for this hat, although it has a lacey pattern it should still be quite warm with the nice fuzzy alpaca.  I will need to make one for myself soon.

pattern:  Knitting Pure & Simple #981 Children’s Neckdown Cardigan
yarn:  Peace Fleece Worsted - Moscow Magic Pink
needles:  Clover Bamboo
cast-on:  Sept 8, 2007  cast-off:  Sept 14, 2007 
notes:  This was one quick knit.  Seven days start to finish!  I debated what size to knit and ended up knitting the 6-8 and adding an inch to the body and the sleeves for some growing room.  So much for that idea!  As you can see from the pictures, it fits now.  I’m sure it will last thru the winter into the spring, but prolly not much past that.  The buttons were puchased from VYT and I really think they take the sweater from homemade to handmade.  The Peace Fleece was a bit rough while knitting but bloomed and softened quite a bit after a good steam blocking.

This past weekend I did quite a bit of knitting, laughing, and eating.  All good things in my book. 

Friday night was Knit Night at VYT, hubby got home and I zoomed out the door and spent a hour or so knitting with friends.  Some have questioned why I go to Knit Night, I go to VYT almost every Saturday and it would seem going on Friday night would be too much of a good thing.  It’s not, Knit Night is only the first Friday of the month and I only get to go, maybe, half of the time because of Hubby’s work schedule, and I get to see people I wouldn’t get to see otherwise.  I walked out of VYT that night with four skeins of Peace Fleece in Moscow Magic Pink for a sweater for Bug.  (One skein is a just in case skein and will be returned if I don’t need it.)

Now, I have been trying to reduce the stash and purchasing yarn doesn’t seem like the best way to do this.  So I came up with a wonderful justification and I wound the skeins into balls after I got home from Knit Night and cast on while at knitting group on Saturday.  The yarn never entered the stash so it doesn’t count.  About half the gals agreed the other half rolled thier eyes, whatever.  This immediate casting on and knitting of The Peace Fleece Cardigan means that I have set aside the Bolero I was working on, but you gotta do what you gotta do. 

Actually the fact that I don’t have about 20 projects on the needles is a miracle right now.  I have a horrible case of, as Dave at Criminy Jickets call’s it, Seasonal Startitis Syndrome.  It’s been bad.  I look at yarn and want to knit it NOW, I see a pattern . . . NOW . . . NOW . . . NOW.  I have resisted, I really have.

Anyway, Saturday Hubby took me to VYT, since my car is in the shop, and then went away with the kids and didn’t come back for four hours.  Is he a good husband or what?!  That night after the kids went to bed I pulled out the knitting again and continued working on the cardigan while we watched The 4400 and BSG (gotta love netflix). 

Sunday morning my parent picked us up and we went upto my cousin’s for a birthday/anniversary party.  I knit the hour on the way up, part of the time there, and the hour on the way back.  I love going to my cousin’s, she is fun, laid back and always makes you feel welcome.  My aunt and four of my adult cousins were there, the kids had a blast with all the attention.  There were water balloons, trips to the garden, food, games of cribbage,  more food, and cake.  I came home with two bags of produce from the garden (beets, small zucchini, red onions and giant carrots), leftover carrot cake, and greek stuffed zucchini (yummy, have to get her recipe).  With all the fun we had there was one disapiontment: MY DEAR COUSIN IS NOT USING THE HANDKNITS!  Last time we were there I brought her a few knit dishcloths, they are sitting nicely on the counter as doileys, one with the butter dish on it and the other two were on top of the microwave.  I threatened to take them back, she says they are to pretty to use.  *sigh* Guess I need to make her some ugly dishcloths.

I kept chugging away on the cardigan yesterday evening, I even fell asleep sitting on the couch, while knitting, Hubby woke me up at 4am and told me to go to bed.  I was a little tired this morning, but the sweater is getting done.  I am enjoying knitting with the Peace Fleece, it has a bit of VM in it but less than Noro, I was worried it would be splitty since it is a loose 2ply, but I haven’t had any trouble so far.

The weather before we left on vacation was iffy, to say the least.  After a lovely June and early July, it turned wet and overcast.  I packed well for vacation, anticipating much rain and time spent indoors.  I packed three WIPs, yarn for another project and the spinning wheel with roving for two projects.

As it turns out, the weather cooperated and although the mornings tended to be overcast, the afternoons were clear and warm.  I did have 3-4 hours of knitting time in the van on the way down and on the way back, and here and there while sitting at the campfire or watching the kids at the playground.  Quite a bit of progress was made on the Rutabaga Bag and I was able to finish Bubba’s hoodie.

pattern:  Knitting Pure & Simple Children’s Tunic #232
yarn:  Plymouth Outback Wool colorway #965
needles:  Clover Bamboo
cast on:  July 2007   cast off:  August 24, 2007
notes:  I really enjoyed knitting this sweater.  The wool is quite soft, especially for the price, and KPS patterns are always fun for me.  Finish knitting, weave in a couple ends and . . . . voila, es fini.  There was a little more to this one, I grafted the top of the hood (with only 1 purl bump when all was said and done) and sewed down the casing on the hood.  I think if I were to do this patten again I wouldn’t do the casing, I would cast on fewer stitches and just continue the garter stitch from the placket up around the hood.  I still need to make a drawstring for the hood.

There is an error in my copy of the pattern, you cast on stitches on one side but no instructions for casting on the other side and if you continue as written you would be knitting the next row on the wrong side instead of purling.  I simply purled back, cast on the same number of stitches for the other side of the neck front and continued, no problems from then on.

I used a Shark Steamer to block the sweater.   With the split hem on the tunic, the hem flipped up quite badly, after steaming they lay flat as a pancake.  Luv the steamer.  It is now one of my favorite knitting tools.

I did make a yarn purchase while on vacation, but I was very good.  I stopped by Yarn n Darn Things in Greyland for a look around and walked out with enough Naturelle 10ply, in color 151, to make Bug the Aran cardigan she has been asking for.  My MIL has a lovely cardigan, purchased on one of their vacations to Scotland, Bub loves it and has asked me to make her one.  Sure, Honey, no problem, let me get right on that.  The yarn I used for the tunic was purchased at Yarn n Darn Things last year while we were on vacation.  I had purchased enough yarn for a sweater for each kid and had intended to finish both before we went back, well, the new wheel go in the way of that.