Knitamazoo(tm)

Say that five times real fast! Well I promised my Knitty chat buddies (especially Kirsti) that I would post pictures of my complete mitten and the second one in progress. So Kirsti, here you go . . . the promised photos.
Here we see the completed mitten along with the humble beginnings of it’s mate. I wanted to be a little further along on the second one but I’ve been running around like a headless chicken the last couple of nights trying to get ready for our camping trip. But my boss is gone all week so I’ll probably work on it today if things slow down. It’s that whole “while the cat’s away” thing . . . you know . . . I’m just saying. Anyway, I figure even if I am unable to do any knitting today I should be able to get the ends woven in on the first mitten. At least I remembered to bring my darning needle with me so I could actually do that. I used a crochet hook to pull the yarn through the last few stitches to close the top of the mitten and the thumb. Mother of necessity and all.I also thought you might like to see a close-up shot. Actually the mitten demanded that I take a portrait shot to include on the blog. It muttered some threats about unraveling or some such nonsense so I decided to appease it and post a nice close-up shot. What is nice about these mittens is that the multi-colored cuff part is done in garter stitch (pain in the butt on dpn’s) which makes it reversible. So you can roll the cuff up to make the mitten shorter but if you can also wear it long to keep your wrists warm. And believe me when you live in the “mitten” of Michigan you will probably wear them long. It is so blasted cold here and yet I love this state. (note to self: check on the availability of rooms at the mental hospital.) I’m thinking a pair of armwarmers to wear with my driving gloves will be my next project. I just hate it when my coat sleeves creep up my arm and expose my skin. Why can’t they make coat sleeves which stay put?

GROSS PICTURE ALERT!!! Not for the squeamish!

GROSS PICTURE ALERT!!! Not for the squeamish!

OK, I woke up yesterday morning and as I was washing my face I noticed this on my left eyelid. (I warned you!) It’s a bruise! Can someone tell me how you bruise your eyelid?? I can’t figure it out. It doesn’t hurt, it just looks ugly as sin. The only thing I can think of is that I may have done it when I rubbed my eyes. My eye allergies have been bad recently and my eyes have been really itchy. At least you can’t see it unless I close my eyes and I’ll be camping so who cares. It’s just really weird. And for those of you who are wondering, no I didn’t have a catastrophic accident with my size 10 dpn’s.

This will probably be my last post til after the holiday weekend. We are off early tomorrow morning and headed for the lovely UP (Upper Peninsula) of Michigan to camp. No cell phones, no computer, no clueless helpdesk techs driving me mad. Sheer bliss! I’ll be back next week with vacation pictures and hopefully some knitting progress pictures too! Have a great holiday weekend!

Today when I arrived home from work I spied a parcel on my front porch. I rushed into the house and immediately went to fetch it and just as I suspected it was from my Secret Pal! I was so excited that I could hardly bring myself to put it down to feed my kitties. But since I figured the kitties wouldn’t leave me alone until I fed them I opted to wait to open my parcel. When I finally did open it I couldn’t believe my eyes! Just look at what my SP sent me!

A lavendar sachet (my favorite scent!), brownies in a jar (yummy!), The Princess Bride Special Edition DVD (my favorite movie), some KnitPicks shimmer in turquoise with the pattern for an Airy Scarf (the colors are gorgeous!), a beautiful blue scarf, a lovely card and a drop spindle with some roving! I am in heaven! I love it all and can’t stop ooooing and ahhhhing over it! Thank you my lovely Secret Pal! You are the best Secret Pal in the world! (I only hope I can be half as good to my downstream pal.)

If you are following my WIP’s on the sidebar you will have noticed that I have added a new project. Yes, knitting ADD has struck again and I had to cast-on for yet another project. I had to start the Fluffy Cuff Mittens from DIY’s Knitty Gritty yesterday. I needed a fun knit as the bolero is lots of stockinette and my Liberty Socks are slow going. I am using some of the Debbie Bliss SoHo that I got in a trade with Jacquie along with Cascade Pastazza. Here is my progress so far. The Pastazza is a little brighter blue than the blue in the SoHo but I like how it looks together.

I need the weekend really, reall bad. It’s been an extremely long week at work and the last couple of days have . . . well I’d just like to forget the last couple of days. But it’s finally Friday, right? (Please tell me it is even if it isn’t. Please?)

There has been one really bright spot in my week. I did a swap with my wonderful knitty friend Jacquie and her parcel arrived Wednesday (though I had to go pick it up at the post office Thursday morning before work because I just couldn’t wait). I sent her more Plymouth Galway yarn to felt and she sent me this gorgeous Debbie Bliss Soho. The colors on the bue one didn’t come out very well but this is destined to become cuffs on a pair of mittens. I’m not sure what I will make with the other three skeins but they are lovely to look at!

She also sent me some stitch markers that she made. And for the record Jacquie, I won’t be trading these, sending them as a RAK or sending them to my SP. They are mine! All mine! And I LOVE them! I wouldn’t dream of trading them away. They have a happy home with my other homemade stitch markers and are fitting in well with the rest of the group. Thank you again Jacquie for swapping with me!

I’ve been doing some knitting on my bolero the last few nights. Mostly as stress relief and a little because I want to finish the bolero. It’s coming along. I’m going to visit my brother this weekend so it will make the trip with me and hopefully I’ll have a little time to work on it. I’m debating on whether or not to take it on my camping trip next weekend. It is rather small so it won’t take up too much room. If it’s really close to being done I may take it. We are planning one day of just relaxing at the campsite so that would be a good project to work on then. Well I just keep rambling on and you all probably want to see a picture of my progress. So without further adieu, here it is.

That’s all I have for today and so I leave you with a picture of my very pissed off Roscoe kitty. Have a great weekend!

Well I don’t have any knitting news that I can share on my blog today. I did something for my SP last night but I don’t want to post pictures or anything in case she reads my blog.

So in lieu of knitting news you get this (and it’s scary how accurate it is):

I’ve been tagged by Kirsti and since I don’t have anything news worthy for my blog today here goes.

Three Things Meme

Three names I go by:
1. Dawn
2. Dawnie
3. Dwan or Dawan (my paternal grandmother always wrote my name as Dwan)

Three screen names I’ve had:
1. DawnF
2. Wingnut (I’m a huge Detroit Red Wings hockey fan!)
3. Dawndy

Three physical things I like about myself:
1. My smile
2. My blue eyes
3. My fingernails (I used to bite them growing up)

Three physical things I don’t like about myself:
1. My bum - let’s just say wide load and leave it at that
2. My hair - straight and fine
3. My poor eyesight - contacts or glasses for me

Three parts of my heritage:
1. English
2. German
3. American

Three things I am wearing right now:
1. Underwear (:
2. My favorite linen pants
3. Wrist-brace (can’t type without one, repetitive strain)

Three favorite bands/musical artists: (this is hard, too many to choose from)
1. Diamond Rio
2. Billy Joel
3. REO Speedwagon (child of the ’80s . . . what can I say?)

Three favorite songs: (again too many to choose from so I’ll give my fav from each of my fav artists)
1. Love a Little Stronger - Diamond Rio
2. Only the Good Die Young - Billy Joel
3. Can’t Fight This Feeling - REO Speedwagon

Three things I want in a relationship:
1. Love
2. Honesty
3. Trust

Two truths and a lie
1. I put myself through college by delivering pizzas
2. I can trace one of my ancestral lines back to 1450 in Narborough, Leicestershire, England
3. I once sang on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN

Three physical things about the preferred sex that appeal to you:
1. Smile
2. Eyes
3. Hands

Three favorite hobbies:
1. Knitting
2. Genealogy
3. Scrapbooking

Three things I want to do badly right now:
1. Go home and knit
2. Go shopping for my SP
3. Go camping

Three things that scare me:
1. Losing my hubby or anyone in my family
2. Spiders - yuck!
3. Losing my ability to play the piano

Three of my everyday essentials:
1. Hugging & kissing my hubby
2. Hugging my kitties
3. Prayer

Three Careers you have considered or are considering :
1. Music teacher
2. Music therapist
3. Librarian

Three places you want to go on vacation:
1. England
2. Australia
3. New England

Three kids’ names you like:
1. Veronica
2. Tyler
3. Jennifer

Three things you want to do before you die:
1. Visit where my ancestors were from
2. See the fall colors in New England
3. Visit all 50 states

Three ways I am stereotypically a boy:
1. I don’t usually wear makeup unless it’s a special occasion or I’m in a musical performance
2. I love sports - especially hockey & football!
3. You’re more likely to find me playing football than on the sidelines cheering

Three ways I am stereotypically a girl:
1. I love to shop!
2. I love shoes!
3. I like to paint my nails

Three celeb crushes:
1. Richard Dean Anderson
2. Orlando Bloom
3. Sean Connery

Three people I am tagging:
1. Amylovie
2. Shetha
3. Monkee

I am so very excited to be participating in my very first Knitty Secret Pal exchange! We got our matches on Friday and I couldn’t be happier with my Secret Pal. I think I’m going to have much more fun shopping for her than receiving gifties myself. Any excuse to shop right? I wish I could tell you all about her but if she reads my blog then she’ll learn my secret identity and all the fun will be ruined. But I will tell you that she rocks and I can’t wait to spoil her!

I didn’t do much knitting on my Bonita Bolero this weekend. In fact I only knit one row. I tried knitting in the car on Saturday and that was a very bad idea. I made myself quite car sick. I will not be knitting in the car again which is too bad because our trip to the UP involves 8 hours of driving . . . one way! Oh well, I’ll just have to wait until we get camp setup to knit. Then yesterday I ended up making a few dishcloths for camping out of odds and ends of Sugar ‘n Cream from my stash. It’s kind of fun when you run out of one variegated colorway and finish it up with another. I just kept telling myself, “Who cares? It’s just for camping!”

So, on Saturday we decided to pack up a picnic supper and drive 2 1/2 hours up to Ludington, MI to scope out the campsite that we’ve reserved for the first weekend in October at Ludington State Park. We were a little concerned because even though the campsite description said “great tent site” it also said “trees in the middle of the site”. So we wanted to make sure we could set the tent up and I wanted to see Lake Michigan too. We used to live 15 minutes from the Lake and I miss it so. We had had storms early Saturday morning so the Lake was pretty choppy. But I loved the clouds over the sand dunes. It was very overcast on the way out there and I was afraid that our picnic plans would get rained out but when we got to the Lake we had gorgeous blue skies. There are many hiking trails in the State Park including a 1.5 mile hike out to Big Sable Lighthouse. We didn’t do that hike Saturday as we have done it before. (Hubby and I love lighthouses and have seen all the lights along the western shore of Michigan.) When we camp there we are thinking of renting bikes to go out to the light. But we did walk along the river and out to the dam.

We took our camp stove to try out for the first time as well as our latest camping purchase. We got a mini-fridge which we can plug into the cigarette lighter outlet in the back of our SUV. It also plugs into a regular outlet so we can have it running while we camp. We got ours at Wal-Mart cheaper than at the Coleman online store and it came with the adapter to plug it into your car’s cigarette lighter. You can also use this thing to keep things warm! It is wonderful! We took hot dogs and all the fixings for our picnic and everything was cold even after the car had been off for about 1 1/2 hours.

On the way home this is the sunset that we got to enjoy. And yes the picture is a little blurry. You try taking a picture out the window while the car is speeding at 75 MPH down the highway! The colors were gorgeous though. We didn’t get home until around 10 pm but I was glad because I got to see a spectacular harvest moon! The moon was huge as it was coming up over the horizon and such a deep red color. I tried to get a picture of it but the digital camera just wouldn’t cooperate with me.

So now my appetite is thoroughly wet to go camping. I can’t wait til next week when we leave to go to the UP. Until then I’ll have to knit to help keep my mind busy.

Well not really but I couldn’t come up with a good post title so that’s what you get. I finished up the cast-on rows for the sleeves on the Bonita Bolero last night. (Thanks amylovie!) Now it’s 48 rows of plain old stockinette and then I can divide for the two front sections. I switched over to my Addi’s this morning and I am in love! Everything glides along so smoothly. I think I’m going to have to slowly build up my Addi collection.

Anyway here is a picture of my progress thus far. I am loving how soft the KnitPicks Merino Style yarn is. I keep stopping and feeling how soft and yummy the knitted fabric is. Kind of slows me down a little. Must resist so I can get this finished. Maybe I can take more frequent breaks at work so I can knit! And then maybe I’d be looking for a new job too.

My garden is just spectacular! I’ve been getting cherry tomatoes for a couple of weeks now as well as green peppers. There are several red peppers that we are waiting to turn red. And my regular tomato plants have been covered in tomatoes slowly ripening in the sun. There are two that I should be able to pick tonight and I can’t wait! My first tomatoes from my first garden! I keep telling my hubby that whenever we move we have to find a place where we can have a bigger garden. Fresh veggies! Yum!

it could be bunnies! Well maybe not bunnies. But then again they could have something to do with it. Looking all cute with their twitchy little noses and fluffy little tails, munching on carrots. I’m certain they have set a master plan in motion for world domination. But I don’t think it includes making ordinary, everyday items disappear from my house. This, I am sure, is due to a black hole in my humble hometown. And this void of space is positioned right in my very own home!

This huge black mass of singularity is sucking up stuff right from under my nose. Let me explain. When we moved into this house 8 years ago, I had a cassette tape of a choir performance I particpated in while in college. Ever since the move I have been unable to find said tape. Black hole sucked it up. Next missing item . . . a dinner plate. How does one go about “losing” a dinner plate? One doesn’t. It’s just not possible. I have serving plates that I use when going to a party so the dinner plates never leave my house. Ever. They go from the cupboard to the table to the sink to the dishwasher. How does a dinner plate go missing? Black hole. There is no other explination. The latest missing item is my portable CD organizer for use in the car. We had taken it out of the car months ago when we were ripping our entire CD collection and it has been sitting in our four-season room ever since. As soon as I took it back out to the car, it went MIA. My car is locked at all times, even when parked in the garage. Again the only explination . . . a black hole. There are several other things that have gone missing over the years but these are the ones that stand out to me. Especially the dinner plates. And a black hole would also explain all those socks that go missing when I put them in the dryer. Besides, what use would bunnies have for a cassette tape, CD organizer, socks and a dinner plate? Hmmm . . . they are trying to take over the world . . .

In knitting news, I am making good progress on my Bolero. I need a sassy name for it. I can’t call it by the pattern name because Fiery it is not. The color of the yarn is called moss but Mossy Bolero makes me think of a moldy sweater. And I don’t want to associate the word “mold” with this project. So since I’m not very creative today, I guess it will just be Bolero for now. Anyhoo, it is knit in one piece and I’ve started casting on the extra stitches to create the sleaves. I have to cast on 8 stitches at the beginning of 12 rows and I’ve done 4 rows so far. It’s been a nice mindless knit that I can use to unwind. Maybe I’ll even be able to finish it up by the end of this coming weekend. *cough* *choke* *cough* It’s good to have high lofty goals, right?

with “startitis”! Yes, all the symptoms are there. I have 2 pairs of socks on the needles (and I’m only on sock 1 of both pairs), I started a lovely lace shawl last week, and Branching Out is still languishing in the UFO pile (OK, it’s the only thing in the UFO pile but it’s still there mocking me). So why do I feel the need to start something new? I am awaiting some yarn from a swap with the lovely Jacquie and I know that as soon as it arrives I’ll start the mittens I want to make with it. Apparently 2 pairs of socks, a lace shawl and a UFO aren’t enough to hold my interest for very long because yesterday I cast on for the Fiery Bolero from IK Summer 2005. Here is what I accomplished last night.

The more I think about the more I think it’s nerves and stress. You see on Sunday while he was taking a shower, my husband hurt his back. Something about lifting his leg to wash his foot and the top half of his body shifting while the lower half stayed where it was. He was in excruciating pain by Sunday night and I was ready to take him to the ER. But he didn’t want to go so we didn’t. When he got up yesterday he was still in a lot of pain so he decided that he wanted me to drive him to the Immediate Care center at our doctor’s office. So I called work to let them know that I wouldn’t be in at least for the morning, got him in the car and took off about 8 am. I had visions of a crowded waiting room and having to sit there for hours on end while he waited to be seen so I grabbed my Liberty sock and off we went. I was very surprised to see only one person ahead of us since they had been open for over an hour already. He was seen shortly after our arrival and I only managed to get about 10 rounds done on my sock before he was ready to go. Turns out he only strained a muscle which is good news but he is still in quite a bit of pain. The doc gave him pain meds and muscle relaxers so he’s doing much better. And even after stopping to get his scripts filled, we were home by 9:30. I hung out at home til around 12:45 just to make sure that he got lunch and wasn’t having any reactions to the meds. Since he was doing so well I went to work even though I could have stayed home and knit all afternoon. Part of me wishes I had but that responsible part of me is a bully and has to have it’s own way.

So I think stress may just cause “startitis” or maybe I just have a horrible case of knitting ADD. You decide since I can’t make up my mind.

I have finally begun the shawl I fell in love with from the new Vogue Knitting magazine. It was a rough start to say the least. I had to cast on 111 stitches using the long-tail method and I ended up with a longer tail than I had hoped but no problem . . . that’s what they make scissors for right? Right! So off to do row 1. Everything seemed to be going well except that the “space” between the last stitch I worked and the stitch I was about to work was getting bigger. Hmmmmm? OK, don’t panic. Just cast on again and start over. Keep breathing. OK, 111 cast on stitches, here we go again. Working row 1 just fine. Two repeats left. Oh no! I forgot a YO a couple of repeats back. Try to tink. Not working. Getting frustrated. Breathe. Too much of a mess to try to figure out. Let’s frog and start again. Start frogging yarn. What is this? Knots? No can’t be knots. Try to work what appear to be knots but can’t possibly be knots out of yarn. Start to get really frustrated. Keep breathing. Smoke alarms are starting to go off. This really is a knot isn’t it? There is no way to un-knot laceweight yarn. Completely frustrated at this point. Can’t stand to look at it anymore. Put the whole big mess down and pick up my Liberty sock. I did manage to work several rounds on the sock and calm down before going to bed.

I woke up this morning much calmer and determined to not let lace kick me in the . . . well you know. So after getting ready for work I had some time. I sat down, cast on 111 stitches once again and managed to do this:

I know it doesn’t look like much but I did manage to get the first row done without incident before I had to leave for work. And get this . . . I did the second row while I was home for lunch! Whoohoo! I know I can do this.