Knitamazoo(tm)

As soon as I got home last night I finished up the drop stitches on my Clapotis and wove in my ends. I know I promised you a picture yesterday and here it is! It was made out of a wool/mohair/angora blend yarn that I bought at Zeilinger’s Wool Company in Frankenmuth, Michigan. I got a wonderful deal on the yarn (95 cents per ounce!) and I used about 2 1/2 hanks in the shrimp color. The mohair in it meant that I had to spend a little more time in getting the dropped stitches to run down but it was worth it. I absolutely love it! I had they hubbymeister take a picture of me modeling it but I looked really bad and I didn’t want to take anything away from the Clapotis’ loveliness! So now my major project is off the needles and I just have small things going. I’ve been toying with the idea of maybe reviving my Branching Out. I’m thinking that this would make a lovely Christmas gift for my brother’s fiance. They will be living in the south and it should be light enough that she can wear it. But I just haven’t been too motivated to get it back out yet.

What to do? Why this of course! There are four shawl patterns in the new Fall 2005 Vogue Knitting magazine. And I’ve been drooling over this one since I saw the preview online. A couple of weeks ago, dear Helen got this magazine in the mail and I went on a wild hunt to find it in stores but couldn’t find it because it didn’t hit newsstands until yesterday! So on my lunch hour yesterday I went immediately to the LYS to get the magazine and my first pair of Addi Turbos to use for the project. I try to walk dignified into the store instead of flying in like some kind of banshee and scaring away the other customers. I somehow manage to maintain some poise and quickly walk (read: run!) to the magazines. No fall Vogue! What?!?!?!? As I’m standing there in utter disbelief, the owner walks up to me and asks me if she can help me. So I ask if they have the new fall Vogue Knitting and she said that it is delivered via Fed-Ex and they hadn’t been to the shop yet. My shoulders drop and I must have looked absolutely devastated. She offered to call me when it did come in but I declined and said I would stop in after work or on my lunch tomorrow. While I was there I did browse a little and wouldn’t you know it, they are now carrying Kid (read: Crack) Silk Haze! The same stuff that when I asked about it 2 months ago, the clerk had no idea what I was talking about. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen her lately. Anyhoo, as I was walking around I suddenly remembered that Barnes & Noble is right across the street! Eureka! I quickly exited the yarn store and went to Barnes & Noble. Sure enough they have the magazine and I am now in a state of pure bliss! After making my purchase, I sat in my car for a few minutes gently looking through it. I then grabbed some lunch but by that time it was too late to go back to the LYS to get the needles I needed. As soon as work was over I stopped to pick up my very first pair of Addis! So now I need to cast on and get going. It’s a pretty complicated lace pattern and I hope I’m not biting off more than I can chew but I am determined to make this shawl. In fact I spent a couple of hours last night working out a chart for it from the written instructions. It will be done in KnitPicks Alpaca Cloud. I’ve got one hank already wound into a ball and I’ll be casting on tonight (I hope)! Stitch markers and lifelines are my friends! Wish me luck!

I did it! I finally did it! I finished all the knitting on my Clapotis last night around 10:20. I still have 4 dropped stitches that I need to run all the way down and the ends to weave in but it is off the needles and I’m happy! I don’t have any pictures to post yet but I promise you there will be pictures tomorrow. I went to bed extremely happy and content last night. And when I woke up this morning another happy dance ensued when I realized that today was August 9 and the new Vogue Knitting magazine would be on newsstands. (I am sure my cats are going to need therapy with all the happy dancing they have witnessed in the past 24 hours.) I have waited two weeks to be able to start the lace shawl in this issue. I am running to my LYS on lunch to pick up the magazine and my first pair of Addi Turbos to do this project. I’m so excited!

I found this on my garage yesterday . . . and it was there all day. This cicada had shed his outer shell and was drying his wings when I found him. He really startled me when I was getting in my car yesterday to go to work and he was still there when I got home last night although his outer shell was gone. I snapped a couple of pictures of him and an hour or so later he was gone. I haven’t seen one since I was a kid in NJ. We would find the shells all over in the summer.

We have had a bumper crop of cherry tomatoes from our little garden this year and I haven’t been able to enjoy them due to a stupid canker sore which I am sure is due to eating too many tomatoes when we were visiting my mother-in-law. Oh the irony! The cherry tomato plant has hatched it’s evil plot to take over the entire garden and possibly our house. The thing is out of control and it is just covered in tomatoes. I’ve given away all that I’ve harvested but there are so many tomatoes that haven’t ripened yet that I should be able to enjoy some of them. We have also harvested two green peppers and they are delicious! If we do end up moving due to hubby getting a new job I really hope we are able to find a house where we can have a larger garden.

Ooooooooo . . . I just can’t stop the happy dance! I better get some control or my poor co-workers will definitely need therapy. I’m off to count the minutes til I can go to the yarn store! 75 minutes and counting . . .

Well I didn’t get my Clapotis done this weekend like I had hoped. I suppose if I had actually knit yesterday afternoon instead of spending 2 hours soldering the jump rings on my stitch markers, I just may have finished it. But I am really close and it should be finished either tonight or tomorrow. It’s going so much faster now that the rows are getting shorter. Amazing how that works! Here are a few of the stitch markers I did this weekend.

It’s hard to see in the picture but they say things like Create, Inspire, Dream, Live and some other things that I can’t remember. I found them in Michaels and thought they would be nice for smaller projects as they aren’t bulky like the beaded stitch markers I’ve made.

I almost forgot that I have a bit of yarn porn. I went to two of my local yarn stores last week. I got the Lana Grossa sock yarn at one and the Cascade Pastaza at the other. The Cascade is destined to become a pair of mittens to keep my little paws warm this winter. I hope it will match the Debbie Bliss Maya that Jacquie is sending me in exchange for some Plymouth Galway she can felt. I also finished frogging one of my thrift store sweaters. Now I just have to wash up the wool and get it ready to knit. I ended up with almost 1 1/2 pounds of wool out of that sweater.

It looks like I wound up purple ramen. But for $3 I think it was worth all the effort it took to frog the sweater and wind it up. Well that’s all. It’s been a crappy day but I’m not going to complain about it here. I’ve done enough complaining to my hubby and a co-worker. I’ll just chock it up to another horrific Monday. I think there some knitting therapy in store for me tonight.

I’ve been a bad blogger lately. It’s been four days since my last entry and I still don’t have anything to talk about. What a sad commentary on the state of my life. Either I am really, really boring or I need to get a life or maybe both. Or it’s possibly just an extremely bad case of PMS and it will all blow over in a few days. Yes, that must be it. I’ll just keep telling myself that until I believe it.

Not much news on the knitting front. I have done a couple of rounds on my Liberty Sock. I just haven’t been into the knitting thing lately. I blame this on the PMS too. PMS is the cause of all the problems in my life! Did I take it too far? I’m digressing again. Back to knitting news. I have taken up my Clapotis again. Yes, it languishes no more. It is once again loved and adored! I have four more rows to go to finish up section number three. Section four will be 7 pattern repeats of the 12 row pattern but it will be decreasing. Hooray! The end is in sight! After that there is a short section 5 to finish it up. I hope to complete it by the end of this weekend. Cross your toes for me! (I’d say cross your fingers but then you couldn’t knit now could you?) Happy knitty weekend!

Well I’m back from my weekend “camping” trip and I’m exhausted. I don’t ever remember camping being this much work. Don’t get me wrong, I had a wonderful time and I can’t wait to go Labor Day weekend but it was so much different when you’re a kid and your parents have to worry about everything else. OK, that’s enough whining. Onto the fun we had this weekend!

Got home from work on Friday around 3:35 pm and hubby wasn’t home yet. Weird . . . but ok, I’ll just start gathering up the rest of the gear so it’s ready to load when he gets home. Haul out the checklist and start running up and down the stairs. Cots - check, lantern - check, pillows - check, sleeping bags - check . . . looking good. Glance at the clock, 3:50 pm, still no hubby. Now he gets off work at 3:30 pm every day. He even said he was going to leave a little early to pick up the ice (oh yeah, coolers - check) so where is his cute little butt? Back to gathering up gear . . . mats - check, food - check, clothes - check, sunscreen - check, bug spray - check . . . 4:00 pm he pulls in the driveway. He changes his clothes and we load up the car. By 4:15 we’re on the road. We stopped and grabbed a bite in Middlebury, IN and pulled up at my mother-in-law’s around 8:00 pm Michigan time. Got the tent setup by 8:30 as we were now racing the setting sun. Had a campfire and then fell into bed.

We got up early on Saturday morning, 6:30 am to be exact. (All my times will be in Michigan time since Indiana doesn’t do DST and therefore they are 1 hour behind us all summer long.) Had breakfast and got ready to head out on the boat. We got our first good look at the tent all set up with our gear and stuff and we didn’t do too bad of a job setting it up. Click on images for a larger view. We even put up the rain fly as they told us it gets pretty “dewy” overnight. The cots were comfortable and the sleeping bags were warm. We were really pleased with the tent and look forward to more camping trips.

We finally headed out on the boat and spent the day cruising around Lake Mississinewa. The lake was back up to it’s normal level. For the last 5 years they have been working on the dam so the lake was about 40′ lower than normal. Isn’t it gorgeous? I even managed to knit some on the boat. Though I had to quit when I dropped 5 stitches. I did manage to get them on a stitch holder and was able to fix it later when I was back on dry land. I know I’m pretty pale in this picture but trust me I now have some color. Albeit some of that color is red and is on my butt along my bathing suit line so that sitting isn’t always comfortable. I missed that spot with the sunscreen. Oops!

We came back in at lunch time and grilled up some burgers. Then after we had rested for awhile we went back out and this time took the jetski. My hubby wasn’t thinking so there is no picture of me on the jetski. But I did get one of my mother-in-law and her husband having fun. They also just got a new puppy, Rascal and I just had to put up a picture of him. He is so cute but very much a mischievous puppy! He chews on everything including your toes. Ouch!

After a full day of being on the lake we came back to camp and built a really nice campfire. We sat around chatting for awhile and then did what most campers do . . . made s’mores! Yummy! Anything with chocolate is good in my book. It was so nice to just relax around the fire at night. I really wish we had a fireplace at home and we can’t do a fire outside either living in the city limits and all.

Sunday morning we got up, packed up our gear and headed back out on the lake for a couple of hours after breakfast. We came back in for lunch and grilled up some chicken and corn of the cob. (This was Indiana after all.) We finally hit the road around 4:20 for home. They claim that there is more than corn in Indiana but you couldn’t prove it by me. This is all you saw for miles and miles and miles. It’s no exaggeration. Oh yeah, before I forget I also promised you all a picture of the “big, yellow chair”. So without any further delay . . . here it is! I told you it was big!
And just to prove I did do a little knitting this weekend, here is a progress picture of my Liberty Sock #1.

And now I’m going to attempt to stay awake while at work. I am dreading all the unpacking and laundry I have to do when I get home. Was camping really all this work or am I just getting old? I really don’t seem to remember. Can someone please pass the coffee again?