Knitamazoo(tm)

Last Saturday night, the hubster and I were watching some tv in our basement rec room. I had gotten up off the couch to take care of something and was navigating the obsticle course which is our basement when I whacked my right foot on the edge of the loveseat. I immediately let out a yell and crumpled to the floor. When I hit the loveseat I heard a very loud *SNAP* as did the hubster over the tv. He jumped up thinking that I had snapped my ankle out of joint and I told him to get me some ice. The toe next to the pinky toe is probably broken. I say probably because I did not go get x-rays. I figured they would take x-rays and say, “Yes, it’s broken” or “No, it’s not broken, just sprained,” buddy tape it to the next toe over and send me home after charging me an arm and a leg. So I’ve buddy taped it and have been hobbling around on crutches all this week. I won’t go into the gory details, but it is bruised and still a bit swollen. Ow!

This unfortunate accident is not without its good points. It forced me to lay on the couch all day Sunday with my foot propped up in the air, knitting. I have also spent almost every night this week on the couch, foot propped up, knitting. So here is the progress report . . .

The Fibertrends Felted Clogs are almost finished. I need to attach the second sole to the second clog, stitch up the soles on both clogs, weave in the ends and felt. These are such a fast knit! I’ve been going slower so I can use them to demonstrate in my class. Normally these can be cranked out in a weekend (or less!). Great holiday gift idea! Just imagine the look on the recipient’s face when they pull the pre-felted clogs out of the box! Priceless!

I think I may have finally settled on a pattern for my SSK Club sock. That has been a struggle. I’ve started 3 times now and hopefully this will be the one. I am working on the cuff for sock #1 so there are no pictures yet.

And finally, I have cast on for the Jersey Shore Weekender sweater. I swatched for this sweater back in August with some leftover Berocco Ultra Alpaca from my Mystery Sweater. I loved the swatch so much (especially since I got gauge!) that I got the same color for this sweater. It’s a lovely deep burgundy. I cast on the 154 stitches I need for the back and knit one row of ribbing last night while we rode out the tornado warning in the basement. The cold front has come through and it’s much cooler here today. I’m hoping for a freeze soon so that my allergies calm down.

Have a fantabulous weekend! *a-choo*

I have been very neglectful of my spinning lately. I came back from Michigan Fiber Festival at the end of August all pumped up and ready to go. Then I got distracted. But this past Sunday I put all distractions away and sat down to spin for about half an hour (as that was all my legs could take). And this is what I have for my efforts. It is a blend of fine wool and llama. I should ply up this small amount to see if I want to do a 2 or 3 ply. I was thinking I may try to do my first sock yarn as I have a pound of this. I’ll have to do up some samples before deciding I think.

I also cast on for some Felted Clogs by Fibertrends. I made a pair last year and love them. I am also teaching this as a class at my LYS so I decided to cast on and knit along . . . though I will probably be finished well before my class is. I failed to take a picture of my progress and will try to remember to take one tonight.

I am also in the SSK Club at my LYS. SSK, or Secret Sock Knitters is a club where we will knit a pair of socks for someone else and leave little treats for them at Halloween and Thanksgiving at the store. There will be a get together in December where we will meet our Secret Sock Knitter and receive our socks. It should be fun if I can get the socks knit in time!

Well that’s the news from my little corner of the universe . . . where it is supposed to be 87 today . . . it’s October for crying out loud!

I don’t have children. There are reasons I don’t have children. I love children but don’t want any of my own. I like giving them back to their parents after I’m done having fun with them. I work for a Fortune 500 company, so tell me why is it that I have to deal with children all day at work? I’m just going to leave it at that.

The Coriolis is coming along nicely. I didn’t knit too much last night as I had to teach a knitting class. I’ll get to work on it some tonight while watching the first Red Wings game of the new hockey season! Now as long as I’m not blowing my nose every two seconds due to my allergies I’ll be doing ok. I hate to take a antihistimine as they make me dizzy and sleepy. Not a good combo when trying to knit.

I can’t believe that I am actually thinking to myself, “Hurry up winter!” I wouldn’t say it out loud for fear of being killed where I stand. But in ways I want it to get here so my allergies calm down. Of course then it’s the cold air and the headcolds that make me blow my nose 10,000 times a day. I can’t win!

I have another knitting class starting tomorrow night. We will be doing the Fibertrends Felted Clogs. So far I have 8 students signed up! That’s the largest class I’ve had to date and it will be a challenge. I already know one or two of the ladies from other classes I have taught so that should be fun.

Well I’m off to blow my nose again. Happy knitting!

Last week, I cast on some Socks that Rock and started a pair of Coriolis socks from Cat Bordhi’s new book, New Pathways for Sock Knitters. After I knit the toe and started looking at the rest of the directions, I realized that I really wanted to do the swirling Coriolis but I had done a standard toe instead of the whirlpool toe required for the swirling Coriolis. I frogged and started over. Things were going well. I was well into the Coriolis part on Saturday night and sat happily knitting along while watching tv. Sunday, I realized that I had added a stitch several rounds back. I couldn’t figure out how to rip back and pick up the Coriolis so I ripped back to the end of the toe and started the Coriolis again. Zipping right along . . . by last night I was almost done with the Coriolis arch expansion section and figured I would try on the sock. Hmmmm . . . it seemed rather long. Now I know when I knit the heel it will pull in quite a bit but it still seemed too long. I measured my row gauge again and set about figuring out the length of the toe again. How I can screw up the toe calculations every time I knit a sock from this book is beyond me! My original calculation was 4.25″ for the toe . . . I couldn’t be more wrong . . . I did the calculation again . . . twice . . . and got 3.25″. So I ripped the toe yet again back to 3.25″ and am once again knitting the Coriolis arch expansion. Ugh! I think these socks hate me.