Knitamazoo(tm)

I am bound and determined not to procrastinate. (Well at least with my secret sock pal socks. I’m not so sure about the rest of my life.) I have about an hour between when I get home from work and when I need to leave to get to the LYS to teach. I decided last night to sit down and at least cast on the second sock. This done, I knit a few rounds of the cuff and flew off to class. I was blessed by only having two students, both of whom are fairly competent. While they were casting on, a lady showed up at the shop saying she was there for the felted bag class (this is our learn to knit class and I just started a new group on Monday night). I explained to her that the class was meeting on Monday and when we checked the class list, sure enough, she had signed up for the Monday class. As it turns out, she teaches painting on Monday nights. So since I only had two students, I had her pick out her yarn and I got her started on the bag. She had learned to knit many years ago so she just needed a refresher which left me time to work on my sock while walking my other students through the hat pattern. By the time I got home I was almost done with the cuff. I kept knitting on it after I got home and I’ve finished the cuff and started the leg. I am on a mission I tell you! These socks will be done by Monday!

Mr. Greenjeans (a wonderful pattern by Amy Swenson available on Knitty) is coming along nicely. I am using Malabrigo worsted weight in the Vaa colorway. I wanted to knit the size large but my gauge was off. I got gauge using US9 needles but I hated the fabric. So I went back down to the US8’s and got a fabric I liked. I’m getting a 1/2 stitch more per inch than the pattern calls for. So I did some very scary math and figured out if I knit the size 2X with my gauge, the sweater would come out just slightly larger than the size L. (Believe me, I did the math several times before I let myself cast on. Math and I have never gotten along.) When I put the sweater on waste yarn and tried it on, it fit wonderfully! I can’t wait to finish it and wear it. I am loving the cabled rib at the bottom. This is also the first time I have tried cabling without the aid of a cable needle. With a four stitch cable it really isn’t scary at all. In fact, I find it a lot less fussy and I don’t feel like I’m stretching out my stitches as much as when I use the cable needle. I am also in love with using YO’s for the raglan increases. I love the little lacey touch it brings to the sweater. Cables and lace, how can it miss!

It’s been awhile since I last posted. My toe is healing up nicely. I am finally hobbling around without the aid of my crutches. The toe is still buddy taped, but progress has been made. There’s news on the knitting front and stories from work.

Let’s start with work shall we . . . there is a technician who is fairly new to our team (abt. 2 months) and he’s not very well liked by anyone else on the team. Word has already come down that we will have to cut 2 people in the next 6-8 months and he knows he is on the list. So he is looking for another job. He had one job interview and they called him to tell him that he wouldn’t fit in there and that he had issues with his attitude. So now he is looking at another job and he asked me if I would give him a reference. I said I guess I could if he really wanted me to. He replied asking if I would give him a great reference. I said that great wasn’t the word I would use and then he asked me to lie. Now I don’t lie for anyone and I told him that. He then proceded to ask me to fib and I told him that was the same as lying. So he keeps pushing me and finally says to me, “You don’t like me, do you?” I didn’t hesitate . . . I replied, “No, not really.” After that we had a good discussion about things he needs to work on and he says he wants to change. We’ll see how that goes.

Now for the knitting news. I am a procrastinator through and through. I always have been and I don’t know if that will ever change. I joined the SSK (Secret Sock Knitters) Club at my LYS. We are to knit a pair of socks for our secret pal, send them little treats for Halloween and Thanksgiving, and then on December 1 there will be a little party at the LYS where we will reveal ourselves to our secret pals and give them their socks. I bought the yarn for the socks right after I signed up (a couple of weeks ago). I’ve looked through hundreds of patterns. I’ve cast on 3 different times. I picked a stitch pattern and decided to design socks. After knitting an inch or so of the leg, I decided the stitch pattern didn’t go with the yarn. So there they have sat. I know I have a deadline but I just don’t want to knit socks. I want to knit lace . . . I want to knit sweaters (especially since it’s getting cold here in Michigan) . . . I want to knit anything else possible except socks. I am in the Mystic Waters Mystery Shawl KAL and I’m dying to cast on for it, but I keep telling myself that I need to finish my socks before casting on one more project. So this weekend I decided that I would work on nothing else until I had finished at least one sock of the pair. And what do you know . . . it worked! Here is sock number 1 finished except for weaving in the ends. The toe is grafted and everything. I settled on the River Rapids pattern from Sockbug. It goes along quickly which is a big bonus! I even had time this weekend to work on my Mr. Greenjeans sweater. I have completed the body down to the cabled part. I have switched over to the smaller needles and have completed row 1 of the cabled rib pattern. I also finished frogging my Salt Peanuts so that I have the yarn to finish Mr. Greenjeans. I’m so glad that I frogged. I was just never going to finish Salt Peanuts. As much as I loved the sweater, the pattern was driving me nuts and I just know that I would never actually sit down and figure it out. I am so much happier using the lovely Malabrigo yarn in Mr. Greenjeans. I can’t wait to finish this sweater. But the socks are my number one priority and I have the same goal next weekend . . . no knitting for me until sock 2 is finished. Can I do it??

In an effort to thwart my grand sock knitting plans, I have managed to schedule myself to teach classes at my LYS for three nights this week and three nights next week. Tonight is the learn to knit class. According to the sign up sheet it is full, but not everyone has paid so we’ll see who shows up. I actually have one more student signed up than I normally would. So if everyone shows it will be a large class. Tomorrow is a felted hat class. This one should be smaller and a lot of fun. Thursday I finish up the mitten class and next Thursday start the next felted clog class. So not much knitting time during the week. I really want to cast on the socks and get the cuff done by the weekend so I can zip right along on the rest of the sock. What was I thinking taking on so much around the holidays? I need my head examined.

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.

It totally amazes me how one day you can be perfectly fine, going about your business and then the next . . . whamo! you have a major allergy attack. This is the story of my life. I was doing fine this past weekend except for a sinus headache. That should have been my first clue. Monday morning dawned like any other day but by the time I got to work my allergies had hit with a vengence. My nose is so red from blowing it yesterday that I look like Bozo the clown. At least I remembered to bring in more Puffs Plus to work with me this morning.

Well, Clapotis II is now the bane of my existence. I was working on it Sunday getting very excited that I was getting so close to the end when I realized that I was not going to have enough yarn. Since I purchased said yarn over 2 years ago, my chances of securing another hank of the same color in the same dye lot are about 1 in a bajillion. When I purchased the yarn I noticed that I had way more yardage than the pattern called for. I figured I could add some length to my Clapotis and happily set off. Now I’m short and will have to frog the entire thing. It’s been shoved into a plastic grocery bag I’m so mad at it right now. (I don’t want to hear how it was my fault that I misjudged the amount of yarn I had and not the fault of the Clapotis . . . it will always be the knitting’s fault!)

In other knitting news, I was so mad Sunday that I wound up my Socks that Rock and started some Coriolis socks for myself. I am totally in love with this yarn! It really does rock! My only issue right now is that I didn’t realize I needed to do a different toe if I wanted the Coriolis to spiral all the way up the leg of the sock. So I have to rip back the toe and start again. At least I know my stitch and row gauge, so it wasn’t a total loss.

Now for the turkey. The hubster decided that he wanted to try some turkey burgers (eating healthier, less fat, blah, blah, blah) so he bought some at the store. He took them out of the freezer on Saturday and wrapped up two to put back in and wrapped two to defrost. He set them on the counter for about half an hour to get the defrosting started before putting them in the fridge. When he went back to the kitchen, he found them on the floor and one of them was more than half eaten. There were only two suspects and one was eliminated when he was the only cat begging to be fed at dinner time. Here is the mug shot of the infamous Turkey Burgler.

Well I managed to take some quick pictures this morning and get them uploaded so I could post them as promised. Aren’t you proud of me??

First up, Clappy 2. I can’t believe that it’s been almost 2 years since I started this! It has sat in my knitting basket for such a long time it must have felt so unloved. Well no longer! I just keep knitting and knitting and knitting on it. I’ve got this great urge to finish it for some reason. Here it is reclining on my kitchen counter. (Hey I just cleaned it last night and I have decent lighting in the kitchen.) I think I’ve dropped about 8 or 9 stitches so far. I was cruising along last night and was about to drop another stitch when I discovered that I have messed up the end of row 6. So tonight I’ll be tinking back row 7 so I can fix the very end of row 6. I just didn’t feel like dealing with it last night.

Next up are the socks I finished for the hubster. He says they are a little short in the foot and I’m hoping that they stretch out a bit. I don’t remember what yarn I used for these and I can’t find the ball band. He says they are really soft though and he is happy to have 2 pairs of socks to wear when he watches football.

I also went ahead and cast on for another pair of socks for him. (I don’t know what he did to deserve so many hand knit socks from me.) For these I am using Lana Grossa Meilenweit Tweed and following Cat Bordhi’s master Sidestream pattern from her new book, New Pathways for Sock Knitters. I did my Stitch ‘n Pitch socks in this pattern and love them! Here are the hubster’s socks in their infancy.

Again, I fail at blogging. It has been over a month now since my last post. Well let’s see if I can get caught up.

September 3, 2007 - Labor Day. Finally a day off of work! We didn’t go camping this weekend either which was nice. I had grand plans of knitting all day on Monday to finish my socks for the Detroit Stitch ‘n Pitch the following Sunday. One sock was complete and the second one was started. Hubby and I had decided to torture bathe the cats that morning in an effort to improve my allergy situation. We grabbed fatty first and made it all the way through to the final rinse before he became cranky. So cranky in fact that as soon as my hand got a little too close to his mouth . . . he bit. Not just a little bite to let me know he was unhappy . . . but a bite that made me scream. Loud. Very loud. So loud, I’m surprised that neighbors didn’t call 911. I cleaned the wounds really, really well and began to ice it down as it swelled up considerably. I probably should have gone to the ER but . . . I’m stubborn and figured I’d watch it for signs of infection. The wounds never did get infected and the swelling finally went down but about 2 weeks after the fact my finger swelled up again and I ended up going to the doctor on my anniversary. So now I’m on giant antibiotic pills and it has really improved. The doctor said the tendon was infected. Stupid cat!

So we did nothing special for our 11th anniversary except spend over $100 on doctors and drugs. I didn’t get to knit on Labor Day but I did manage to finish my socks for the Stitch ‘n Pitch. I had a lot of fun! We made one stop on the way over to Detroit and I figured that it was a good time to snap a picture of our bus. I took out my camera, turned it on and . . . no memory card! So I have no pictures of that trip at all.

This past weekend I finally finished up another pair of socks for the hubster. I haven’t snapped a pic yet. I’ve also started searching through my basket and pulling out things that have been languishing forever. I’ve picked up my second Clapotis and have made great strides in finishing it. I have 4 more 12 row repeats for the third section and then the final section. I’m well over 1/2 way and hope to finish it soon.

I did start another pair of socks for the hubster using Cat Bordhi’s Sidestream sockitecture from her new book. I love this book! I used this same master pattern to do my Stitch ‘n Pitch socks and they are so comfortable! I’m trying not to start too many things right now. I seem to be on a finishing kick. Hopefully this will last awhile and I can clear out my basket and save a little money in not buying yarn for new projects.

Well that’s pretty much it. I’ll try to get pictures taken soon and posted up so you can see my projects. Happy knitting!

So this past Saturday afternoon I grabbed the mail . . . bill, junk, bill, junk . . . hold on what is this? The envelope looked suspiciously like a wedding invitation. I wracked my brain . . . I don’t know anyone who is getting married, do I? No . . . I’m sure of it. I turn it over and there on the back is a name. It’s a name that I recognize but I don’t know why. I tax my brain a little more by chanting the name over and over again in my head but to no avail. I just can’t place where I know that name from. So I thought to myself, I guess I better open it and find out what this is all about. As I start to slide my finger under the flap to open the envelope it hits me like mack truck just exactly what I am holding in my hands. My heart starts to sink, my hands start to shake as I pull out the contents of the envelope and my nightmares are confirmed. Ladies and gentlemen, I am holding in my hands . . . wait for it . . . the invitation to my 20TH YEAR HIGH SCHOOL REUNION!!!!!

I now feel insanely old. How could 20 years have gone by already? When I finally regain the strength in my legs, I wobble into the bathroom and look in the mirror. I certainly don’t look old . . . do I? And as I gaze at my face in the mirror I begin to notice some wrinkles around my eyes. I start to notice the unsightly amount of gray that has crept into my hair. But I don’t feel old so how can this be? As I stare at my reflection in the mirror I begin to think that maybe I should start coloring my hair. Highlights will cover the gray, right?

As I continue to look at my reflection, I find it very hard to believe that 20 years have passed since I walked onto that football field with my 200+ classmates to receive my diploma. I was full of hope, dreams and excitement! College bound . . . I couldn’t wait! Looking back, I’ve been through a lot since then . . . some bad but mostly good. I managed to earn a college degree, make so many friends I can’t count them, met and married my husband, bought a house, lost both of my grandmothers, lost my job, got a new job, watched my brother get married . . . and the list goes on. As I’ve looked back over the past 20 years of my life, I realize that I may not have fulfilled all of my dreams and I am certainly not where I thought I would be at this point in my life. And as I stood there staring back at my 38 year old face, it hit me. It doesn’t matter that I’m not where I thought I would be. Despite some failures and disappointments, I wouldn’t change a thing about the last 20 years of my life. Because even though I’m not where I thought I would be, I know that I’m right where I’m supposed to be! (Now, I need to ask my hairdresser about those highlights . . .)