Going on the road trip last weekend allowed me to finish Colchicaceae. I'm so glad I finished it! It is the softest shawl I own because of that wonderful Sublime yarn. (Although I will tell you that the yarn is a bit splitty.) The shawl isn't as long as I had hoped so I can't really wear it as a scarf. But it is very easy to wear with the ends tossed over one shoulder.
Time to get Friday started. Are you looking forward to a nice weekend?
I've been wondering if knit blogging is decreasing in popularity. It sure seems like it. This morning I read an article from a couple of years ago. One thing from the article that stuck with me is that people often post about a finished project but not the process. Now, I don't know that anyone wants to read about my knitting process :) but I thought it might be fun to see what today was like for me. There is knitting involved so it can't be that boring, right?
Last night I realized I hadn't cast on the right number of stitches for today's LYS KAL so as soon I got up I finagled the increases to get the right number of stitches. Knowing the stitches aren't quite right bothers me a bit but not enough to rip it out and start over.
Then I did a little cleaning so one of Emma's friends could come over. Her friend's mom and I went to lunch at another friend's house to discuss the drama program. The lunch was fabulous! (In fact, I think I used that word several times while we were eating.) We had barbecued beef sandwiches, potato salad made with red potatoes and bacon, make-your-own salads with wonderful toppings, and a terrific, still hot from the oven peach cobbler with homemade whipped cream. Wow! I'd like to eat lunch there every day!!!
After that I went to my LYS for the beginning of their latest KAL. Since I had already cast on and worked a few repeats I already have something to show. Wanna see?
The yarn is Malabrigo Sock in the Primavera colorway. The pattern is Wendy Johnson's Double Eyelet Rib sock. I really like how the yarn looks in stockinette better than in the eyelet rib pattern but I'm still happy with it. The color changes are just a little too contrasting for me. Mary is using a Pagewood Farm yarn - I think it may be Fruit Freeze. Anyway...the subtle color differences in her yarn will really look nice in the socks.
Then I played with the dog and now it's back to cleaning. We're having a 16th birthday party for Emma this weekend. It's a pool party but rain is forecasted so that means the house needs to be ready as a backup plan. Here's the first thing I'll tackle...
Most of my yarn is ready to go back into my room after going through the freeze-wait-freeze process. Guess I'd better get to it. I hope you've all had a fabulous Friday and are looking forward to a great weekend!
I finished Ene's Scarf (from Scarf Style) yesterday and blocked it right away. I just can't wait to block a lace project once I have it completed. I'm really happy with the size of this "scarf." (Isn't it funny that the shawl I made was the size of a scarf and this scarf is the size of a shawl?) Thanks to Stacey for the book, yarn, and needles! And thanks to Keri for offering to let me knit along with her. Be sure to check out her project because it's beautiful! This was a fun project and I'm ready to start my next bit of lace.
This fall we'll be going to Virginia to tour Williamsburg and Jamestown. We're going to visit Monticello while we're at it. I need a good car knitting project and thought I'd knit a pair of Maine Morning Mitts from Rachel's handspun yarn. I started the mitts to be sure I liked how everything was coming together. I do like how this pattern is working with the yarn. And the yarn is so squishy and fun to knit. The only problem is that I may end up finishing the mitts before the trip even starts! Guess I should plan on some more car knitting projects.
Thanks for all of your encouragement in the area of dress shopping! :) I did find a nice outfit (black skirt, black top, silvery gray jacket). Unfortunately, the picture of me in the outfit was too blurry to post. I got a lot of nice compliments on the outfit and I guess I should dress up more often. Apparently it was a big shock to see me so dressed up. :) Our friend's wedding was lovely and the reading went well for me. We found out the night before that E's dress wasn't going to work and her backup dress was too small. Fortunately, we found a great dress for her the next morning and all was well.
There is some sad news to tell, though. Georgia (and much of the southeast) is having a severe drought. It's even being called a 100 year drought. Citizens are being asked to do things like take five minute showers, turn off the water while brushing teeth, and using low flow toilets. Those things make sense for any water condition and I hope we can all pitch in to curtail our usage. The reservoir for Atlanta has a few months of water left, but the one for my part of town will be dry by Thanksgiving. That's scary. A friend of mine told me this morning that she's making plans to visit her sister in West Virginia if the water runs out. We hope it doesn't come to that, but it certainly could. Even if we get some rain soon, the forecast for the winter shows warm temperatures and little rainfall. If you have a chance, could you pray about this situation? Thanks!
The last time I posted, I said I'd share some knitting progress photos with you. Then I kept thinking "I'll knit just a little bit more on this project before I post a picture." And here I am, more than a week later with no post. So, today is finally a WIP (and an FO) picture sharing day.
Katie and I talked about knitting this sweater last winter, but we instead chose the Lace Surplice Top. I still haven't finished mine, but Katie's is beautiful! (I've officially put that in hibernation until January/February. Then it'll be done just in time for spring!) We again talked about knitting Ariann and I was determined not to be the weak link in our little knitalong this time, so I got started right away. Unfortunately, Katie has gotten super-busy, and I don't want to get too far ahead so I haven't knit on this in awhile. I'm instead focusing on Ene's Scarf. (By the way, I sent a question to the designer of Ariann, Bonne Marie. She is so sweet, helpful, and prompt!)
Oh, I'm trying to decide which way to sew on the buttons. I'm leaning toward having the dark part of the button be on the right (like the bottom left button). Any thoughts? I'm not wild about these buttons, but they were the best choice I saw at the LYS and I think they'll look good on the sweater.
Ene's Scarf
Keri is knitting Ene's Scarf and asked if I wanted to knit along. I did, so I cast on a couple of weeks ago, I guess. Last weekend I was hurrying to get through a section and ended up tinking two or three rows then having to reknit. That doesn't make for fast progress! Being all bunched up on my needles, it reminds me of a Victorian dress collar. I'm hoping the body of the scarf/shawl will go quickly. It's starting to feel a bit cooler down here and it will be nice to have this to throw over my shoulders when I take out the dog. Won't I be the most elegant pet owner around? :)
Socks
I finished my first pair of socks last night!!! I'm pretty excited about that. My daughter modeled them here for me and she'll be getting the next pair of socks (Monkey socks). She's been waiting on socks for a long time. :) This yarn was given to me as a contest prize by Rachel. This is beautiful yarn and now I'm spoiled! Thank you, Rachel!
Other WIPs
There are also hats, a pair of fingerless mitts for my daughter (as part of Keri's knitalong), the Chevron scarf (still just a big swatch, really), and a dishcloth in the works. And I've swatched for several patterns with the new handspun yarn Rachel sent me. I just cannot decide what will show it off the best. Rachel had suggested a hat or fingerless mitts. Hats don't look good on me, so I may go ahead and knit mitts. Hers are beautiful!
I hope you're all enjoying good weather and lots of knitting!
Does this look right to you? Does the sleeve cap look too tall? It's close to the right measurement and seems like it will fit when I place it on my arm. (The sides look wonky because it's wanting to curl under.)
The lifeline is on the last row that I understood the directions. I think I've figured out what I was doing wrong, though. I have one extra row in there and two extra stitches to bind off. I guess it's a good thing I put the lifeline in there!
I was wrong! There is some neutral knitting going on for Project Spectrum! Last night I finished the hat on which I was working, so I started another one today. (I usually keep a hat in the car to work on when I have to wait somewhere.) As I looked through the yarn I want to use up, I saw some black and gray yarn. Most of the charity hats I've knit so far have been "girly" so I figured a boy hat was in order. As I knitted, it dawned on me that it was definitely a Project Spectrum hat. (Hmmm...it also just dawned on me that if I had knit one row of stockinette in black, I could have avoided that color change row showing on the front. Drat! In the back of my mind, I knew there was a way I could avoid that. I just didn't bother thinking hard enough. The next hat will be better.)
I found the greatest thing for my teaching - my textbook is on CD. So I can read the book and make my lesson plans. Then before the lesson I can listen to the CD (and knit at the same time). I did that tonight and I'm already feeling much better about starting the class on Tuesday. Now if only the Botany textbook was on CD...
Thanks for all of your supportive comments and e-mails about teaching! You encourage me and I appreciate it!
I've been wanting to post, but haven't had any well-formulated thoughts to put down. Not posting is starting to get on my nerves a bit, so I'll share a mug shot of the swatch I knit from Malabrigo. It was going to be for Sienna, but will now be for Central Park. (The yarn for the CPH is different colorway, but the same yarn.)
Ooo boy, that's an exciting picture, isn't it?! Once again, I'm having gauge issues. I'm going for 18st/4" and this was 17.5st/4" before washing. After washing, it's 16.5-17st/4". The dimensions of the sweater are a little snugger than I'd like, so I think I'll be okay. Right now I don't have the gumption to calculate the actual size it will end up. The KAL doesn't start until September anyway.
Why am I in this funk? School starts on Friday. I have 20 - 25 minutes with my students and their parents. I feel like I should tell them important things like the class rules, grading system, etc. but I also want to do a science activity and get to know the kids. So deciding what to do and preparing for it is making me frazzled. It really shouldn't, but it is.
Okay, this is a knitting blog....I did some knitting on the Ribby Shell last night. I still have 3.5 inches to go until the armhole shaping. So right now it would make a fine midriff-baring tube top. Not quite my style, so I'll keep knitting.
I think my next post is going to be a Project Spectrum post about something neutral/black/white. This post will be about one of my favorite things - one of the most important things in my life (besides God and my family). Any guesses?
The Project Spectrum color for July is purple. Most of the purple at our house is outside in the flowers, although I do have a purple quilt hanging on the wall of our powder room and a couple of purple shirts. My plan is to knit a felted bag for my sister-in-law from the yarn I died earlier. I really like purple and I wonder why I don't have more of it around.
I wish all of you a safe and joyous 4th of July! And happy Canada Day (a little late) for my neighbors to the north!
A few blue things that are special to me...
4 
5 
6 
1) My grandma's first embroidery. The label she wrote says that her grandma taught her how.
2) A quilt made by some special ladies at church. My husband bought it for me at a charity auction.
3) A quilt square made by my mom. She started the quilt for us for a wedding gift. It's not done yet (in fact, I think I'm supposed to finish it!), but I love her for taking this task on.
4) A doll baby from my younger days.
5) Some of my daughter's artwork. Really, anything blue reminds me of my daughter. It's her favorite color these days. And she had the biggest blue eyes as a baby. In the last year, they've started to turn a beautiful hazel/green/gray color.
6) Pottery. My mom's friend Judy makes wonderful pottery and I have a ton of it! You know when you go home to visit and there is a place you just have to go for food or something? I usually go to Judy's for pottery. :) (This piece is actually cracked, but I can't bear to part with any of it unless it's in many pieces.)
Well, the Wobbly Circles Tote is done and is now drying. This is not the best picture of it, but I did want to show how the instarsia turned out. Funny that Estella just asked me about the progress on this tote.
I wanted to learn how to do intarsia knitting, so I'm happy with it in that respect. And I still like the colors (even though they don't photograph correctly). I'm even happy with the size (it's smaller than it's supposed to be). If I like all these things, why am I not wild about this tote? Am I "felted out?" Or maybe I'm just anxious to start a sweater. I really want to knit a sweater!
Regardless of why I am tired of this project, I think I will giving felting a rest after I finish the Noni bag (or maybe even before). Actually the Noni bag may be a Noni bucket/bowl for my knitting/sewing room. I'm not seeing it as a purse right now.
