Weekend Knitting

This weekend was the Illinois state tumbling meet for my boys (technically, this was only for the southern part of the state--the northern has a separate meet). The meet was in a suburb of St. Louis, just on our side of the IL/MO line. So I had 3 hours of car time each way, plus a fair amount of time to knit by the pool while the boys swam.

The result? Lots 'o knitting time!

And so, I made great progress on the Mermaid Sock. I took it to the tumbling meet, thinking I might had a few moments between events to add a stitch or two. And I did pull it out of the bag once. But we had shoved the boys' street clothes in there when they peeled down to their uniforms, so the bag was stuffed full. And, you guessed it, when I pulled the sock out, it was minus a needle. Minus 2 needles, if you count the free needle. So I had all these freed loops and errant YOs hanging out all over the place, plus some areas where the stitches had run back a round or two. I wish I had a picture to show you, but I didn't think of it until I already had it fixed. And believe me, I wasn't going to pull it off again just for a photo shoot! It was quite heartbreaking. If this was simple stockinette, or even some knit/purl combo, I would have been able to rescue it quite easily. But this fishtail stitch has strategically placed YOs and K2togs. I had no clue how to get these babies back on the needle correctly.

So after much thinking, when I got back to the hotel room I had decided to tink back to where everything was right. And by the time I had finally figured out how to handle it, I had found the 5th needle, so I was back in business! As you can see to the left, all is now well, and you may rest easy that I have the Mermaid Sock under control once again. Whew.

Well, under control unless you count the way the Regia Mini Ringel coils itself up like it's doing some complicated yoga position I've never been flexible to achieve. Most yarn does this to me to some degree. I think it has something to do with the way I knit. I'm guessing my method puts extra twist on the yarn. But some yarns twist up worse than others, and the Mini Ringel is at least a 9 on the twisting charts. So far I've just put up with it, but soon I'll have to start hanging the sock an letting it spin the twist out. Grr, I hate that.

So anyway, after I fixed the needle-losing disaster, I knit another 1 1/2" or so as I watched my kidlets swim, pausing occasionally to throw their alligator toy back in, then decided to wait until I got my Sockapalooza match to go any farther. I was afraid I would make a nice long cuff, only to find out that my sock pal loves blue wool, but wants an ankle sock. But today I got my Sockapalooza Top-Secret Assignment. My sockee left me wide open! She only listed one minor preference of general style, but no color or fiber restrictions at all. And, joy of joy, I think the Mermaid Sock fits the bill! So now I am free to plunge ahead on these beautiful socks.

I had a short twinge of guilt that I didn't wait to see who I was knitting for, then pick yarn and pattern especially for her, based on her preferences and personality. But now that I have all of her info, and have looked at her blog, I think this pattern and color are excellent for her. Whew, indeed!

After I put the sock aside, I picked up my backup travel project: sleeve #2 of Durrow. While I love to work simple cables, more complicated designs are a mental challenge for me. So the sleeves on this are not going too quickly. I think I completed around 6 or 7 rows, while working on it on and off during the trip home from the meet. Yeah, 7 rows on a 3 hour drive seems pretty sad, but I'm just glad to keep plugging away at this. Once the sleeves are done, the body is plain ribbing, so it will be much more mindless knitting.

I hope you can see the cable pattern in this picture. I lightened it a bit to let it show more, but it's looking pretty hard to see for me right now. Maybe clicking it to biggie-size it will show it better.

Oh, almost forgot to mention that I already got an email from the person who will be knitting socks for me! And from the email address, it looks like my socks might be coming from the UK! Or maybe it's a red herring? Either way, WOWZA!!!

Old FO Day

Well, since I don't have any new FO's to show, I thought once in a while I should pull out some old ones! This is a summer top I made maybe 3 years ago(?), from Cotton-Ease in Pistachio. The pattern was loosely based on #19 from Family Circle Easy Knitting, Fall 2002. I changed it to a different gauge, downsized it a bit (it was originally a plus-sized pattern, and also meant to have more ease than a summer top would), and shortened the sleeves. This was made in one piece, starting at the bottom of the back, working up and over the shoulders while adding the garter-stitch sleeves, raglan details, and the neck hole, then down the front. I wear it a lot, but I sometimes wish I had made it to fit a bit more snugly. If I did it again, I might make the sleeves even an inch or two shorter. But even as is, this is a great top.

I really like Cotton-Ease, and am thrilled it is back, with more grown-up colors. I actually have a pretty good stash of the old. There is enough blue to make a zip cardigan, and a few skeins each of some other colors, I believe. That cardi is on my list of things to do sometime soon.

I am so anxious to get my Sockapalooza 4 assignment! While I wait, I have pulled out this Regia Mini Ringel and my Cool Socks, Warm Feet book, and cast on. If my sockee doesn't like blue, or is allergic to wool, these will be mine! It was actually an experiment. I was not in the least confident that the stripe repeat would be long enough to really show off this pattern (Mermaid Socks). But I think it is working out very well! I love watching the stripe pattern develop as I knit. I also love that the fishtail stitch pattern produces what looks like a spiral rib, but with absolutely no purling! Doesn't it look fantastic?

We had a bit of a tragedy here today. Our family lives on an old farmstead, and although we do not farm, we love the old-fashioned lifestyle. So last summer we converted part of the old corn crib to be a chicken coop, and got some laying hens. We loved them so much that this spring we ordered some chicks from a hatchery, and even incubated a few of the eggs our hens had laid. When we got home from church today, my husband discovered that something had gotten the older, half-grown chicks--the ones from the hatchery. There had been 9, and only one was left. Here is the chief suspect:
The furry one, not the hooded one. The hooded one has an alibi. The furry one was home all morning, and had an extremely guilty look on her face.

We're so sad. Penny (the suspect's real identity) has been so good with our adult chickens that we tried letting these younger ones loose. But now we realize that they just weren't big and wily enough to handle any threat. Oh, well, I guess that's the circle of life.

Are you really sure it is April?

Wow, it has been cold the last few days! And this morning, this is what we woke up to:


It may be kind of hard to tell, but those white blobby things are snow. Not just any snow, but HUGE, GINORMOUS SNOWFLAKES! It was shocking, and amazing, and the boys and I all said, "I want to take a picture!" Be sure to click on it to embiggen it. You can see the snow much better that way.

The weather forecasters keep saying it is normal to have snow flurries in April once in a while, but I'm not sure it happens very often. I sure can't think of a time it did during MY lifetime!

OK, now I'd like to talk a little bit about this whole blogging business. I started blogging over a year ago, right before the last round of Sockapaloooza. I loved reading the blogs of the participants in the previous round, and didn't want to be one of those "blogless" sock knitters who couldn't share their progress with the world. I blogged on a free MSN account, and had a bear of a time uploading pictures. And I had NO readers. Sure, I got a few people checking me out from the Sockapaloooza list. But I wasn't doing a good job posting regularly. After a move to bloglines, and now here, in search of a blog that would let me add photos, I still have NO readers. I haven't posted much, knowing no one would read my words. And I suppose if anyone did happen onto my blog by a google search, or something, they wouldn't come back, because I seldom post. Vicious cycle.

Well, that's all over. Starting right now, I AM posting regularly, whether anyone reads it or not. But I hope they do. I'm guessing that there will again be a list of all Sockapalooza participants and their blogs. If so, I'm sure I'll get a handful of hits from that. And there will be something here for them to read. Something new every couple of days. And maybe I'll get some regular readers!

I'm not looking for blog-stardom. I don't have to have the fame of Norma, or Stephanie, or Cara. In fact, I think I'd rather not. But I'd love to know that I'm part of the community, not just as a blog-surfer, and have my voice heard, at least by some.

We'll see.....

SockPal Fun!!!!

Yes, that's right, it's Sockapalooza time again! Alison is kindly hosting Sockapalooza 4, and WOW, she has it set up great! Those of us who participated in #3 already had our info in the system, ready to be updated, so I had my sign up done in just a few minutes, without even having to measure my feet! (No, I'm pretty sure my feet haven't changed much in size since the last go-round!)


I watched during rounds 1 and 2, and was so excited to be a part of round 3. SO much fun! I had an excuse to experiment with Koolaid dyeing, and loved watching the coralish/pinkish yarn turn into beautiful cables for someone who I hoped would love them. And I got some fantastic Walking Away socks in lovely woodland colors, made just for me!


I can't wait for this round. I have some yarn and a pattern in mind if they end up fitting the preferences of my sockee, but I'm open to buying something special for her/him, too.

Bring it on!

Yes, I do still knit!

I actually finished the Kool Wool sweater, and have worn it quite a bit this winter. Sorry it took me so long to get a picture up!

I haven't been knitting all that much this winter. I occasionally work on Durrow for my husband. And I have a baby sock in Fixation in my purse, which gets a few stitches added once in a while. I never finshed the shrug, even though I only have one cuff left. I do hope to finish it in time to wear next winter. Oh, and I finished Square Play, it does fit over a white button-down, and I have gotten lots of wear out if it this past fall and winter. Picture to come, I promise! But I haven't been inspired to start any new special stuff, although I have yarn set aside for sweaters for both boys, which I really will want available next fall. And I don't spent large blocks of time knitting hardly ever anymore, except in the car on longish trips.

Instead of knitting, I have been doing more sewing. Sometime I'll share about how I recently got a "new-to-me" sewing machine (picture me doing the happy-dance!). But for now, suffice it so say that I've made one purse, and the skirt in the picture above. It's a trumpet skirt, and it fits me great! It was so cold on Easter, that the outfit above is vaguely what I wore to church on Easter (different T-shirt, and warmer shoes). But I had to wear my great new sandals for the pic--I was pretty disappointed it was too cold to wear them on Sunday!

Oh, okay, you convinced me! Here's a close-up of the shoes!