moonfrog

Last Saturday, World Wide Knit in Public Day,  found me at my LYS, sitting on the patio knitting and having fun. On Friday, I worked hard at home to get my chores done so I could spend the whole day knitting without guilt. There was a nice group of knitters there and sunshine replaced our cloudy skies for a change.

I worked on a baby sweater for a while, but mostly on a group project.  There was a fun trivia contest and drawings every hour. And I won a bundle of six knitting magazines. Yeah!  One of them even had the Heather Hoodie Vest that is in my queue, so I was quite happy with that. I hope to make it this year sometime. A bulky knit would be an interesting change.

While waiting for escrow to close on our house –it has been four months! — I have continued knitting to calm my nerves. It’s worked great and the waiting is almost over. We signed papers yesterday!  I can’t think of anything that will hold up the process now *fingers and toes crossed* so we should get the keys to our new place on Monday. Then begins the long process of rebuilding the interior where the kitchen was torn out.

Fortunately, we will be gone for the weekend, working at the Kate Wolf Music Festival. It will make the wait easier. The music line-up looks great this year, even though the the Neville Bros. canceled, Little Feat will take their place. I’m looking forward to seeing Greg Brown who is one of my favorites and hasn’t been there for a couple years. The Waifs are also returning and we loved them a few years back when they were just getting their start.  (Artist bios can be found on the artist lineup link for the festival.)

Here’s the latest result of my overdrive on knitting. This is the Simple Summer Tweed Top Down V-Neck.  I used Plymouth Yarn Kudo color #145 which is a cotton/rayon blend and very soft in spite of its rustic look. It feels good next to the skin. It took just 6 skeins.

I made the sleeves and length slightly shorter than usual since I want this as a summer top. I also did a 1×1 ribbing on the edges instead of doing rolled edges. The yarn is just too bulky for that.

I know I will get a lot of wear out of this top. It fits great. I still don’t know how I’m managing to get such good fit in my recent knits, but it is making me feel good about working on bigger projects.

As soon as this sweater was finished, I picked up the triangle scarf I’ve been avoiding. I knit a bit, ripped a bit, which is the way this scarf has been going all along. Finally, I am on a roll with it — forward progress all the way. I’m hoping it will move on to completion next so I can cast on something new. Well, something new besides a baby sweater. What is it with me and baby knits?  I just never have gotten excited about them.  I’ve heard that they are so quick and satisfying that they are a favored project with some people. Maybe that will happen later, but right now I’m tending to avoid it by knitting a stalled WIP.  No matter. I’m making progress.

In fact, I’m in a bit of a frenzy to keep this knitting streak going.  Soon, very soon, the fiber play will be set aside for other important tasks.  Not only will we be fixing up our new house and sorting and moving all our junk (I’m determined it won’t be all our junk) but we will be helping Mom move once again.  She moved to her “new” house a year ago, but is moving yet again in a few weeks. She will be happier not living in the house where Dad passed on, and she has found a lovely house across town.  I foresee a huge lull in my knitting!  In the meantime, I’ll get back to my scarf and baby sweater — and a nice trip out of town for the weekend!

My knitting schedule has been fairly well planned lately. I have goals and challenges to meet! Yes, I slip in an occasional hat or small project, but my main works are carefully considered. So, what a surprise for me when I received some yarn and knit it up before it even reached my stash.

Here’s how it all started: Over Memorial Day weekend The Dizzy Sheep had a spin-off, where a yarn bargain is put up hourly, or when something sells out. This is a special version of their daily deal. As a fun part of the spin-off, there’s a grab bag called a Bag of Knit. These sell out in a matter of a couple of minutes, so I was pleased when the opportunity to purchase one came up late at night and I snagged not one, but three of them. It was also my birthday weekend, so I was quite in the mood to treat myself. Happy birthday to me!!

Well, mine were full of goodies when they arrived. One had a single ball of Gedifra Byzanz that went straight to the stash, another one had a gorgeous Lantern Moon project bag, plus a ball of Milli Colori that I’ve been wanting to try.  The last one had five balls of Lana Grossa Cento bulky yarn.

I was so excited to receive a quantity that would make a substantial project that I hit the pattern archives immediately. I wanted something that I could donate to a fundraiser — so one size fits all. I found just the right shawl pattern, with enough yarn to make a shortened version. The package arrived Saturday afternoon and I cast on  La La’s Simple Shawl that evening. By Sunday night the yarn ran out and Monday morning found it on the blocking board. It’s lovely soft and cozy!

Several things made this knit happen. First off was the fun of the spin-off and receiving surprises in the mail. Second was maybe just a bit of middle-of-a-big-project boredom, brought on by inch upon inch of stockinette in the round. Third was probably a bit of nervousness about being in never-ending escrow on our house, so I really must keep my hands and mind busy. (“Our” house?  Almost!  Hope has turned to expectation in spite of all the waiting.)

And contrary to my fear of leaving one knit like a lover scorned — never to return to it –  I did indeed go right back to working on my Kudo V-neck pullover. It now has an entire body and the sleeves are on the way. A little neckline ribbing and it will be done.

I’m getting lots of practice at new things, especially at sticking to larger projects! I know that we all go through phases when we are not real enthused about our knitting or other crafts, and then there are the all-out, totally committed times that come along. I’m riding this wave to the end!  Happy knitting, indeed.

Last weekend found me, once again, in class. This time it was an Inkle Weaving class. In April at CNCH, many of my fellow guild members were weaving bands on their very portable inkle looms. My hotel roomie, Connie,  even bought a new full-size inkle loom while we were there. You can see it here next to her Ashford Inklette.

So, when Connie was scheduled to teach Inkle Weaving at NorthCoast Knittery, I signed up to learn. The price of the class included an Inklette loom, and earlier I had bought a wider model off eBay so I could make scarves and other projects on it.  For the class, I used the smaller loom and made a cute band. It was a super fun class, and easy, too. I was really surprised to finish my band during the class.

I really want to use my new little band, and I wanted to try warping my bigger Inkle Loom, which Connie had figured out for me during our class. So, here’s a pic of my little band and my big band, which will be sewn together for a bag for my shuttles.

I was going to make the warp wider and didn’t, so the pattern is offset, but it will work for the intended purpose. I’m really enjoying seeing the pattern emerge, which is the same on both bands. I had some plain cotton  for the big band and the small band is done in mercerized cotton, so it has a sheen the the bigger one doesn’t. It’s amazing how well they match, though. I was really pleased with that.

In spite of this detour, I’m making good progress on my raglan sweater. It’s at the waist decreases right now. I’ve tried it on twice to make sure the fit is right, and I’ve found a great way to make the trials quick and easy.

When I reach the try-on point, I switch to knitting off to one of my old Denise needles with an extra-long cord created by using the extensions. This could be done with either Knitpicks or Addi Clicks needles by using an extension to add more cable length. The plus with using the Denise cables is that the cords are thicker but pliable, and there are caps to put on the ends so that no stitches fall off. My knitting seems very secure.  I’ve even put the raglan sleeves on Denise cords to hold them and will just pop on the needles when it is time to knit them. The wide variety of cord sizes in the Denise set make custom cord lengths possible.

All this makes me feel better that I don’t use the Denise needles much anymore. They still have a purpose. It’s also way easier than putting all those stitches on waste yarn or holders and then having to move them back to needles.

Although I’m happy with this sweater and enjoying the process, the color pattern is so far outside my usual that it is hard for me to adjust to it. Sometimes I like it, sometimes I’m not quite sure.  I remember that my beige Hey, Teach! sweater was borderline for me, too, but ended up being just fine.  I’m hoping this one will be like that.

I’ve always known that knitting relaxes me; this weekend reaffirmed that for me. For the past three months, we have been trying to buy a house. I’ve tried to keep it in the maybe category so I won’t be disappointed if it doesn’t happen, but for three weeks we’ve been told not to leave town, we’ll be signing the papers any day.

Last Wednesday a major glitch came up and it didn’t look good. I went straight to my chair and started knitting. Another phone call on Thursday sent me to my chair to knit. For some reason, I saw myself very clearly, as if standing outside my body.  I picked up my knitting and the tension melted away. It made me smile to see this effect knitting has on my frayed nerves. It happened again Friday, then I settled down and let it go. (We still are waiting for the glitch to be resolved.)

I’m glad my knitting calms me, even when my project isn’t working out as well as I’d like. The knitting I was working on was a rip and re-knit. I had finished the entire back of the Scoop Neck Cardigan and realized that the pattern will not work without rewriting which is beyond me right now. The sizing does not go large enough for me, so I was adding extra rows. It was not going to work with the side-to-side construction.

So I chose another design, this time a simple v-neck raglan. This means the stripes will go horizontally, but I’m all right with that. I’m ripping out the previously knit back and knitting directly to the new raglan shoulders. There’s only an inch of back left to undo now. I’m happy with how this new incarnation is moving right along and like how it looks.

Today I am setting aside my knitting to clean my house. An unfortunate side effect of the renewed knitting enthusiasm is that other things are being sorely neglected.

Another thing that holds my interest these days is my porch garden. All my plants are growing great, in spite of our cool, wet weather.

I have Mexican Sage Bush, Johnny Jump Ups, dahlias and lots of over-crowded snapdragons that aren’t blooming yet. A friend gave me poppies, herbs, and foxgloves. My rosemary plant is bushy and smells great. I’m even growing tomatoes just for fun — our climate is not good for tomatoes. I love having my plants all on the porch, and the other yardwork has been diverted into the neglected category with the housecleaning.

Some of this diversion is the waiting . . .  waiting to put plants in the ground at the new house, waiting to clean house until the packing commences. So many things seem to be on hold, although in reality, they shouldn’t be.  My knitting helps with the waiting, though, so that is what I turn to lately. And that’s not a bad thing.