Blocking

Today I was supposed to be taking a bike ride down to Plymouth, unfortunately my stomach had some issues and I felt that a bike ride that long would be unwise. Instead of biking I stayed home and knit. On Thursday night I managed to finish the second sleeve of Twisted Float. How did I do this since I had run out of yarn? I frogged some, but not all, of the body. First I removed all of the boucle, then I started to knit the sleeve using the multi color yarn as I frogged it from the body. When the sleeve was done I had a decision to make, I could either add boucle where I was, which meant that there the body would end with a large garter stitch section, or I could pull out a garter stitch section and knit another twisted float section (the pattern alternates garter stitch rows and rows that create the twisted floats). The second plan would give the body an edging similar to that on the sleeves, but would be a pain in the ass. I decided to follow plan b. I was using 2 circular needles, but didn't know how you are supposed to properly knit with 2 circs, so I did it wrong. I realized my problem as I was putting too many stitches onto one of the circs. To correct that problem I decided to start the next row and knit 2 rows at the same time, this actually made doing the twisted floats a bit easier. Now I am blocking the shrug. I will give you better photos when the blocking is done.

Isis says hi!

No Knitting Pix

I had to go to court first thing this morning, so I have no knitting photographs to share with you. Instead of knitting content, I am going to ask for money from you. In October, I will be participating in the New York City MS Ride. I plan on biking about 60 miles and need to do a little fundraising. I would like your help, if you are willing and able, and ask that you help me raise money to help find a cure for Multiple Sclerosis.

You can make a donation by clicking here.

Thank you.

All Cowl, All The Time

Life around here has been C-R-A-Z-Y. Have you ever had so much to do and so little time to do it in that it actually made your hair hurt and your stomach churn? My professors assign a lot of homework, and then, in addition to that, it takes me a particularly long time to do it. I try to balance each day between school, homework, and relaxing time and it gets really difficult when the work portion gets so demanding that the relaxation time begins to disappear. I'm trying not to let it happen at any cost, even if it means something doesn't get done perfectly. We'll see how it goes.

The good news is that I picked up my cowl stitches. I used a row gauge/stitch gauge-type formula and it seemd to work out well. I won't really know for sure until it's all finished and I can see how the cowl neck lies. Of course, at that point it will be too late. But, I don't see any puckering or pulling, so I guess that means the stitches were picked up fairly evenly. My goal for the end of today is to have 20 rounds done. At this point, I have 6 done. I figure, while I'm studying, I can sneak in a round or two here and there and make some real progress. I have to do 54 rows in total before we can call it done. Then, weave in the ends, give it a good washing, lay it out to dry, and abracadabra - a finshed Somewhat Cowl. Can't wait! Cuz then, I get to start on the Hourglass Sweater. I have some modifications to make to that pattern, including the neckline, that I found out about on the knitalong, but more on that later.

One of the things I try to do about 5 times per week is take a stroll around my neighborhood to do a little stress-busting and to enjoy the great outdoors. The houses in my neighborhood are pretty old by San Diego standards, built in the 1920's, and they have tons of character. In general, the owners take amazing care of them and put in really great flowers and shrubs in the front yard. Here are a couple of the gems I saw yesterday.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

What you see in the fuzzy picture is my Twisted Float Shrug and the last of my multi-colored yarn. While I am tempted to throw in the towel, I do have a plan...

I wanted to return the Jo Sharp DK Wool that I ended up not using for my vest (minus one skein for swatching) as soon as possible so it wouldn't just be sitting around my house reminding me of my fickleness. I drove up to Alpine yesterday to browse around Lori's Frames, Fibers and Frills to see if they had anything that piqued my interest. Naturally, I was immediately drawn to the tweed section of the shop and settled on Jo Sharp Silkroad Tweed DK in this amazing color - kind of purply periwinkly with flecks of black and grey. I thought it would be perfect for my hourglass sweater because it's soft enough to wear against the skin. Since the store didn't have the book, Last Minute Knitted Gifts, I had to go from memory for yarn requirements, but I checked when I got home and I'm good. I obviously want to cast on immediately, but I'll try to be patient.

Toward that end, I continued work on my Somewhat Cowl yesterday after casting it aside for several days. Bristow is starting to drive me crazy so I needed a break. I finished the sleeve I had started several days ago, and my next task is to take the other sleeve's stitches off of the scrap yarn they're on and start knitting on it. I really don't feel like working on this sweater anymore - I want it to be done! Especially considering that the cowl is going to have 54 rows! But, I really want to wear the sweater, so I guess I know what I have to do.

By the way, I don't think I ever showed you my Cash Iroha when it came in. I haven't really decided on a project - it was originally going to be my hourglass sweater, but I spied someone else's hourglass in tweed and knew it had to be that way. So, right now, it has the potential to be anything. I like dreaming of all of the things I can make with it.

We had our second class for the Eunny vest on Saturday, and we basically spent the entire time reworking the pattern because almost everyone's gauge was off, both row and stitch. I'm glad we took the time to do this, because I've heard a lot about sizing issues on this vest from blogs and knitalongs. It appears that the gauge that Eunny got is a little difficult to actually obtain. When I got home, I started my ribbing and I'm about three rows from finishing that. I had to go up a size due to gauge issues, so I have 228 stitches on the needle - ugh!

Big News

TGIF!! After a long week, I'm so glad that Friday is finally here. Although I normally have work up in Sorrento Valley on Fridays, today I don't, so I'm going to relax a little, do some homework, run some errands, and do a little (make that a lot) of knitting. Yay!

Where was everybody at the Knit Salon last night? I decided to pop in around 8:30 and no one was there. There were about two people still hanging around, but everybody else had left. Talk about disappointment! Susan was getting ready to close up for the night, so I briefly leafed through the newest Rebecca, asked about the status of my yarn order, and left without having knit a single row. Sniff, sniff.

Speaking of my yarn order, I've decided to change the colors of my Eunny vest. Originally, I was looking at doing these colors because it allowed me to use some stash yarn:

But I've been craving earth tones lately - espresso brown, specifically (my mother tells it's the new black). I also couldn't get over the notion that I was knitting a college sweater. I'm sure in the end it would have been fine, but every time I picked the project up, I just wasn't feeling it, you know? So, on Saturday, I asked Susan to place an order of Nature Spun worsted in Roasted Coffee and Latte. Being the coffee freak that I am, I think I'll call this sweater Buzz from here on out.

Knowing that getting my swatch done in time would be a problem, Dis VERY generously unravelled a few yards from the skeins of Nature Spun using for a scarf so that I could knit my very own Harry Potter swatch:

I didn't have enough to do a magic loop swatch, so I used a different method but I think I kept everything too tight because I was afraid I didn't have enough yarn so everything turned out too tight. I'm going to take a chance that this is an anomoly and go with this needle size anyway. We'll see. Oddly enough, my Nature Spun Worsted swatch created a MUCH thinner fabric than my Jo Sharp DK Wool swatch. That' s a relief to me as I was wondering how I was going to wear such a thick thing in San Diego - ever.

Here's the thing, though. My yarn hasn't come in yet, as of last night. Susan is certain it will come in before Saturday, since she impressed upon them how very important it was that it be here by the class date. Again, thanks to Dis, the lifesaver, my swatch is done, so I'll be ready even if it comes in today. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Now for the big news! I heard on my Cotton-Ease email list that Lion Brand is bringing back Cotton-Ease in a few months with a whole new color pallette. Isn't that awesome news? I'm imagining a whole range of earthtones, jewel tones and subtle blues, purples, reds, etc. I hope I'm right.

Photos or No Photos

That tis the question. Will blogger allow me to post photos of the body of my Twisted Float Shrug (which has a sleeve now) and of my cabled socks? Who knows. Blogger decided that I did not deserve to post photos on Wednesday, so I chose to cut off my nose to spite my face and not post at all. Since taking these pictures I have also finished a pair of vesper socks (wow, blogger let me post a photo!), which leads me to a question. How many hand knit socks are enough? If you have been reading our blog over the summer you may have noticed that while K has been creating lovely summer sweaters one after another, I have been on a sock binge. I am now down to only one half finished pair of socks and only some brown opal sock yarn in stash (I may try making Eunny's new twisted cable sock with this) so I am now wondering, do I have enough socks?

Old FO

I finished this tank a few weeks ago, but never got around to wearing it. I finally decided to wear it to school on Monday, so I shot a few quick photos of it.

Stats:

Pattern: Amelie from Jaeger 39

Yarn: Kona Bay Cotton

Size: My own - 38" bust. I had to create a size in between two sizes.

Needles: Size 7 Addi Naturals for the body and Size 3 (or was it 4?) Addi Turbos for the lace edging

Modifications: Quite a few. First, I made up my own size, something that gave me 3 inches of negative ease around the bust and then I put in short rows based upon the formula in Big Girl Knits. I also knit it in the round, which it wasn't written for.

Lessons Learned: The body of the sweater fits me quite well, including across the shoulders, where I frequently have trouble. This sweater was sort of an experiment to see how well the short row shaping works for me when I make a smaller size, and I'd have to say it works well. When possible, I will definitely do this in the future. However, my row gauge was really off on this project, which caused me headaches in terms of strap length. After I wore the sweater for a while, the straps stretched out (as did the rest of the sweater, I might add). I've had this problem before, where my straps are already too long before I've finished decreasing. So, for my current project, Bristow, I'm recalculating the pattern for row gauge to see how it turns out. Also, I used a formula of a row gauge/stitch gauge to decide how to attach the lace edging at the bottom and it ended up working out well, and the edging looks fairly seamless.

Overall thoughts on the pattern: I thought this pattern, like many British patterns, was unnecessarily confusing when it came to shaping. I think each strap came out differently because I interpreted their rather vague instructions differently each time.

Here's a shot of the detail of the back. I had to stand on a stool to take the photo, and no one was home to tell me that it was all rumpled across the back, but at least you can see the neckline.

Weekend Wrap-Up

I did a fair bit of knitting this weekend, most of it at Rebecca's on Saturday. I managed to finish the back of Bristow, which involved knitting straight stockinette for about 7 inches - perfect for a knitting get-together. I also did some more on Somewhat Cowl, finishing the ribbing on the body and casting it off. When I got home, I did the short row shaping on one sleeve and 2 out of 3 inches on the ribbing. I still have one more sleeve to go and then the cowl, which is about 200 stitches of 2 x 2 ribbing for 6 inches. Yikes!

Last night, I cast on for the left front of Bristow, which I'm enjoying working on a lot. I just finished the waist shaping portion, and now I have to knit a few even rows before I start the armhole shaping. I've got the pattern memorized now, so it should go even faster. I really like the way this is turning out so far, although it's going to be a VERY warm sweater. In fact, the designer made the arms really big so it would be easy to layer stuff underneath, but since I will definitely never be doing that, I'm going to reduce the size of the arms by about 2 inches at their widest point. This will mean a redesign of the sleeve cap for which I'll consult The Girl From Auntie's article in knitty.

I also thought about another project that I've been meaning to try. I got really fired up about it last night, so I'll probably be starting on this soon. I'd like you meet my favorite store-bought sweater:

It's sort of a plain wool pullover with deep ribbing on the body and sleeves and a crew neck. It's always been a very flattering sweater because the ribbing causes it to draw in around the waist and create a flattering line. This sweater is from J. Crew and isn't made out of the softest yarn. In fact, it feels very rough against my skin. It's also been loved to death, being worn and dry cleaned so much that's it's felting and last night, I noticed a hole where the neckline joins to the body. SO, I'd like to see if I can copy this sweater. Last night, I used my gauge checker to determine that it's knit with sportweight yarn, 6 sts/in and it looks like they went down one needle size for the ribbing, where they are getting 7 sts/in. I think Nature Spun sport would be one good choice for this. Also, the sportweight wool that elann recently got in would also be lovely. I'm going to get started on this project in the next couple of weeks in the hope of trying to immortalize this winter staple. I'll keep ya posted.

Knitting Angel

I'm one of these people who's really faithful to a project. When I start something, I always finish it. Even though I'm tempted, I never start something new unless I've completely finished the project I'm working on already. On Wednesday, I said that before I start Bristow, I would finish Somewhat Cowl, and being the virtuous knitter that I am, I knitted faithfully along on Cowl. I was indeed tempted by the tantalizing "newness" of Bristow, but I used the willpower granted to me by a higher power and resisted it After all, I am NOT a knitting ho!






What a good girl I am...













...a virtual saint, really...

Whoops! Did you see that? Somebody went and knitted a good healthy portion of the back of Bristow with my yarn! It's an outrage! Alert the media!! Call the police!!!

Yep, that little knitting tramp was me ;) Not even a stitch on Cowl since Wednesday. Fickle, no? I'm sure that those of you who know me read the beginning of this post and thought, "What the f*%k? Is this J's post or something?" Don't worry, I'm still the project slut you all know.

Danger Will Robinson!

Remember this lump?
This is my VK twisted float shrug where each row is currently over 500 stitches. All 500+ stitches are on my 24" size 8 Addi natural circular needles. The stitches don't all fit, at least not well. Rather than buying another set of size 8 Addi natural circular needles with a longer cord, I have chosen to use my dpns in addition to my circular needles. Something tells me that this can't be a good idea. This lump has another, even bigger problem, despite thinking that I had gotten gauge with my size 8 needles, the circle is already a bit bigger than it should be, and I am supposed to continue increasing and do a couple more twisted float rows before putting on the boucle yarn. I decided not to do that though. I decided that I have had ENOUGH of twisted floats and I am choosing to add my boucle now and to shorten the edging. Wish me luck. Another problem with this d*nmed thing, I have only little more one more skein of each of my 2 body colors left to make 2 sleeves. Will this be possible? I don't know. If it isn't possible, Twisted Float will never be done. EVER.

Here is my finished Ripple Weave sock #1. Overall I am pretty happy with the sock. I am glad to have a break before doing the second one since I tore it out a couple of times, but I think they will be a great pair when done. Another bit of good news, the cabled sock I showed in my last post is having it's toe created now, so I should have a UFO turned into an FO by the end of the night.

Project Lust

After a wait of about 2 weeks, I think, my Karabella 8 yarn from Flying Fingers finally arrived yesterday. Until yesterday, I had no particular project in mind for it. I was pretty sure I wanted a cardigan, but that's due as much to the weather here in Southern California as anything else. A wool cardigan is immensely useful, a pullover...not so much. They usually just end up sitting in your closet waiting for the one cold snap we get every year.

The planets aligned yesterday while I perused the knitty forum. Someone had posted a link to photos of their completed Bristow, a pattern I'd always liked, but somehow it hadn't made it to my "must knit" list. It all came together when I saw the photos and I knew I had found the right pattern for my yarn. A fitted aran cardigan was exactly the right thing and I have just enough yarn to make the size I want.

Here's my yarn:

The color is reasonably accurate, although it's not quite that bright. It's kind of a dark and gloomy morning, so my flash has over-compensated. As can be expected, I am REALLY anxious to cast on. I may cast on before I finish Somewhat Cowl because I don't think I'll run the risk of not finishing Cowl. I'm having some guilt issues with doing that, though.

Speaking of Somewhat Cowl, it is moving along, despite me not having a lot of time to knit this week. I'm about 1 1/2 inches into the ribbing at the bottom. Soon, I'll start the short row shaping on the sleeves. Yay!

I also managed to mail out the prize to our blog contest winner. So, enjoy!

Fall

It is that time of year again. The temperature drops and knitting takes on a new urgency. Finally, all the socks worked on during the summer can be worn. In fact, I wore a pair of hand knit socks yesterday (Baudelaire) and am wearing another pair today (my red socks). Suddenly UFOs are seeming more attractive again. For instance, last night I wanted to work on my Twisted Float Shrug, unfortunately, the pattern is here, in my office (isn't that were knitting patterns belong). Since I couldn't work on Twisted Float I did this:
What you see is the start of the second half of the colorwork for my Season of Darkness Winter of Lights sweater. I haven't gotten very far on the second half, but since starting the second half means that I finished the first half I am very happy. I want to have this done before the holidays, and it looks like that will be possible. Yay!.

Since I am actually wearing the socks I have been making, I decided to resurrect a UFO older than the Twisted Float Shrug. I have resumed work on my Shelridge Farms cabled socks. I already have one done and stopped after finishing the gusset decrease on the second sock. What this sock confirms for me is that I really don't like using DPNs, I find that they are cumbersome and clumsy. I expect that this will be my last sock knit using DPNs, which is sort of a shame since I bought Brittany size 2 DPNs (5 inches) and am only using them for less than 1/2 of a sock.

Finally, I signed up for the Knitter's Tea Swap, this will be the first swap that I participate in. It seemed like the perfect swap for me. Only 1 package (I am lousy at getting to the post office, I still have the baby blanket I finished months ago sitting in my office waiting for me to walk next door so that I can mail it to my Aunt and her partner) you swap only 1-2 skeins of yarn and tea. I love tea, so I am looking forward to this.

Fun-Filled Weekend

I had one of those really busy weekends where you feel like it was just Friday afternoon about 10 minutes ago. I actually really needed to get my act together and take care of a lot of domestic, school and errand -tye stuff, but instead, I just had a bunch of fun. I'll end up paying for it this week, believe me.

On Friday night, I went clothes shopping for several hours because my husband wasn't home. I figured it was the perfect opportunity and a good way to spend my evening alone. Although I initially struck out at about 7 or 8 stores, I finally found a bunch of great things, so I'm really excited to wear them this week.

On Saturday, I had my Eunny Vest class with knitting guru Dave Kraft. The class attendees were the usual suspects, and a great group of gals to take a knitting class with. It was Cora, Jen, Allison, Margaret and a new woman who was forced to enter our crazy but cozy little world and seemed to fit in right away. All week last week I was worred that I had completely forgotten how to do fair isle knitting and that I would be the class loser. In the end, it came back to me fairly quickly, although I still need a lot of practice to get it looking good. This is my color combo. The grey isn't nearly that blue, though. I'm not 100% convinced I'm happy with my color combo. I'm wondering if blue might be better instead of burgundy. After half of my swatch was done, I started to realize that my floats were horribly tight and causing the colorwork to pucker, so I loosened up and it got a lot better. Once I loosened up, I also got gauge!

On Saturday night I went out to dinner with my parents and my husband to celebrate my scholarship. We went to the Palm in the Gaslamp District of downtown San Diego,which was a lot of fun since I hardly ever make it down there. My goodness, things have changed there. So sophisticated! I hardly recognized the place. There was a Starbucks on a corner (I think 10th and Market, or something like that) where just three years ago or so, it was such a bad part of town, you wouldn't want to walk through.

I didn't do a lot of knitting this weekend, but I did make miniscule progress on Somewhat Cowl. At this point I'm about 5 rounds from starting the ribbing, which will go on for about 3 inches. Then, it's on to finish the sleeves and add the cowl. There's still quite a bit to do, but the end is at least in sight at this point. Although our weather has been positively beautiful, lovely and heavenly, it's still not cool enough for a wool sweater, so there's no rush with this one. With all of the homework that I have to do this week, though, I doubt I'll get very far with it, though.

On Sunday, I did more shopping, this time with Cora. I hit the same mall I hit on Friday night and I bought MORE stuff. I decided last week that my wardrobe needed a serious renovation, hence the shopping. I even bought some makeup and nail polish in an attempt to rejuvenate the beauty routine. I may even begin doing a regular brow and lip wax thing, too. I know...BIG changes. You just get tired of looking like a college student after a while.

Sunday night was dinner with my brother and sister-in-law and my adorable neice Savannah, who has taken to growling. I think she learned it from my husband who growls at her like a bear. It's really quite adorable.

What all this clothes shopping means, though, is that I didn't buy ANY yarn. Wow!

Now, since I did not get all of those boring life and work things done this weekend, it's down to business for me. I also didn't get a chance to mail out the package to our contest winner, but I have the envelope ready and have located the yarn in my stash. Now, it's just a matter of finding time to get to the post office.

Procrastination & rambling

My middle name, Procrastination, warning this post rambles and might not make much sense. It is Saturday and I am still working on my brief, very little work got done on it on Thursday. I promised to get a draft of the brief to my partners before I go to bed tonight. I have dumped out my thoughts onto the computer, now I am going through the process of adding my citations and trying to make what I dumped sound legal, and understandable. Unfortunately, I am at the point that I am looking for distractions, any distraction. Also, it is a beautiful day outside, far too nice to be sitting in front of a computer terminal typing useless words. That reminds me, I have to go back onto Lexis to get a citation.

Oh, I tore out most of the ripple weave sock and am in the process of turning the heel again. Hopefully it will fit this time.

Things and Stuff

To start this post with a past due photo, before leaving on vacation I finished my Hedera socks made with Mama-E sock yarn. I am wearing them right now with my suit (a lovely addition to the conservative black pin stripe skirt suit).

My post vacation calm quickly deserted me and the stresses of everyday life returned with full force yesterday. I have less than 6 days to draft and finalize an appellate brief (which I have never done before) I have a court appearance this afternoon, and there is also firm management stuff that is rearing its ugly head. At least there is still knitting, right? Not quite. Last night I managed to finish the first Ripple Weave Sock from the current VS (in my last post I referred to this sock as the Wave sock from VK, apparently I can't read). This sock is made with Claudia's Handpainted Merino sock wool which I bought in Maryland. It doesn't look bad does it? Shouldn't be any stress there, right? Wrong. I made the foot too long and my heel turns about half-way up my actual heel. This means that I will be frogging the sock almost back to its starting point.

ARRRRRGGGH! I really don't feel like frogging this back, but I guess I need to.

On another note, I have now been living in Massachusetts for 10 years. I don't know where that time has gone. The Big Dig was under construction (had had been for years) when I moved here, and it is still not complete now. It was possible to get tickets to Red Sox games when I first came here, even a short time before the game, now several great seasons and one World Series Championship latter, they are next to impossible to get last minute unless you are willing to pay serious money.

One year ago my kitty, Isis came into my life, for this I am very thankful, though I am not good at disciplining her. She is just too cute, I know that I should have stopped her before she was crawling up curtain here, but it was too funny watching her try to hunt something that didn't exist.

Finally, here is a picture of one of the trails that I went on in Acadia. The trail goes up along the edge of the mountain/rock. If you enlarge the picture, you can see some little people on the mountain, this is the trail. Seeing the people near the edge gave me pause, but really the trail was pretty tame.

It is about 15 past nine and I already feel like running away

Come September

Every year at this time, I enter a funk. It's as inevitable as death and taxes and you can set your calendar by it. It starts promptly on September 1 and doesn't go away until Halloween. For 10 months of the year, I think San Diego is the absolute best place on earth to live. It's got everything - beautiful scenery, a casual, laid back attitude, great restaurants, ocean, mountains, sun, snow, whatever you want, it's here.

Well, not everything. There's one big void and, unfortunately, it's one of my favorite things in the world. San Diego just happens to be missing an entire season - autumn. When I lived in Boston, I used to love taking walks on crisp fall days, breathing the sharply scented air and taking in the hues of red, yellow and orange leaves as they turned on the trees and lay on the ground. In San Diego, this time of year is marked with extremely hot, dry weather, blinding sunshine, dead, brown foliage and forest fires. It's not our best time of year to say the least. This year, instead of being dry, it's instead quite humid, as indicated by the slick layer of perspiration that clung to my clammy skin all day today and my desire to take several showers during the day to wash the funk that followed me around like Pigpen. That hasn't stopped the temperature from being in the mid-90s and higher, however. I remember when I was a child, I would buy new school clothes in July and have to wait until...wait for it...November before I could wear them! The odd thing is that, starting in November, our weather turns chilly almost overnight. But until then, it's quite miserable. I remember one year, on October 12, it was 99 degrees! Oy vay! No hay rides or apple picking here. Just fond memories of the years I spent in New England. If I can resist the urge to pack my crap and move for the next two months, everything will be fine.

On a happier note, here's my progress on Somewhat Cowl. I finally joined it into the round. I'm making several alterations that I'll get into once it's finished. You may notice that I've decided to move the cowl neckline up a little bit from where Knit and Tonic had it. I'd love to be able to wear this without having to wear a camisole underneath. If it doesn't work out that way, I'll be OK with it, but that's the goal. So far, I really like the fit. I've added short rows to the bust area, and though it still pulls a little, that's OK. There's no way to avoid that. it fits really well under the arms and through the shoulders, which is a total victory for me. And it only took like 30 sweaters to get one that fits!

In closing, here's a picture of Savannah enjoying a weekend swim at my parents' condo. She LOVES the pool, just like a true California girl should. Her hair is coming in strawberry blonde at this point, which will hopefully hold when she's an adult.

Vacation Wrap Up.

I have just returned from 5 nights camping near Acadia National Park in Maine. Like the ditz that I am, I left the camera card which had most of my photographs at home. I spent my time up there hiking, with a little biking thrown in for good measure. I have learned a few things:
1) I may be crazy, I repeatedly chose to go on hiking trails that involved me being on the edge of cliffs, hoisting myself over rock piles, using iron rungs or ladders to get up over rocks (I don't like ladders), and generally scaring the crap out of myself at least 1 time per day;
2) You definitely can smell fear;
3) Panting from panic sounds similar to, but not the same as panting from exertion;
4) It is easier, and less frightening, to go up a steep slope than it is to go down it;
5) If you can stop and take a picture to show how scary the trail you are on is, it isn't scary.
6) I can do a lot more than I think I can.

Over 4 days I hiked approximately 27 miles, including climbing several (8 maybe?) mountains (though the highest one was only 1530 feet, and many were under 1000 feet), I biked about 24 miles, riding to the top of Cadillac Mountain. I took a ton of pictures, and so will probably post more eventually. I now have a monster blister on my right big toe, but so far it isn't really bothering me.

I also did some knitting. I started the wavy socks from the current issue of VK using the Claudia's Handpainted yarn that I bought in Maryland. I haven't taken a photo yet, but will post one soon.

Ladies and Gentlemen...

...we have a winner! Drumroll please. It's:

It's Miss88keys, author of the blog, Guilty Pleasures. To claim your prize, please email me at thepurlygate@gmail.com and give me your address, and I'll send out your yarn early next week. Congrats and thanks for reading! Thanks to everyone who commented - I love hearing from everybody and seeing where people are living.

Last night, I attended the Stitch n Pitch event for San Diego. It was a baseball game between the San Diego Padres and the Cincinnati Reds, which the Pads won 7-1 (yay!). Since the Padres are in a pennant race, it was an exciting game and a lot of fun since many of the people in our section were knitters. It was great seeing everybody watching the game with needles and projects in hand. Petco Park is our relatively new stadium, and it really is a lovely place to watch a game. It started just around sunset, so we got this lovely view. The park sits among the buildings of the East Village section of downtown San Diego, and it's nicely incorporated into the architecture.

While I was there, I worked on Somewhat Cowl, which I started on schedule on September 1. That was my start date for fall projects. Here's my lump of yarn so far...

Booty Call

I can't believe I totally forgot to show you the loot I scored on my trip. I didn't get to do a lot of yarn shopping. Believe it or not, my traveling companions didn't want to spend all of their sightseeing time in yarn stores. Damn them! Luckily, after a few days, I caught up with J and we did a little time in the LYS's. At the shop in Wickford, RI, And the Beadz Go On, I bought 5 balls of Classic Silk in a periwinkle blue color and 3 hanks of Artyarns Ultramerino in a color I refer to as Sherbet. I have no idea what they call it.

I have no current plans for the Classic Silk, although I absolutely love the look and feel of this yarn. It may have to wait until next summer, but if something moves me in the meantime, so be it. The Ultramerino is destined to become Thuja someday soon.

When I got to Boston, I think I already mentioned that I went to A Good Yarn in Brookline. It's one of my favorite shops in Boston, second only, I think, to Wild & Wooly in Lexington. I spent a good deal of time looking through the Dale of Norway books. I've gotten in my mind recently that, after I finish Eunny's vest, I'd like to make a Dale fair isle sweater. I should be ready by then.

Earlier this week, I found out that I was awarded a $7,500 scholarship that I had applied for over the summer. I was SO excited! What do you think I did? That's right! I made two yarn purchases to celebrate. I took advantage of Flying Fingers' sale on Aurora 8 for $5 per ball - I bought a sweater's worth, project undecided. Today, I bought enough Cash Iroha, on closeout from those pushers over at WEBS to make either the Simple Knitted Bodice OR the Hourglass Sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. Either would be lovely, I think.

I just LOVED getting all of your comments - keep them coming through at least Friday. On Saturday or Sunday, I'll draw for a winner. Have a great Labor Day everybody!