Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, Part Deux

I didn't achieve my goal of finishing Joe's sweater by his birthday on Wednesday, and even since then, I've been busy doing other things so its still not finished, but I finished the knitting and the seaming. All that's left is to apply the neckband and the armbands.



Sorry about the perspective on the picture, but I took it sideways and rotated it, so now it looks bizarre.

My class project for tomorrow morning, however, is not finished. I never thought that would happen, but I can't help it. I got sidetracked! Now I have to decide whether to finish the vest or the class project. The back for my second class project is finished, so maybe I can fake it tomorrow.

Finally, here is a photo of my finished Whiskey back. I know it isn't vastly different from the last photo that I posted, but this one is done and the last wasn't. My plan is to start the first sleeve next. The hitch with this plan is that my size 2 addis are being used by Forest Path. I am about 1/2 way finished with Forest Path, assuming that I don't do the full length of is (a safe assumption since I have used the first skein of yarn and only had 2 skeins!). I know that I could buy another pair of addi 2s, but I just don't want to have 3 sets of size 2 needles. The other pair of size 2s that I have is tied up with Season of Darkness.

Despite my mistake with Forest Path, it is moving right along. I am finishing the 9th tier today, and it seems to be a decent length (or that it will be). I am guessing that I will do 13-15 tiers then start the side border. I was able to do nearly 8 tiers plus the bottom border with one skein. I still have the side border to do and I don't know how much yarn that will require. I would buy a 3rd skein of the zephyr, but I am a bit concerned about dye lot problems. I still love this pattern and this yarn. I think the key to my lace enjoyment is mixing things up. When I did the shetland tea shawl the change of lace motifs kept me interested, anticipating the next change. Ethereal Fichu bored me because it was monotonous. This should be tedious since there are only 3 motifs and since each tier uses all three in a regular and specified order, but for some reason, I am not bored. I haven't completely memorized each of the charts, and I think that helps keep my interest. I don't have to look much at the charts, but each time I start one of the three I have to double check how it begins. 2 of the 3 I have no issues with. I do anticipate the side border driving me mad, it is seed stitch, rows and rows of seed stitch, which I despise, but fortunately, that is still a ways off.

Finally, in an attempt to gear up for bike commuting, which I hope to begin soon, I bought a laptop messenger bag. It isn't pretty or stylish, but it will secure my laptop when I am riding and will give me space to carry my necessities (like work clothes, though not suits). Now I just need the weather to get at least a teeny bit better. :-)

Men Don't Know What They Want

When the new colors of Cotton-Ease showed up at Michael's, I went to go see them right away, of course. I have been waiting, at times not very patiently, to see the new colors for several months now. As soon as I saw Stone, I thought of Joe, my husband. I purchased enough to make this sweater from Greetings from the Knit Cafe:



Since the original pattern is knit in a bulky yarn, I will have to basically redesign the entire thing. When I showed Joe the yarn, he scrunched up his nose and said, "I don't like this. I don't wear colors this light." I was pretty disappointed, but I regrouped and searched for an alternative - I scored enough All Seasons Cotton in a guy-friendly color of army green to make the above sweater.

Still, I wanted to use the Stone, so I decided that, even though he says he doesn't want a sweater out of the Stone, he really does. Perhaps he can't picture the final product in his head. Perhaps he's in denial about the colors he wears. Or perhaps about the colors that actually look good on him. Perhaps it's my job to show him the way! Yes, that's it!

So, I cast on for a vest based upon a pattern in Men in Knits, but with a totally different fiber, color and gauge. I guess you could say I was "inspired" by the pattern, but I'm making my own design.

I'm almost done with the back, but I still need to decide how big to make the neck:



The stripes are Taupe and Charcoal, also new Cotton-Ease colors.

So far, I'm liking the new Cotton-Ease even better than the old because the colors aren't so childlike. It does seem to knit up at a looser gauge - it might be bit stiffer or it might be my imagination - not sure. Even though I was concerned about the fit, here's how it compares to a vest he already owns and wears regularly:



They pretty much line up perfectly, so I'm fairly confident it will fit well. Notice the similarity in color. Hmm, apparently a certain someone DOES wear light colors. Maybe I'm onto something. The only difference is 1/2" in length. I'm hoping to have it done for his birthday on Wednesday and since it's spring break, it might happen. Yesterday was not a great day for knitting because I spent the day cleaning and running errands. I'm hoping to do better today.

I'll leave you with the obligatory cat photo:



Isn't she a little devil?

Disaster Struck

On Wednesday during s'nb I had a major problem with my Forest Path Stole. I did not take photos of the disaster, so you will have to trust me that it was badness. Somehow or another I dropped a few stitches. I tried to fix my mistake without frogging the shawl, but, alas, I had several large wholes after my attempted fix. Several of my group knitters tried to tell me that the wholes were noticeable (liars!), but I knew that I couldn't live withe them, so I tore. When E saw that I was going to tear she asked where my life-line was/is. Honestly, I am not sure how much help a life line would be in an entrelac piece, but even if it was the most useful tool in the galaxy, I wouldn't have used one. I am apparently too arrogant for such trivialities, and as a result, had to tear out 2+ full entrelac rectangles and one seed stitch triangle.

I am not yet back to the point I was when the mistake happened, but I am getting closer...

Over the weekend I had finished the back of my whiskey sweater, unfortunately, in my rush to leave my apartment this morning (I had a real estate closing at 8:00(I didn't actually have to be there until around 8:45, but still...) I forgot to take a photo. One will come soon...

Dune Progress

I have been making progress on Dune, one of my design class sweaters. I've been enjoying working on this so much that I haven't picked up the Rebecca sweater at all. All of that lace and figuring out how to maintain the lace pattern with the armhole decreases just has not sounded like a fun thing to do at all since I've had a stressful week. Next week is spring break for me, so that should be good time to get back on that horse.

Anyway, here's what I have so far:



I'm about 4 rows from starting my armholes, which means I need to figure out how I want to shape them! This is two balls of yarn. I have 9 to finish the sweater and I hope it's enough. Plus, three of them are from a different dye lot and I haven't seen them yet (J was gracious enough to search for some in my color and send them to me). I have anxiety issues about them being a totally different texture or color or something awful. Hey, I could always been a glass is half full kind of a person and say that everything is going to be alright, couldn't I?

Jezabel

This weekend some, but not much, knitting was done. I managed to finish the modified front of my Jezabel sweater and to start the sleeves. After the sleeves are finished and the sweater sewn together I have to figure out what I am going to do about the collar, leave it as it, or give it some sort of border. I thought about giving the Vneck the slight ruffle that is on the bottom of the sweater and the bottom of the sleeves (it was also supposed to be on the top of the collar) but that just seems goofy.

I also made some progress on my Forest Path Stole (no photo).

On Thursday I will probably be arguing a District Court appeal to the "Appellate Division" of the District Court. I have never done any appellate work, and since this is sort of appellate court lite it should be a good first venue. I am not sure that I will be able to post on Thursday though.

Actual FO pics!

I know that I'm really bad about posting FO pics. Once a sweater is finished, I usually want to wear it right away and no one is home to take a picture. I don't want to put a picture up of me wearing a sweater at the end of the day, when its all wrinkled and stretched out, so I usually never get around to it (like in the case of my Hourglass sweater which has been done for weeks and I've worn several times). Anyway, I decided to post wrinkled, stretched out photos of Remembering Honey:



Stats:

Pattern: Remembering Honey, pattern from Spring 2003 IK
Size: I made the 41.5" bust hoping, based upon my swatch that it would be 39", but alas, I don't think it is.
Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton Ease, Strawberry Cream, 5 skeins
Needles: Size 7 addi turbos and size 5 addi turbos
Modifications: I added short row bust shaping because I think it adds shape to a sweater. Otherwise, sweaters on me can end up looking like sacks. Other than that, the only thing I did was make a different size based upon my gauge. Oh, and I omitted the bobbles on the sleeves because it called for a cable needle and I was too lazy to find the right size dpn. I generally don't use cable needles.
Overall thoughts: The gauge that is called for in this pattern is very unusual and from what I've read on the blogs of other people who have made this sweater, very hard to get. I just got a gauge and then made the size closest to that. I checked row gauge to make sure everything else would work out. Even though it came out bigger than I thought it would, I think it fits pretty well. I'm very happy with the final product and I've already worn it twice!

The photo was taken at a vista point in Encintas, near Common Threads and Black Sheep, where I spent Saturday yarn shopping and eating really good Italian food. The weather was crap, though, as you can see.

Finally Did the Neck Extensions!

All done! The best thing about Cotton-Ease? I blocked it in the washing machine and dryer, and it came out really soft!

I'm going to wear it tomorrow!

Problem Solved!

Sometimes, the solution to a problem comes to you like the much cliched lighbulb turning on. I have been thinking about what to do for my second sweater for a couple of days now, and I had sort of an idea planned out. Then, Dis emailed me this morning saying that my Classic Silk yarn from WEBS had come in (we did a joint order a while back). I was sitting here thinking how it would be absolutely perfect to make Dune from Rowan 33 (it's kind of like Summer Tweed, but a totally different gauge and a TON softer). I'm planning on making a slew (how many is a slew?) of modifications, much like Fathon Harvill describes here. Isn't hers lovely? Then, I started thinking what a bummer it was that I couldn't start it for a while because I had these two other sweaters to make. Only then did it occur to me - what a perfect class project! Except for the lace detail, everything else is really plain, so customizing the shape will be an excellent exercise. The yarn is totally different (going from Aran to DK), too. Yay! Problem solved! Well, not all of the problems. I didn't order quite enough yarn :( So, I'm going to do a very small order from WEBS to get a couple of more balls. With shipping and paying full price, it should suck, but I'll get a fabulous sweater out of it.

Anyway, I have been doing knitting, in addition to all the mulling. Here's my progress on my first class project, the Rebecca lace sweater:



So far, so good, but I'm concerned about how small the rib section turned out (luckily, it's really stretchy) and how long the sweater will turn out to be.

I've also started a scarf for Joe - the Architect's Scarf from Greetings from the Knit Cafe.



I thought I had the color scheme fully worked out, but it looks like the color I eliminated is actually perfect for the next stripe, so what do I know? I think the one color I insisted be in there because I've had it in my stash for ages is the one I'm going to end up NOT using. Figures, doesn't it?

Also Remembering Honey is almost done. It's seamed up, but still needs neck extensions and a good washing. It's very stiff at the moment. It seems to fit pretty well, though. The beret has been done forever, but I haven't blocked it yet because it's been too hot to wear it. All in good time.

Knitting Progress?

Right now I am juggling 3 active projects, 2 sweaters and one lace shawl (I, of course, have several projects that are languishing for now). The biggest needles that I am using are Addi 3s. I am enjoying each of the projects, but it doesn't feel that any of them are moving very quickly

When I am at home, in my apartment, I am generally choosing to work on the sweater to the left. This is a Reynolds Whiskey pattern being made with Brown Sheep Nature Spun sport weight yarn. This isn't very portable because the main color is on a cone. This is my first sweater cone experience, and so far I am enjoying it. I love the fact that there won't be many ends to weave in. One thing that surprises me though is that despite being nearly done the back, I don't feel that I have made a dent on the cone.

For my commute to and from work I have Jezabel, being made with Freedom Spirit, DK, Air colorway. You may remember that I am going to be modifying the pattern so that it has a V neck instead of the high mock turtle neck. I am nearly at the point where I will be dividing the front to make my V, only about another 3/4" of to go!

My final active project if my vacation lace stole, the Forest Path Stole. I haven't abandoned the project simply because I am home. This isn't commuting with me, and has to compete with the Whiskey sweater for home knitting attention. It fairs relatively well in that competition, I do start to get tired of Whiskey, and the lace is a perfect foil for the colowork. I actually feel like I am making decent progress with this. I am completely enjoying combining entrelac and lace work and I can not repeat often enough that I LOVE the yarn. I am not looking forward to the seed stitch border, but I will choose not to think of that right now.

Two Sweaters At the Same Time

The latest installment of our Sweater Design class was a real eye-opener for me. I thought the Rebecca sweater that I'd chosen to upsize was going to be a no-brainer. Wrong! Since the lace repeat is 18 stitches wide, getting all of the shaping to fit around the lace pattern turned out to be a real challenge, especially working the sleeve increases into the lace pattern. That actually has nothing to do with upsizing so much as it has to do with the fact that Rebecca simply left out how to do that, even though they clearly somehow figured out how to do it because in the photo, there isn't a 22 stitch stockinette panel running up her arm! At any rate, I can see why they only wrote the pattern for one size.

The reason this kind of sucks is because I'm not able to practice designing the perfect armscye or neckline or whatever. I'm a slave to this lace pattern and I feel like I'm not getting out of the class what I should. However, I do think doing all of this is a valuable learning experience, too. Dis had a great idea, though. Why don't I just make two sweaters, one simple and the other one this lace Rebecca sweater, she says. I knit fairly quickly and the class doesn't end until June, I think, so I have plenty of time.

So, I sketched out some ideas, looked through some magazines and came up with a couple, but this one is the most appealing, I think.



I have the pattern for this, but I want to use a different-gauge yarn and a different stitch pattern on the body. That would leave me free to basically redesign the proportions. I think I would learn a lot and I could wear it this summer, which I can't say for the angora lace wrap sweater that I also designed. I still want to make that, but it's so H-O-T here today that I can't even think about it or anything else wool for a while. Quick question for you designers out there: are the seed stitch peplum pieces at the bottom actually narrower than the body so they angle outward like that, or will they just do that automatically? They seem to meet up with the main body portions evenly, and I don't see any decreases on the side, but I'm really not sure.

Another option is this one without all the colorwork and with a set-in sleeve:





Not that I don't love the colorwork (something of Kaffe Fassett's that I actually like), but I don't feel like spending a lot of time coordinating colors. I really like the simplicity of this sweater, though, and it would definitely allow for a custom fit. I would also add waist shaping as the boxy cardigan look just isn't for me.

What do you think?

Home Again

There are times that I complain bitterly about my job, and the people that I work with, however, in reality I am very fortunate with my employment. For example, approximately 3 weeks ago I received a telephone call from one of my partners telling me that he had an open berth on a Caribbean sailing trip he had organized, and he asked if I knew anyone who was interested. When I told my other partner about this he quickly started to encourage me to go on the trip. About 2 weeks latter a boat became my home for 8 days. I shared this boat with 7 other people, 3 of whom are legally blind. Everyone had some sailing experience, except for me. Our captain (one of my partners) and the 3 legally blind people had the most sailing experience. This was not a trip that allowed me to simply lie on the deck and soak in the sun, no, I had to act as a sighted guide (1 time), man the helm (not often though), raise the jib (1 time, no 2 times on the same day), hook mooring balls (7 (?) times), release the boat from the mooring balls, and captain the dinghy (1 time). Do you think I am complaining about this? If so, you are wrong, I loved every minute of it. I asked for the chance to raise the jib (fortunately I had a male crew member to assist me each time, or the the jib would never go up), I wanted to be useful, when the partner from my firm told me that I was a "deck queen" the first day, I was a bit offended, I did not want to simply be decoration on the trip, and I don't think that I was. I have returned to MA with a small callus on my right hand, and with some new bruises on my legs.

We sailed around the British Virgin Islands, starting on Tortola, and visiting Virgin Gorda, Peter Island, Cooper Island, Norman Island, and Guana Island. I had one sleepless night watching the anchor to make sure that it did not slip enough to let us hit the boats near us. I returned to Boston with a deep tan (for me anyway, for a friend of mine, and for my mother, it is still a sickly pallor (I am ghost white ordinarily)). I had Pain Killers (in case you don't know a rum drink) at approximately 4 of the places we stopped. I did a fair amount of drinking on the boat too, but that seems to be the Caribbean way.

I swam, snorkeled, visited tropical resorts, read a book, and even found time to knit. My fellow crew members quickly got used to hearing the phrase "Let me just finish this row first" (Wenders if you are reading this, sound familiar?). Since this is a knitting blog, I will let you know that my vacation knitting project was the Forest Path Stole, an entrelac lace shawl from an old IK issue. It is being knit with the Zephyr yarn that K sent to me before I went away. I finished about 2 1/2 tiers of the stole while I was on vacation.

Would I do this again? To quote Mr. Big from Sex in the City, absof*inglutely. The trip was fabulous. I had a much better time sailing around then I did on a cruise that I took a few years ago, there was ALOT less rigidity on this trip than there was on my cruise. This may have been one of my most favorite vacations, and I have taken a number of vacations that I loved (London with K in the last year of law school, camping alone near Acadia, many trips to San Diego...) I plan on signing up for Community Boating this summer to learn more about how to sail, and I hope to stay in contact with my fellow crew members (btw, I may end up trying to teach one of the blind sailors how to knit).

Warning to my fellow N.End knitters, I will be talking your ears off on Wednesday about this trip.

Finally, thanks to our guest blogger! Since I didn't see a post from you today, I thought I would step in and do my own post. I hope that you will continue to feel free to post even when both K and I are around, I really enjoy seeing what you are working on!

Oops!

So, I was suppose to post yesterday. Oops! Here are the two reasons, lame though they may be for my absence. 1) Work sucked yesterday, in the sense that everyone needed me and I didn't get any time in my office; 2) I feel asleep on the couch as soon as dinner was done, so embarrassing. See trully lame, but the truth none the less.

Enough of that, here's what you are here for. I finished the crochet work on the little bag and have the lining ready. It's silk dupioni from my rather large fabric stash and scrap collection. I love the way the two colors, a pink and gold, show their faces in different lights. The camera has always been incapable of capturing this quality, but here's the best it'll do along with a picture of

the back of the bag. It was a super fast little job and the finishing shouldn't take more than an hour. The sides are already sewn, so the zipper and lining installation are the last bits left.

I am also taking the sweater design class with Knitzalot and here is my current distraction from my swatch finishing. I desperately need to finish my swatch, but I keep looking at this cute little number. Isn't she sweet in all her
pink French glory! So in a vain attempt to stay focused I have filled her with the swatch and a few balls of my yarn. Look at those polka dots - I'm so in love!!!

Pink, brown, polka dots, French, yummy yarn (Rowan Cashsoft 4ply) - what more could a girl ask for. Well, maybe a martini, but I might be pushing my luck.

I'm a bit of a Europhile, so anything that even vaguely smacks of Europe, must come home with me.

So now I'm off to the library for some books on tape, yes I said on tape. My little Nightcrawler (black VW bug) is the stock model and a tape player is what I have, so... I listen to books on tape during my morning and afternoon commute. I HATE commuting to work, but books on tape make it so much better. I love cheesy suspense novels and spy stories, no romances or tear jerkers for this gal. Real life has enough of that stuff. The James Bond type is my kinda guy! All that mystery and sex appeal. I would meet him carrying my cute little pink French bag wearing something very Audrey Hepburn-esque in Paris, while he's on the run from some international bad guy. Ahh, the fantasies...

Wavy FO

This scarf has been finished since last Saturday, but I haven't been motivated to actually weave in the ends and call it done because it's been so warm here over the last week. I've been wearing T-shirts and sandals, so I think a really thick mohair scarf would have been out of the question. I made a deal with myself, though. I decided that if I finished it, I could start the Haruha scarf. I reneged on that deal, though, because the needles I'd use are currently being used for my beret which got abandoned because of a mistake. So, finishing the beret is my new goal.

Anyway, here it is, all finished and being modeled by Monkey:



He doesn't look hot at all, does he? In fact, he looks positively COOOOOL!!!

Stats:

Pattern: Wavy from knitty
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden, Color #8, 4 balls (I used almost every last bit)
Finished dimensions: Approximately 7" wide and 63" long
Needles: Size 7 Lantern Moon straights
Anything else?: Not really. It's a clever pattern that got a little boring (OK, a lot boring) towards the end. But I did finish it, so that's something. It's a little yarn hog, though, so plan accordingly!

I also finished my second swatch for my class sweater project. The first swatch was on 6's, but the fabric was really stretchy and loose. I did it on 5's for the second swatch, and it's still pretty darn stretchy. I think this is as small as I'm going to go, though, because I like the size of the yarnovers and the stitches themselves. It's kind of hard to see in this picture, but here it is:



The swatch was sooo soft after being washed. Yum!

I need to find a name for this sweater. Rebecca called "pink lace sweater" or something uber-original like that. Any ideas?

Tonight, I met up with Dis and Nonnahs from A Little Loopy and Jessica from Jessimuhka Knits for a little Thursday night knitting at a local coffee house. We had a nice visit and everything was going really well until the "musical act" started. I use quotes because this was seriously painful to listen to, and I was in the marching band in school. I've heard 6th graders learning to play the clarinet, but this was B-A-D. I was thinking to myself that it was the worst attempt at music I'd ever heard when Jessica confirmed this for me. I couldn't keep a straight face, so we had to leave. I laughed the whole way home. I guess in that way, it was "entertainment", too!

Movin' Right Along

I've been putting all of my knitting focus and energy into Remembering Honey lately. That doesn't bode well for my class project, but I'll worry about that later. Anyway, with all of my free time, I've been knitting on the first sleeve. However, free time has been a bit hard to come by, so I've done the best I can:



I think the lace part at the bottom, while a total pain in the butt, turned out to be pretty design. I think I'm going to like this when it's finished. I was hoping to have the first sleeve done last night, but I ended up staying up until after midnight doing homework, AFTER yoga. So much for a relaxing evening.

I'll leave you with this image: a man and his cat. Ain't it precious?

What in the World?

So I used to get this magazine as a kid called "World". It was the kid's version of National Geographic, although it seems to have a new name. It had a section with close-up pictures of weird textures and asked the question, "What in the World?" You could write your answers on an index card and send them in for prizes.

Even at a young age, I knew I was not the winning kind. My name was never pulled in drawings; I never won raffles; etc. So why bother sending in my answers, right? Clearly I would never be the first with the right answers. You'd think I was a glass half empty kind of gal, which I'm not but that's beside the point. This picture reminds me of those pictures. It is one of my current WIPs, although it should be finished by the end of today.

It is a modified version of the Bobble Bag from this book. (hope that link works, if not the book is "One Skein".) The yarn is Reality by Artful Yarns in color 2397. It knits like a dream (made a baby blanket with it), but my crochet hook keeps splitting the yarn. Oh well, it's a fast project and is perfect for office knitting. Hopefully, I'll have finished pictures later this week.

Now here is the cutest thing ever. It's a kit to make any of the three pouches shown. It's by Pick Up Sticks and I grabbed it at Lori's Frames, Fibers and Frills in Alpine. It's going to be a shop sample for her, but I can't wait to open it and make it. The yarn looks similar to Cascade 220. Sorry for the poor color quality, but that's what you get at 6am before you leave for work.

And yes that is wine on the table and on the wall. If you live in So Cal, one must do as the So Cals do and that involves the consumption and collection of really good wine. We get so spoiled with the access that it amuses (translation: frustrates) us no end when we travel and look at California wine prices on menus. Outrageous mark-ups!! I guess it's a trade off, obscene mortgage, great wine prices - go figure!

And now I really must stop babbling and taking up your time. Thanks for the lovely comments on my first post and I hope to hear from you again. As my southern relatives and friends are fond of saying, "I'll talk at ya later."

This is why I'm taking the class...

So, I brought my idea of doing the Kim Hargreaves sweater to class on Saturday and the teacher (who I will refer to from now on as Master Dave because calling him the teacher brings to mind a stern bun-wearing spinster weilding a yardstick) was supportive and helped me figure out that the damn thing was knit in like 10 pieces and sewn together!!!! I am basically, "The Knitter Who Hates to Seam or Do Finishing of Any Kind", hence the half sewn up and half-finished sweaters lying all over my house. After some consideration, I decided to change my mind and do this project instead:




It's a sweater from last spring's Rebecca. I fell in love with the sweater immediately and was really bummed to discover that it only went up to a finished measurement of 32"! Wtf? It's knitted up in worsted weight yarn, so my task will be to upsize and redo the pattern for my gauge. I did one swatch so far and I'll need to do another on smaller needles before I decide what my gauge will be.

In other news, I finished the front of Remembering Honey last night. The lace patterns were fun to do, but required some concentration, so I put finishing this off for a few days. But, now it's done and it's time to move on to the sleeves. Here's a photo:



Here's a close-up view of the lace pattern along with the short row details I put in for the bustline so it wouldn't look like I'm wearing a sack:



Last, but not least, while on my Stitches trip, I started a sock! I know, shocking. I used to knit socks all the time, but my attempt at Pomatomus burnt me out on them. Don't get me wrong, Pomatomus is turning out right and I didn't make mistakes or anything, but all of that 1 x 1 rib and twisted stitches got me down after a while. All I've got left is one foot to do and then they're done, but I'm leaving that as a UFO Resurrection project for later in the year. So, I started the Monkey socks from the Winter 2006 knitty, I think. Anyway, I had a little trouble because I started out with the recommended needle size (Addi 1's) but it was turning out a little big for my foot. However, it fit around my shapely (ahem) calves quite nicely and using a smaller needle would make the sock too tight. So, I switched to US 1's after 2 repeats and I couldn't believe how well that turned out. It fits perfectly. This pattern really needs to be blocked so its hard to see, but here is my progress so far:



I'm using STR medium weight in Sapphire.

Finally, I've joined the Interweave Knits KAL and did my first post today. Check it out!

Guest Appearance

Hi Everyone

I'm Stitches. K and J invited me to guest blog while J is wandering around the islands soaking up sunshine. A vacation sounds so blissful.

I'm very new to blogging so bear with me here. Until now, I've been the blogless knitter in our little group. Oh the shame! Not really, I'm just a bit ADD and wouldn't be a reliable blog owner. Being a "pretend" blogger is kind of fun though.

There is actually history behind my blog name though, so why don't I share a bit of that with you. Plus it will tell you one of my deep dark secrets. Shh, don't tell anyone...

I'm a Girl Scout, life time member. No, really I am. I have a card in my wallet to prove it; ID number and everything. Anyway... (see the ADD already)

I worked at a Girl Scout camp in the Berkshires in Ma for four summers. Girl Scout camp counselors have camp names. None of the campers are suppose to know your real name and for the whole summer the counselors get alter-egos. It's loads of fun. My camp name was Stitches. It was chosen after much debate because I am a huge fan of all things fabric and fiber and it was original. So now you know two secrets about me, I am a Girl Scout and I have an alias.

My addiction to fabrics and fibers started at a very early age thanks to a very crafty, artsy family. Color and texture are trully my inspiration and what draws me to fiber and fabric mediums.

So enough about me, I know you just really want to see a picture of something. So here's one of my current projects. Drum roll please...



It's Clapotis (wow, what a shocker!)!!I know everyone's been there done that, but not me so you get to see it. Here are the current specs:Pattern: Clapotis from Knitty (don't know how to do links yet, but you all know where to find it)Yarn: Koigu KPPPM color P505 (it reminds me of the ocean and sand)Needles: Addis US 7I'm following the pattern exact except the yarn and needle size. It has been languishing in my back room for several months, much to my embarrassment. However, my current sweater, Gigi by Chicknits, turned on me. Despite my swatching, my actual row gauge was a stitch and a half more. I got annoyed with her fickleness, so I returned to the long neglected Clap. She now resides in my current project bag and sees activity on a more regular basis. Gigi has been ripped and restarted, so all is well that ends well.Hope you guys have a lovely day and as Porky Pig says, "Abadeebadee, That's All Folks".

Tranquility

Tomorrow, I'm starting a six-session class on sweater design at the Grove. Basically, we are able to choose a design, any design whether from a photo or something in our heads, and then we work with our instructor to swatch and draft a pattern based upon the design. Ever since Kim Hargreaves left Rowan to start her own business, I've really been missing her patterns. There have been several that she's had on her website that I've liked, but I really can't afford the kits that she sells, especially after the exchange rate. So, I'm going to emulate one of her designs:



It's called Peace, and it seems like a very simple design. I suppose it is, but it will be a good design for the class because I'll learn how to create a shape that fits me, design a set-in sleeve, and design the v-neck. I think this design is incredibly classy and elegant, though, and I can't wait to see how mine takes shape. I'm going to call my design Tranquility. I'm using Anny Blatt Merinos in a similar shade of blue as is in the photo.

Regarding other knitting, I have been working on other stuff. I've seamed up half of Starsky and I've almost finished the front of Remembering Honey. However, I've started a new project that I'm really excited about. After seeing Nonnahs' gorgeous beret, I've decided to start one of my own. It's a perfect use for Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca & Silk yarn. It's pretty expensive stuff, but this lovely beret only takes one hank. So far, I'm LOVING working with it.