Phew!

Yesterday was the last day of September. This is normally a pretty quiet time around here, but this year? What a whirlwind!

Since posting has been a little sparse except for raffle updates, I thought I’d post a few pictures and notes to document this month that has just passed.

• Finished Sweet Caroline’s sweater, though delivery hasn’t taken place yet - so no pictures for a few more days!
• Hosted a great raffle fundraiser for my 3Day walk (a few more prizes yet to be posted tonight or tomorrow before we leave!)
• Celebrated 10 great years with Tad and had some great time off. Already blogged, but here’s a few pictures from our adventures. We enjoyed the time off so much we thought we’d do it again in a couple weeks (in the middle of another month that’s approaching whirlwind status before it’s even begun!

 Rising Meadow Farm

Sera Cahoone

The Cloud Chamber

This is one of my favorite places in Raleigh (it’s a pinhole camera that you walk into and close the door, letting your eyes adjust until you see the trees overhead projected on the walls and floor - I could hang out in here for hours).

Pilot Mountain

The Goats of Humbug Farm

• Between the first of September and Sunday evening, I somehow knit 106,110 stitches (a bit more than that actually, if you count swatches and the first inch or so that I ripped back after a stressed-out-too-tight cast on). I’ve never recorded the number of stitches in a project before, but it was necessary to closely estimate yarn needs so as not to repeat a recent mistake. And it was rather fun - That’s a LOT of stitches! I say this with amazement really rather than pride. I knew I could do it - I planned it all out. But even still, it was a pleasant surprise. On the list of things I love about knitting - feeling a little bit of wonder even when what you accomplish is exactly what you set out to do.  I knit in my house, on various long & short roadtrips, in coffeeshops and restaurants and waiting rooms…

And Monday, I wrapped it up and shipped it out - my first project for print publication (”first” being an optimistic statement of course!) I hate to talk about something that I can’t actually show you for a few months, but this project has absorbed so much energy over the last month that it seems strange not to document it in some way. I’m both nervous and excited. But mostly, satisfied. As design processes go, it was very enjoyable and came out just as I’d envisioned - I’ll blog about it a bit more when it finally comes out (March-ish).

A few rows in…

• Mathias rallies - that poor boy has been through some tough times, but he is hanging in there! He’s a really special pup and we’re so relieved. Funny that I’m more willing to mention it here when he’s improving - things were pretty bleak for a couple weeks there, but they’ve been bleak before and here he still is. Dogs are amazingly resilient creatures.

Mathias

• Had a super-quick trip to Atlanta & back this weekend for my cousin’s wedding, this guy flew into RDU from the west coast Friday night & drove down with us. We spent some great time with my cousins and their lovely wives, saw some other family members we don’t see often enough, and I somehow dropped the ball and left the camera in the car (crap!)…

My awesome older brother

• Last night I had a fair-isle class with Nancy Shroyer (designer of the Tidewater Wrap and owner of Nancy’s KnitKnacks), we worked through corrugated ribbing, steeks, steek covers, buttonholes, etc. - a great experience and capper to the month - we have a little homework remaining, I’ll show my little project when it’s complete.

• And it’s officially Autumn (my favorite time of year, without a doubt) - the weather is getting cooler and so pleasant and the leaves are beginning to change.

I’m not sure how in the world October could possibly top September…. but we will see…. We thought we’d kick off the month with a light 60 mile walk, follow it up with some great music, another big family event, and round it all out with a fiber festival and some hiking…  And of course, some knitting!

Happy Fall everyone! Have you all been just as crazy?

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Now playing: Rogue Wave - Everyday
via FoxyTunes

One great remake - it’ll make you happy, I bet! Check it out!

Before I am accosted by all my nearest and dearest, it’s not for me!! Sorry folks, I know you would have enjoyed a good ‘ol “Told you so!” at my expense, but it’s not to be. My stance on reproduction is just that, my stance, and it certainly doesn’t stifle any enjoyment in watching my friends rise to the challenge and meeting the fresh new little people they bring into the world.

I had lunch with a dear expectant friend last week and couldn’t resist showing her this baby present in progress! I hope it didn’t take away from the future presentation when it’s complete and blocked and wrapped all pretty-like; I couldn’t help myself - I love gifts that I’m so excited about I can hardly wait to present them! I picked these colors (bet you can’t guess which!) especially with my friend and her soon-to-be little baby girl in mind and have been so excited to see her reaction. I told you colors come in chunks around here, whether or not I consciously plan it that way.

Purple & Green - of course!

Though you can’t tell much from the picture - I was focused on capturing the color (still not quite true) and not the WIP itself - this is the Drops striped baby cardi, aka “b14-27″, available free here. I love this cardigan - I’m enjoying watching it grow from side to side rather than up and down as I’m accustomed to, and the way that the short row stripes shape the body and yoke. I also love all the terrific creative color and striping combos that other knitters have done.  It was a toss-up as to whether I would knit this or EZ’s famous February baby sweater (Ravelry links), but this one won out by a hair. I wanted to strike just the right balance between sweet and functional - with parents like hers, I think this is going to be one well-rounded little girl and I couldn’t see her in a too-pink color or too-precious style (not that there is anything wrong with either of those things, my pink-loving friends! This combination just seemed better suited for this particular baby).

The knitting is moving much more slowly than I had hoped, mostly due to the color changes. I decided that as much as I loved this design, I wasn’t sure I could handle weaving in all those ends and had to find another alternative. Enter the back join! Cool trick. My only regret is that it does interrupt the enjoyable flow of garter stitch - but when I circle around to the other side and have only two ends to weave in, I sense that it will have been very worthwhile. For some strange reason I actually enjoy seaming, but weaving in ends gives me fits. The sweater is about 50% complete with just over two weeks til D-Day, provided of course that she’s an obedient child - so give or take a little! In other words, I’d better get moving if it’s going to have a chance of fitting her.

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Now playing: The Avett Brothers - Tear Down the House
via FoxyTunes

Now, I know how some people feel about bobbles. And I really can’t even verbalize why, but I love them - I just do. As a result, I fell in love with Bobble Blue within seconds of receiving my 2006 Spring edition of IK and began knitting it not long after. After a delay due to a mental block with the sleeves, it was completed in the Fall of that year - And then it sat for a few months because the ribbing was too loose and the buttons too heavy, which resulted in some unattractive droopiness after only a few minutes of wear. I finally frogged the button bands and neck edging and then proceeded to pull it out periodically and make half hearted attempts at a new edging, which I was never really happy with and would inevitably rip out. I was quite pleased with the sweater itself though - I think many of us get attached to our knitting firsts, and this had a few - First cables, First bobbles, First set-in sleeves, First knitting of anything in pieces and therefore, First seaming. I sort of defined this in my head as my first “real” sweater (whatever that means), and so I couldn’t bring myself to give up on the body of it and frog the whole thing.

Finally last week, inspired by the color and simplicity of the lavender Cotton Gima stitches, I pulled it out once more and a little while later a simple crab stitch edging had worked it’s way around the edges. Then, on a whim, I started adding hooks & eyes (the only thing I had on hand), First three, evenly spaced down the front, then two more in the gaps, then those gaps were subdivided once more and it began to look like it might work - all told, it took 18 closures to even out any gaping, but I think it was worth the effort.

Pattern: Bobble Blue, by Mari Lynn Patrick

Source: IK Spring 2006

Needles: I’ve forgotten, but US7’s ring a bell.

Yarn: Knitpicks Shine Worsted in Wisteria

I think I have relayed this before, but beware! Shine Worsted GROWS. I purchased the yarn at the same time in two colors for two separate sweaters - this and the Sandra Sweater, and though it has held up relatively ok to the wear I put Sandra through - I don’t see myself using this yarn again.  It fit my budget and my color choices, but if I had them to do again, I might have chosen a more durable cotton/linen blend for Sandra and a cotton/wool blend or other wool blend for the Bobble Sweater. When using Shine, I recommend making a sizeable gauge swatch (a sleeve, even) to test true gauge. On the Sandra sweater I had to take more extreme measures, but here it was sufficient to take in the sides a bit by moving the mattress stitch seam in an inch or so from the hem to the ribcage - luckily it does not add too much bulk.

Mods: Here’s the before taken in the Autumn of 2006 (carefully adjusted to hide the droopy-button issue - I wish I’d taken a true representation shot before frogging, but I was too frustrated at the time, you’ll have to take my word for it):

And the after:

The biggest visible modification was the change-up of the edging. The ribbed bands were removed completely and replaced with a simple crab stitch edging and hook & eye closures (which I will now have to be excessively careful with when washing, etc - perhaps not the most practical choice, but it works).

I also added short rows at the bust to prevent cardigan-ride-up in the front, and though not a planned modification, I also had to take in the sides a bit as mentioned above. Even with this modification, there is a good 4 inches of ease in the body.

Learning experiences: For some reason that I don’t recall, I made a conscious decision not to knit the ribbing with smaller needles as directed in the pattern - this went for both the bottom bands, and the button bands. I learned from this sweater and the aftermath of trying to finish it, that I might want to follow the instructions on that point next time! The tighter gauge = added durability for the edge, and also added body to ribbing that could be a bit loose due to the frequent change between knit and purl stitches. I was ok with the bottom bands, though I could certainly see the value in making them tighter, but the button bands just wouldn’t do, and the buttons, though lovely, were metal and were far too heavy for the yarn - you can’t see how pretty they are if they droop!

Time to Finish: Just over 2 years.

Verdict: Warm affection, but not passion. This sweater is not ideal for my shape - My ribcage and hips are on the petite side, but my shoulders and bust are broad in relation to my body.  Added to that, I have a very short torso - so I need to be a little careful about shaping. Without good waist shaping I tend to look very square in the torso. I think this sweater does add some unneccessary bulk on top, but strangely, I’m ok with it here. Maybe that just means that I’m growing more comfortable with my shape as I get older. I DO have broad shoulders - not much I can do about it. So, not my favorite FO, but finishing this one and feeling comfortable wearing it - even a bit pretty - made me happy nonetheless, and removing a long-standing WIP from the list made me quite pleased!

This was not my longest-standing WIP, but nearly so. I think there’s only one that outdates it. What are your longest running projects or longest hiatus before finishing? Was it worth the wait? Did you learn anything in the interim that you wish you knew when you started the project?

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Now playing: Rogue Wave - Publish My Love
via FoxyTunes

Each year I find myself relating less and less Christmas and more and more to New Year’s. In part due to the overt commercialism associated with the Christmas holiday, the perceived pressure and expectations, but also and perhaps more than anything due to one very large hole in my heart belonging to the person who helped tie my family together and make the holidays meaningful for us. So, I’ve been a little quiet this last week or two. I haven’t been knitting much, I haven’t been online, and I haven’t written at all (if I have been slow getting back to any of you, please accept my apologies!).

What I have been doing is spending excellent quality time sharing stories, laughing, talking and dreaming with my brother & his SO, whom we haven’t seen in more than a year. They’ve just returned from living and working in Armenia, where they had some amazing adventures. Having them home safely and getting to spend the holiday with them was the best Christmas gift we could have. Those kind of gifts always are.

Back to New Year’s. I know full well that we all have the freedom to start over every day, new beginnings are a mostly mental thing - blah, blah, blah. But for some reason the new year holiday always provides me with a sort of mental break, a specific time that encourages me to reflect, re-evaluate, and mentally regroup. This is the time of year when I am most generous and forgiving with myself as well as a time when I am hopeful for the future. I feel less pressure and sadness, and more excitement and anticipation for what the new year will bring. And I AM very excited about what this new year will bring!

So, since this is actually a knitting blog, here’s a retrospective of fibery things from the past year!

And a forecast that 2008 will be another wonderful year with lots more new things to learn, yarns and fibers to experience and wonderful people! I usually set some pretty specific goals, but this year I’m foregoing the list in favor of the flexibility to go where my knitting may take me and explore anything that I find interesting along the way.

Thank you all for the incredible inspiration through all of your blogs, and your encouragement and support through your comments here over the last year. 2007 was the first year that I have been an active blogger, and I have become unexpectedly fond of this little space as another creative outlet and documentation tool - and SO fond of all of you that read and that I correspond with. A very Happy New Year to all of you! I hope that whatever holidays you may celebrate were filled with love and laughter and many new warm memories, and I wish you all the best in life and fiber pursuits in 2008.

See you next year!

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Now playing: Asobi Seksu - New Years
via FoxyTunes

Saturday is for sleeping in after a very satisfying concert Friday night (Bright Eyes at the Millenium Center in Winston-Salem - I was very much looking forward to it, but they were better than I anticipated!)

Bad cell pic of Heather, Tess & I (Tad’s the photographer) grabbing a bite and a drink before the show.

Saturday is for Sunshine….

Courtesy of both the real thing and of Cosy, who I’ve just found recently, but is such a gem. Thank you Cosy, the feeling is completely mutual. Your blog never fails to make me smile!

Saturday is for Spinning (and slightly obsessive predrafting)….

Sunday is for sleeping in again (this is rare for us!) after our 2nd annual horror fest with a few friends, incredible hospitality provided by our friends Peter and Martha (We watched Bug and Severance - I’m sure Tad will share more details!)

Sunday is for Starting (I know it doesn’t look like much, but that’s the first three rows of the Festjakket - all 300+ stitches/row! Must make a note to update the progress bar to .02975% complete….)

And Sunday is for the Sweeter…. Who is a little under the weather & is catching some z’s. I think she needs a snug!

I hope you all had a great weekend!!

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Now playing: Bright Eyes - Bowl Of Oranges
via FoxyTunes

I’ve been swatching this week:

Splotchy:

My first swatch for the Cinderella socks (Pssst! Come join us at the KAL, over here!) - I want to knit these in tweed. I don’t have a good explanation for this want, I just do. I have no suitable tweed in my stash. I tried to “make” tweed. It sucks. I contemplated plying the two yarns, but after reading Jo’s hysterical post, decided that they would be better un-married. Rrrrrip!

Safer:

Non-tweed swatch for Cinderella socks. I cast on - I love this chocolate brown and I think these will be so comfy, but I can’t say that I won’t be keeping half an eye out for a potential alternate this weekend though, at SAFF (yarn buying restricted. very specific purposes and local/sustainable wherever possible. do not be distracted.)

Hrmph:

Brooks Farm Riata purchased at MDSW last spring for a Lady Eleanor (I’ve been in love with this pattern for a very long time). But this, sadly, just isn’t it - the color repeats are too short and the stripes detract from the entrelac. I contemplated offloading the yarn. Lady E. is obviously tabled, she’s worth waiting for the right yarn, and I’m not ready to purchase it. I had a little bit of hrmph time. And then:

Hurray!!:

Teva Durham’s Slip Stitch Jacket. I’m thinking about working the drop stitches in a single color yarn, like cream, but I love the tweedy look of the yarn in this texture (Ahh, a little bit of tweedy-ness after all. Perhaps this will settle the urge).

I have a couple other swatches in progress to share with you, but they will have to wait until next week. The doggie digestive health is relatively stable for the moment, so Tad and I made last minute plans to rent a small cabin in Black Mountain, NC for a long weekend, do some hiking, have some down time, and get to SAFF on Saturday (Woo-hoooo on all counts!) I hope to see some of you there!

This has been a big week for projects - and for blog love - I can’t tell you all how much I appreciate all of your kind words and thoughts about my Chuck’s Cabled Socks! Finishing them made my day, but all your kind and positive responses truly made my week! There really is something neat about finishing a project you are proud of and hearing positive feedback on it from other knitters - who I get so much inspiration from every day on your blogs! THANK YOU so much for stopping by and letting me know if you liked them. I’m particularly excited to hear that there are more Chuck’s Socks that are about to or even may have already jumped onto the needles - I would love to see more of these, and I think you’ll love knitting them. Once they get going, they are such an enjoyable project - hmmm I hear it’s Socktoberfest, they might be the perfect project! In fact, I just came across another pair the other day, so for those of you who may want to see more - Check these out!! They are knit as written with the contrasting heel and are absolutely incredible - the color combination makes me swoon. Anyway, some more cable-y goodness for you - Enjoy!

Here’s one of the other September projects - a teaser of the Gryphon design. It is finished and you’ll hear more about it just as soon as the pattern becomes available! I’m very excited - it’s a rather simple item (though not without some challenges for those unfamiliar with the stitch pattern). This is a case where the yarn elevates the project, it’s wonderful stuff. I hope you’ll like it! This knit took me a bit longer than it probably should have, and that’s in part because my attention has been a little divided.

I finally see the value and enjoyment of having more than one item on the needles (or wheel!) at a time. That’s not to say that I don’t have some languishing or indefinitely shelved WIPs - I certainly am not immune to that. But in general, I tend to commit to one project until it’s done (or shelved, I get sick of it or I run out of yarn - in general!) But I have to admit, these last few weeks, it has been really nice having a couple different things going on. Chuck’s Socks stayed in the car or on the trail for the most part, which was great because I honestly was afraid to bring the Gryphon design out of the house. Afraid. It’s cashmere and silk. This is the nicest yarn I have ever worked with - and I am clumsy. I wouldn’t even eat around it - and eating occurs pretty much without regard to any other activity that happens to be going on here at any given time. That’s not to say that a few dog hairs haven’t been knit into it, but it has NOT been dropped in the dirt or on the floor of the coffeeshop. It hasn’t been spilled on, shut in the car door, snagged on a pen in my bag, or otherwise abused.

I’m not sure if Gryphon should be reading this. She may not have realized the type of person that she was sending her lovely yarn to! I was bored for a moment or two last week and took one of those quizzes - “How Gross are You?”, I think it was… Let’s just say I’m pretty gross. Don’t ask for the results, I’m not telling. Anyway, once Chuck’s were completed, I picked up Foliage by the talented Emilee for my car project (which lasted all of a couple of days - FO pics on the way!). If I needed a mental break from the design project, I could work on something else - and if the something else hit a snag, I’d put it back in the car and work on the design project. And it’s been so nice to have a spinning project going, so that if I needed a break from knitting altogether, there it was (not that I touched it once I started the Gryphon design, but still, there it was in case I felt urge!). Having other exciting projects waiting in the wings has been motivation to get to a certain point, or to finish a current project. My spinning project is waiting, as are the Festejakket (I wound yarn this weekend for swatching!) and Belle; I have handspun that wants to be used; a couple of WIPs waiting to be finished or resurrected (Bobble Blue & Vanille); and other projects are calling me too (ahem. Cinderella - look for info on a KAL soon!). Now I see how it’s possible to get SO many projects going at one time - they each suit a purpose or fill a current creative need. And if they don’t, well, those are the ones stuck in the bottom of my stash drawer that haven’t been touched in months!

So I’ve been doing a little spinning - my reward for finishing Chuck’s & the Gryphon design! I still have an ounce of the silk left, then a couple more ounces of the merino-tencel - yumm!

What projects are you excited about right now?

At Raven Rock last weekend - I knit in the company of friends at the Group Campsite:

Yes, thats Chuck no.2 - heel turned and starting on the gussets!

Check out tadandmel.com for a full report from Tad and some great pictures. I was VERY pleasantly surprised by this park - I’d seen pictures of the rock, but it’s really hard to capture it’s size. It was immense for our relatively flat piedmont area and despite the fact that one of the trails is closed indefinitely, there was still a good amount of hiking. We’ll definitely be back, this is another good hike-in option for camping. The day was absolutely perfect - not a trace of humidity in the air and warm but not hot - good excercise, beautiful scenery, good friends, a little knitting…. All in all just good for the soul!

Oh, BTW…..

As I write, Chuck’s Socks are blocking as on my nifty new coat-hanger-sock-blockers (I feel so accomplished - and thrifty!), and my Gryphon design is so near completion I would do backflips if I could!

Actually, this post is really just about hiking, but look! I knit in the woods (that’s Chuck no.1 prior to finishing)!

Oh yeah, Chuck no. 2? I couldn’t really sideline it, try as I might (see the % going up in the nifty new status bar over there?) Though I did spend the better part of this weekend knitting on my Gryphon Design, I’ve left Chuck no. 2 in the car for passenger knitting and have been doing about 1 cable repeat/day on the second sock. If I can continue at the current rate, I should have FO pics for you in oh, about a week or so…

Anyway, this is about HIKING! Tad & I camped out with the kids at Eno River State Park over Labor Day Weekend and had such a great time!

We’re doing a little Local Hiking Series this fall over at Tadandmel.com. Just wanted to warn you, because you’re likely see a few more pictures like this:

With links over to our home site to read more if your interested. I’ll end with a couple gratuitous Dog shots. Because they’re just Cute. And Furry. Let’s not forget Huggable. The kids in the tent:

For more info about Eno River State Park, details of our hike, and some actual hiking pics, click on over to Tadandmel.com!

Have you all done anything fun outdoors recently? What are your favorite things to do where you live?

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Now playing: Yo La Tengo - Green Arrow
via FoxyTunes

I am only bringing ONE project with me (aside from design swatching for a trip to Green Mountain Spinnery, which doesn’t count!) Can you guess which one of my WIP’s it will be?? Here’s a hint!

And these pictures, well, they really have absolutely nothing to do with this post, but we have been having some really AMAZING skies here lately, and I just wanted to share!

I’ll try to squeeze in one last minute post before I go, but just in case - a huge THANK YOU to my 3Day supporters, you all ROCK!!!