Anyone Can Knit!

Saw this online and thought it was so cute!

Merry Christmas to All!

Here you have it - My completed Christmas knitting . . .



Ok, I know I cheated - just a bit! Here are the new "Man Socks" I made for one lucky recipient . . . . The first ones I've knit for a guy!

And the "Monet Socks" will be finding a new home, too.

Teddy had become such a fixture sitting on my sofa that I almost forgot to wrap the little guy! Only home my niece will enjoy him . . . .



I hope all your knitting projects are finished and wrapped, and that your cookies are baked, trees decorated, and cards sent . . . . because the holidays are here at last! May all your needles be full, your yarn cast on, your cables straight, your light good, and may all your projects be completed on time!

I wish you all happiness for a wonderful holiday, and a bright new year filled with the love of friends and family, projects that fill your hearts and hands, creativity to work miracles of warmth, and wondeful people to share your journey!

Success!!

Yes, looks like this is going to work!! Colors are not pooling, not looking like a barber pole. A bit of striping, but that's ok!

So, now we just knit up a couple socks! I feel good about this and am looking forward to seeing what my niece thinks of her yarn . . . will be checking for comments!

Difficult Knitting . . .

Not sure what the issue is, but I've been busy with other stuff and can't seem to do much knitting right now. Must be the proverbial "Dry Spell" you hear about.


I finished the pair of red socktober
socks and took up the Koigu yarn my niece tried so hard to knit. She tried about five or six patterns, and I have tried four or five myself now and am currently trying the RPM socks from Knitty. So far, so good.



I keep eyeing my stash. I have it in open baskets next to my fireplace. All the yarn looks lovely. I NEED to make a baby blanket or two, I should re-start my gansey sweater after frogging due to finding holes, I've even ordered new yarn to make a Christmas present (that one's gonna be LATE!), so not sure what the problem is. I find myself dozing off on the couch, cleaning, doing dishes and laundry. It's like there's a force that makes me do all these other things, thus avoiding the knitting.


Yesterday, it was errands, grocery shopping, and Christmas shopping. Today (along with dozing for a good hour and a half), it's been doing dishes, cleaning, doing laundry - whew. Perhaps tonite the bug will get me. Maybe it's just that this particular sock yarn, although absolutely beautiful on the ball, knits up totally different from what you'd think it will look like. Doesn't matter what pattern, size needle, or whatever. Just different.


I'll keep plugging away and hope to have something sensational to show for all my efforts and those of my niece!

A Trip to the Frog Pond

Or should I say Frog LAKE??? Discovered holes in my Gansey sweater and ended up having to frog the entire thing. So sad . . . . so much work! Strange holes - three of them you could put your finger through. Not sure where they came from, but know I'm not pleased.

Then on to the Krista Tee. Was so excited - finished the front and it was georgeous. So I did up the sides to try it on, and the extra length was taken up in the "around" area, and still showed off a bare midriff - not especially beautiful in a "big, beautiful woman." So, tonite, that became a couple huge balls of yarn, too.

Sigh.

Have started a new pair of socks . . . and am thinking of adding them to the lake. . . . .

Silver and Gold Friends

Bad blogger! A bit overdue in reporting the knitting group results from last Wednesday night.

Eight ladies came for the inaugural evening North St. Louis County knit-in. We had two from the St. Louis Knitting Guild (three, if you count me), my grade school friend, Kathy, my daughter-in-law, Angela, and three other, new ladies. One, Peggy, turned out to be the older sister of a gal Kathy and I went to high school with! It is a small world!

Angela was the only one who had never knit, but she did that evening - at least for a while. We had all kinds of projects and some crochet questions that we hope to work on next week. Even one of the workers at the Corner Coffee House got in the act. We ended up closing the place at 10 p.m., and she came over to inquire if we could help her. She had just begun knitting two days earlier and was mysteriously picking up stitches in a scarf she's making. When we left, she was saying "I can't wait for next week!"

I didn't realize that Myer House, the LYS, has a knit-in Wednesday evenings. They don't advertise it, since the space is limited, so I never knew. But we had a nice spot, on the sofa right in front of the fireplace, so we're good for a while.

All-in-all, it was a very pleasant evening. If you are interested, please visit a couple of my earlier posts for info, and feel free to join us on Wednesday evenings! You know the song - "Make New Friends, but Keep the Old" - well, that's what's going on here!

I'm SO Jazzed!!!

I've taken a gigantic leap into the new blogging experience, released my death grip on HTML, and joined the best and brightest in the new Blogger Beta!

It's taken a bit of getting used to, but I like the functionality, the drag-and-drop technology - heck! All that new stuff.

Sorry this isn't too much of a post, but I am back working temp again (thru November, at least), getting ready for the garage sale of the century (see my boring blog), trying to do more at home besides sleep, getting my car overhauled, trying to keep the kitchen stocked with quickie food, and replacing mattresses and lamps. Hopefully, I will be blogging, complete with updated pictures of the Krista Tee progress and the new knitting group, soon!

The Last Knit on "YouTube.com"

If you haven't heard about this video, and especially if you haven't watched it, you should! This is a hoot!

Thanks to Gwen for pointing it out to me. Is remarkably well done, clever, great animation, from annekeAnna in Jerusalem, IL - who notes this is for "When knitting becomes an obsession."

What a riot - although you have to wonder what strange miracle saved her clothes . . . .

North County Knitting Group Update

Here's the flyer I worked up for the St. Louis North County Knitting Group. If you click on the picture, you will get a larger image you can actually read. I am trying to organize a group to KIP (Knit In Public) on Wednesday evenings at the Corner Coffee House in Ferguson. They are open until 10 p.m., so I am shooting for 7 to 9 p.m., Wednesdays, beginning October 18th.

If you live in North St. Louis County, please pass the word. This is open to the public and both experienced knitters and people wanting to learn to knit are welcome.

Pictures will be posted here of the innagural evening's participants! I am really excited about the prospect of meeting new people and being able to visit with some old friends!

If you are interested, please contact me through my blog profile or leave a way for me to contact you in a message on here! Thanks - and am looking forward to seeing everybody who's interested on October 18th!

Krista Tee and Knitting Update

Here it is!!! So far, so good . . . . I love, love, love this
sweater, however, it can get rather boring. Seems socks are more fun that long, drawn out sweaters!

I must admit the armholes were a blast, but there's still 2" left till I reach the back of the neck. At least there's fewer stitches. The one redeeming feature - the color. This is MY color! Sort of an antique Williamsburg blue, so that will make it all worthwhile. And, from looking at the pattern, it seems the front will be MUCH more fun! Anyway, I'm going to finish this sometime soon.

The Gansey has been sitting there patiently waiting for attention and occasionally it is admired and fondled. The initials are complete and it will help pass the time this winter, for sure!

In other news, I am considering starting a St. Louis North County Knitter's Group. Hopefully it will meet someplace close to where *I* live, like the Ferguson Corner Coffee House. Drove by there tonite and noticed they didn't have a huge number of cars parked around, so perhaps they'll welcome a bunch of gossipy women knitting and drinking hot, coffee-flavored milkshakes! If you or someone you know would like to come knit, probably on a Wednesday evening, from 7 to 9 p.m., please email me or leave a comment here. Most likely, this won't happen until mid-October, since my daughter-in-law is going in for surgery next week and would like to be included and learn to knit. Might be fun! Hopefully, it will be a nice, new outlet in North County.

Some More Updates

Finally! A picture of the completed and BLOCKED Pacific Northwest Shawl, also known as my Upper Penninsula Shawl.


You can finally see some of the details - little fish swimming at the border, the water waves, sand dollars, Trees, and seagulls. Could be either Pacific or UP - take your pick! I like the color, however, since I dyed this yarn myself.

Also, I couldn't help myself! Known by many as the "one-project knitter" I now have three going. Saturday, I balled up some of the beautiful antique blue cotton/rayon yarn my niece, Wendy, brought home from Stitches Midwest a couple weeks ago, and began the Krista Tee.



Granted, not too much finished - took a while to "get in the groove." But what is finished looks totally awesome!

Socks of August - Update

Well - here is sock #1 done in the tried and true "Blueberry Waffle" pattern, and the heel detail of the eye of the patridge heel - looks like mult-colored dots with texture! How neat is that???

Gansey Update - 8/19/06

Now for a quick update on the "progress" of the Gansey from Hell:

As you can see - the first buttonhole - with one of the beautiful silver Celtic Knot buttons from Stitches poking through.


And here, we have the beginnings of my initials which are on the far left front side - about 2" from the side "seam."

I've been doing some reading about the Ganseys origin. These are fishing sweaters, knit (as this one is) with 5-ply wool. These are tiny plys, since the yarn is as thin, if not thinner, than sock yarn. They are knit on small needles - in this case US size 1s so the finished fabric is tight woven. This makes them water and wind proof, pretty much. Of course, if you're knocked overboard by a huge-ass wave, or pulled into the drink by an enormous fish, it won't keep you dry! That's where the initials come in. When your body washes up on shore, the initials give some clue as to who you were!

I get a big chuckle out of all of this, and realize that this is a very traditional garmet, one that will no doubt take me until the end of time to complete, and, if given the chance, it will be worn with great pride.

I'll post more pictures as this thing progresses, and share more tidbits of the tradition as I can.

Stitches Stash Enhancement!

I may have to go to Stitches Midwest vicariously with my niece, but I got some REAL stash enhancement!

She brought me the Lorna's Laces Somerset I've wanted (80% wool, 20% nylon and oh-so soft), some Fly Super Sport (superwash Merino wool), Berroco's Touche (50% Cotton, 50% rayon also super soft) for my Krista Tee, a cool cables pattern, buttons for my Gansey sweater (like she expects I'll finish it in this lifetime!), a pattern for a shawl from the new Victorian Lace Today book, and my Folk Socks book (actually from the Interweave Hurt Book Sale a couple weeks ago).

You gotta love the way she shops! She even took an empty suitcase with her to Chicago so she could bring her bounty home! I am so thrilled! She also gave me her Tahitian Sunset Koigu that she just couldn't seem to knit. Some of you may read her blog, Shoes and Yarn, and she tried a bunch of different patterns with this yarn, ripped everything out, and gave up. A million thanks to Wendy for all these goodies!

We had such fun - I showed her progress on my sock and sweater, saw her feather and fan shawl, and we both got to see her mom's progress on a Christmas alphabet she's been cross stitching since she broke her thigh bone in early June. It is amazing just how much you can get done when you're forcefully glued to the sofa! My poor brother left the dining table and watched TV while we three sat there another couple hours going on about wool, knitting, and cross stitch.

Blog Food Expo!

Ok - Here's my entry in the food expo!

Christmas Tree Coffee Cake Directions
Grandma Field / Aunt Susie

Make basic Sweet Roll Dough – one batch makes one large coffee cake – so make a couple batches.

Basically, follow these pictures:




Roll the dough to about 1/3” thickness in a rough triangle shape. Brush liberally with melted butter. Top with brown sugar, chopped pecans and cinnamon.


If you’re smart, you transfer to dough to the cookie sheet prior to forming the coffee cake. If you’re me – well – you end up having to transfer along the way. Note, I use a large jelly roll pan with a lip – in case the filling runs out, it won’t end up on the floor of your oven.



Roll the edges in with a nice arc, and make slanted cuts at the wide end for the “trunk” and roll it inward. With a sharp knife, make cuts along the side rolls.




Twist individual rolls “up.” Kind of point the outward sides of each roll and press onto the cookie sheet.

At this point, you can freeze or refrigerate until you’re at Christmas Eve.

This can raise overnight in the fridge if it has been refrigerated. If it has been frozen, I take it out, let it thaw, then pop it in the fridge before going to bed.

Bake at 350° 12 to 15 minutes.



Frost while hot with powdered sugar/water/vanilla glaze. Just drizzle it on – nobody’s awake enough to notice fine art.



Serve annually Christmas morning to a large family that has nothing else to eat for breakfast . . . Sit back and enjoy praise.


Pass on the tradition to the next generation as soon as humanly possible!

The Socks of August

And it came to pass that . . . 410 stitches will not fit on my tiny #1 circulars! Boo Hoo! At least all three welts are completed, and we await the arrival of the new needle. So, I got me over to eBay and ordered another circular to add to the collection.

And that left me with nothing OTN. Bummer! So, tonite, I cast on for a new pair of socks - in bold, bright, beautiful colors. See??

I bought this yarn a little while ago, and have been itching to try it. I did try the toe-up socks last week with it, but wasn't that enthused about it. Now, this, is beautiful. Am going to use the tried and true "Blueberry Waffle" sock pattern. Did that one last year and have a beautiful pair of socks to show for the effort. I love this yarn!

Well - Welts!

No, not Lawrence Welts (Ugh, bad joke).

Yes, not only do I now know what welts are, I've even finished knitting a couple and have one more to go before my #1 dpns become entirely too small. Here's what we have so far:

The largest one is the back of the sweater, top one is the left-hand side, and bottom still being worked is the right side. Once I finish this one, I will knit across all three, adding stitches until there are a miraculous 410 stitches total. Apparently, this is what is meant by "split garter welts."

Then the real fun begins with the patterned stitches. Thank goodness the body of the sweater is knitted flat!






It will include seed stitch initials, definition ridges, starfish and diamond motifs, two-stitch seed seam stitches, gussets, unshaped neckline, shoulder straps, and a ribbed neckband. Whew! Now - considering it's taken me 3 days to knit what I have so far, any bets on how long it will be before this is finished? I'm guessing if I get 10 rows finished a day . . . . . . . it will be completed sometime just near retirement! (But it will still be just as pretty!)

A Day of Two "Firsts"

Progress on the Koigu socks has come to a total standstill - not enough yarn. Eventually may rip it out and try something else.

Today was boring, so it became a day of firsts.

My very first swatch - is the Guernsey yarn for the Grace's Cardigan. Actually came out right on the money! Notice the "Channel Island Cast On" that makes the nice little picots on the edge. Decided to throw those into this just to see if I could do it.



Following that success, I then tried my first "toe up" sock - not too bad for a novice!

Strange Phenomenon

So, I sat here today admiring the first completed Koigu sock. I must admit, it came out rather nice. See?

And I sit there, thinking how nice the multi-colored yarn is - how the colors go so good together, how much I like the little flecks of dark blue and green and a bit of red and rose. It is just a lovely combination of colors - and they are very pleasant to look at for long periods of time . . . .

I should know - they MATCH the sofa and love seat I've been admiring for the last 11 years! How strange!

Air Conditioning is Great!

It has been so ghastly hot in St. Louis (103 degrees today) that I've just stayed in. No grocery store, no yarn shop, haven't even stuck my nose outside! It is 9:30 p.m., and still 87 out there. Nope - have stash, will knit.

So, I've been working on the first Koigu sock on and off all day - and am almost finished! I think this is beautiful yarn and works up great! I have to thank Wendy for getting it for me at the Sheep and Wool Festival and Jeff and Alicia for helping her dig through the mill ends to find these!

Just a few more toe rows and it will be finished. All I can do is hope and pray there's enough yarn left to make another one just like this one! Keep your fingers crossed!

Good Grief!!

Look what I found in my aunt's knitting stuff:















Even for 1967, this is the most awful thing I've seen in years and years! The picture of the second page is included, so you can see the directions for shaping the "cap" with some kind of material over a basketball, of all things!!!

I managed to turn the heel on my first pair of koigu socks today, and am thrilled with the outcome. Pictures of those to come soon!

Let the Knitting Begin!!!

If you've come from visiting my original blog (see link at right) you know that today was my last day working a temp job held for the last nine and a half months and that I've come to love a great deal.

Ok - so now I'll be home, unemployed, for a while. If you're on MSN Messenger and have me added as BlueLady486, you will see my personal message "Will Work for Money."

So - I bought this 4,500 yards of 5-ply Guernsey wool from Frangipani in Cornwall, England (I've truly lost my mind). It is a beautiful teal color named "Deep Ocean" and I'm planning to start knitting the Grace's Cardigan (link below) during this period of unemployment. I am also working on a pair of socks now, and may start another pair.


















This from the lady who tries mainly to knit one thing at a time and complete that project before I begin another. I know - I know - My niece is a bad influence on me! So, I will begin the sweater once I get the required needles and figure out exactly what a "welt" is!














This is the beginning of the Koigu socks. Bought at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival by my niece last May, is kind of mill ends and neither color is enough for a pair, so I will knit this band at the tops, the heels and toes out of this nice periwinkle. Think they will be stunning!

Ok - St. Louis has officially been declared a disaster area - and my house is part of it. Have been without power for 63.5 hours, and still counting (posting thanks to the generous use of my sister-in-law's computer).

Anyway, wanted to show you what my life's been like since the beginning of the storm last Wednesday night:














And here's a lovely picture of my yard and all the limbs and branches (and wires) down:















And here's one - a GREAT SHOT, I think - of me knitting while waiting for the power to come back on. See? I've finished the striped sock and started a new Koigu one!


Seriously, I will post some pictures of that AND my new yarn that's just arrived from Cornwall, England for a Gansey sweater I plan to try soon. Hopefully, we'll all survive and have power back soon!

Better - the Second Time Around!

Yes, fellow stick wielders! I have managed to finish the Pomatomus Socks at last! I must admit that the second one went much quicker than the first - due in no SMALL way to the fact that I didn't have to rip out even one row! I'm so jazzed about this!

Please also note that I didn't embarrass myself further by posting these socks on my feet - thereby showing off my "pasty white legs," as my niece told me after the last pic.

So, onto sock #2 of what I'm lovingly calling my "clown socks." Regia's Nations Fun colors. What a trip! Sad, tho, that the ONLY red shows up on the heels! Perhaps another pair . . . .


Also, I have found three beautiful, ample-sized sweaters that I can't wait to try. They are the Elegant Shirt Yolk, the Two-Sided Square, and one called Grace's Cardigan (no, unfortunately, I'm not going to make this for my sister-in-law, Grace just because it's her name!) from Blackberry Ridge. All beautiful, all patterns ordered, and me sitting here waiting . . . .

Hopefully that means I'll be posting some pictures of half-finished sweaters soon! hehehe

There Has Been SOME Knitting Going On . . .

Am pleased to say that it only took about a MONTH of knitting and frogging to complete ONE Pomatomus Sock!!! So, like a trooper - I cast on the second sock, did exactly two rows, then returned to my rainbow socks below :)




Aren't these turning out cool???? I'm in love.

My Aunt's Picture

This is a picture I cross stitched for my aunt (see my original blog for some of her pictures and the post of her passing). She loved giraffes. For Christmas one year, I made her a "Zoo Parent" of a giraffe at the St. Louis Zoo - she was thrilled.

When Bad Things Happen to Good Socks . . . .

Ok - I've been pleasantly knitting along on some lovely socks. Been looking forward to knitting this yarn up. Finally was able to get Pomatomus pattern to work and look neat . . . . see?

Really neat - takes the stripey yarn, adds interest. Basically, a neat thing!

So . . . I decide it is time to order some more yarn - stuff I've been coveting for a couple months. Is Regia's Nations Fun colors, and another one. They arrived in Friday's mail . . . . . .

The poor Pomatomus has been set aside (believe me, I can't figure out what to do with the pattern over the top of the foot anyway . . . .)

Now, there are socks I can knit and not have to think while I'm doing it. Yippee!!!

I love this stuff!! Fun colors, crayon box colors really, in nice, VISIBLE stripes. One blogger actually said "don't look directly at the socks!" hehehehe Those are the kind of socks I'll really wear!

So, in all this, I have achieved a big revelation about stash yarn. Please accept my definition below:

STASH - n., relates to yarn that was either so beautiful, soft, pretty, different, or cheap that required purchase. A pattern or item was in mind when the purchase was made. We took the yarn and danced all the way home with it and sang songs full of glee about our purchase - like hunters bagging Big Game. Then, a day or two later, we do the same thing with other yarn - more beautiful, soft, pretty, different, or cheaper than what we just got. New patterns have been discovered, or items you saw on a friend that just HAVE to be knit. Repeat this process 10 or 20 times, and you achieve "STASH." Only the newest stuff is your favorite - and the stuff that is more than 24 hours old is no longer as wonderful as it was when you got it.

At least, that's MY take on it . . . .

It's a . . . . BEAR!!

This is the latest addition to the family . . . a teddy bear and the answer to the "what is it" below!! He's made from the free yarn so many knitters got recently . . . with a bit extra purchased from the store. Took slightly more than 3 skeins, but he's still adorable!


Isn't this the wildest color you've ever seen?

Remember my jaywalkers? This is the same yarn! Then I must have tried another 5 different patterns before admitting defeat and just going with this, which is a slip stitch cable. Am pleased to say I added probably another 1.5" after taking this pic, and fully intend to complete the first stock tomorrow!