More Than I Can Chew???

I'm still a sucker for KALs, so I signed up for two of them this month.

The Vest-uary KAL on Ravelry & the Toe Up Sock KAL in the KnittingPurls group. The Vest-uary one started on the first, so I'm already behind as all I've done is begin to design the vest I want to make. The Toe-Up one begins on the 17th so I have a little time for that.

For the Toe-Up, we're supposed to work from stash and fortunately, I added these two balls of Bernat Sox yarn to my stash at the end of last month.




The first is Faded Denim and the second is Wooded Denim (can you sense a theme here?) I'm planning on using the Wooded one for the KAL. In preparation, I'm almost finished with the first sock of the pair I was working on when Summer of Socks 08 ended several weeks earlier than I thought it would. I think that sock is destined for a period of "Second Sock Syndrome" until I finish the KAL. Besides, I used a variation of Wendy Knits Seaweed lace and I want to experiment with recharting it so the lace moves in the opposite direction on the second sock. I think it can be done, but I'll have to swatch!

In the meantime, I've been working on hat & scarf sets that will go to the shelter for homeless veterans in Detroit. Here are the first 7 sets that I made in the last few weeks.




That last poor set was hiding when I took the shot of the first six. I have another set that just needs the last decrease row of the hat completed and then yarn ends run in. I'll post a photo of it when it's finished. There's another hat just started on the arm of the chair below. Boomer loves to visit my knitting when I'm not actually clicking needles, but right now, he's curled up on my lap, pinning my left arm down and making it a bit difficult to type this.. {g}


I think he's relaxing after nibbling on the wheat grass we picked up yesterday to treat our furry kids. Sadie loves nibbling on grass - or at least she did when Mom was letting her out in the back yard for supervised nibbling - but she's now a full fledged indoor cat so she was face down in this pot as soon as it was placed on the floor.


I'm still keeping an eye on the continuing saga of the CPSIA law which grows more confusing with each passing day. Check in at CPSIA Central for the latest news and links.

Back Home Again

Caution - lots of photos in this post!

I flew back to Michigan from California on Wednesday, starting at about 7:30 California time at LAX as my son-in-law dropped me off on the way to work, and finally getting into Flint about 10:30 Michigan time. I think I'm still recovering from jet lag plus a low grade cold that I might have picked up on the plane.

Anyway, here's where I was - in the San Bernardino Mountains on Highway 18. The scenery was beautiful.


At this spot, they cut through a ridge, but as you can see below there are plenty of places where the roadway hangs on the side of the mountain and from below you're looking up at the underside of the section above you.


The shot below is from a turn-out and is looking down the mountain toward San Bernardino which on a clear day (this one wasn't) is laid out like a toy town below.


And this one is looking back the way we came. The first time I went out after my daughter's family moved "up the hill", she offered to bring a blindfold to the airport in case the drive was scary. I've never found it so but love the changing scenery and the rock formations.


Here, from another day, the fog at lower elevations only lets one see the mountain tops sticking through.


This is my favorite sign - the curve isn't quite that sharp but it does turn 180 degrees in the length of a van while climbing the side of the mountain in Crestline.


Because I didn't finish the red sweater for my grandson until after the weather had started to warm up, I waited and took it along. He was kind enough to model it and, as I planned, there's some room for growth - especially in the sleeves.


Granddaughter's sweater was also modeled. She tells me that she wore it a lot this last winter.


I didn't take any knitting along but Daughter had several skeins of yarn that she was planning on taking to Goodwill - I claimed them for our K4 group instead and used one to crochet a granny square vest for Grand-daughter.. I was her "show & tell" topic at school on Friday and she wanted me to bring along the partly finished vest. I started on the back just before class and continued working on it while fielding questions - most of them about knitting & crocheting {g}..


On Saturday we attended the Munchkins' track meet where Grand-daughter showed her heels to the competition in the relay & hurtles races and tied the 100 meter dash.


Grandson received the Student of the Month award for his classroom. His teacher was kind enough to slip his 3rd grade class into the K-1 assembly so I could be there for the presentation.


When I returned, I found that in my absence, my DH had continued to check garage sales for yarn for our K4 group and had scored a couple more large bags. Here's the back of the car on Thursday when we loaded it up to go to the Sr. Center. I counted while sorting the worsted weight yarn into the cupboards and there were over 100 skeins plus an extra large bag of baby & sport yarn that went to Pat that I didn't count. I think it worked out to about 10¢ a skein!

Whoopee!! Stitch Markers.. I did it!!

Yes, I got up my nerve and made some beaded stitch markers!! How I got to this was an adventure in itself. This morning after coffee with Mom, I came home to DH asking if I wanted to investigate the porch sale we saw in the village on the way home from Kroger's last night. (We didn't stop then because we had just picked up a bake-it-at-home pizza and Mom had her oven on pre-heat.) So off we went and the first thing that DH spotted was a cast iron door stop in the shape of a black cat. Mom's cat, Sadie is black, and while the doorstop was obviously a short hair cat, unlike Sadie, we both agreed that Mom would probably like it so $1 exchanged hands and off we went to Mom's. She was pleasantly surprised and we all agreed that the cat needed a green bead for an eye in place of the simple hole that was there. Hmmm.. JoAnne's is having a 40% off sale on jewelry findings & beads and it's right across the parking lot from Meijer's where asparagus is still on sale for 99¢ a pound. A plan was forming and off the three of us went. We found a package of mixed beads in greens & golds that looked promising and I picked up a package of wires with little heads on one end and one of small rings. Back at Mom's, after a couple other uninteresting stops (we did get another 3#s of asparagus), the smallest green bead was a perfect fit for the cat's eye and a little Elmer's glue held it in place with the hole running top to bottom and looking like a slit pupil.. Perfect!

I brought the rest of the package of beads home and after much hemming & hawing, enlisted DH's help and here are the results:



The white beads are more opalescent than they show in the photo - another case of the flash washing out the color. Anyway, I used them this evening on the Fuzzy Feet and on the latest pair of booties and I love them. I'm seriously thinking about going back tomorrow while the sale is still on and stocking up on some more supplies. I should mention that yesterday, I stopped at the fancy bead store in Oxford, 3 miles up the road, and had absolutely no luck in finding either rings or the wires with the stops on one end. I asked for help and the woman had no idea what I was talking about and didn't seem interested in either understanding what I needed or offering suggestions. So finding what I needed and at 40% off today was a real high.

On the actual knitting front, I gave Mom the red vest from the Knit Red KAL and she loves it. It fits her perfectly and she was going through her closet picking out outfits that it would go with. She mentioned a few weeks ago that she really liked the lime green micro-fiber yarn that I've been using for the baby booties and while I couldn't find that type today, the Red Heart Kids has a worsted weight that's almost the exact color though without the sheen. I picked up two 5 ounce skeins and will make her a vest, probably the Jiffy vest from Leisure Arts with the leaf lace panel in the front (if I can find where I put the pattern!).

Busy Day

Today was pretty busy. In addition to some shopping and taking Mom to bingo, I managed to finish up quite a few projects.

First off, the Feather & Fan vest for the Knit Red KAL:



This was made out of Bernat worsted weight acrylic and took about 3/4ths of an 8 ounce skein on size 8 & 11 needles. It's small on me, so it should fit Mom just fine.

Next up, the results of flying needles while watching NCIS & House this evening - all these are for charity via our K4 group. The pale pink baby afghan is out of two skeins of Bernat Lollipop, 75 double crochet with a size K hook. The rainbow hat is from Red Heart Mexicali worsted weight, 64 stitches on a size 10.5 circular needle, finished with a straight 3 needle bind-off and the two corners tacked together. The booties are from the yarn Heather sent a few weeks ago. I've been knitting them right along with the other projects and sewed these up tonight - notice anything strange??



Yup, I seem to have an extra.. I was sure that I had knit six of the variegated ones, but right now I can only find five of them. I was getting pretty worried until I realized that I still have a full skein of that yarn. WHEW...

That leaves the Clapotis which is getting quite near the decrease section and the adult sized rag-tag afghan as the only active projects on the needles at the moment. But I have yarn for more hats, more booties (including the missing one) and at least one more baby afghan. Decisions, decisions! What am I going to start before bed-time? Stay tuned for further developments ...

Happy Birthday, Becky!!

Today is my DED's* birthday.. Just about now on the clock, I was holding her for the very first time. Happy Birthday, Sweetie - I love you lots & lots..

On the knitting front, I finished the front of the red vest.





It's still a little scrunched up in the photo because the back yoke is on a 10" needle, but the close-up especially shows the lace pattern. The lace will stretch out more when the vest is worn. I was worrying that it might be too big for Mom (who is very tiny), but unstretched, it only measures about 31" so it should be ok.

On another topic, I'm wearing my 1st Sock KAL socks this evening and they're quite comfortable. Another time I think I would add a few rows to the length to give my toes more twiddling room, but otherwise they're warm and look pretty good. I know I said that I didn't think that I'd become a sock addict, but I may make another pair or two once I get some of those PIPs I listed last week completed. I have another hat in black & rainbow (Mexicali) variegated on the needles along with more booties and there are a couple more inches finished on the pink baby afghan. The Clapotis has two more stitches to drop before I start the decrease rows. All in all, with the exception of the fair isle vest & the cable yoke cardigan, both of which are still tucked safely in yarn bin #3, all projects are progressing though not as quickly as if I worked on only one at a time. However, variety is the spice of life and with all these projects on going, I sure have variety to spare.

*p.s. DED stands for Darling Eldest Daughter..

Vest Update

I just divided for the front & back yokes of the red Feather & Fan vest. I've made vests like this before where the armhole edging is knit in garter while working the yokes and found that after wearing one a couple times that the stitches under the arm pulled apart and laddered down for an inch or so. To combat that, I cross the underarm stitches as I'm dividing. The last stitch of the back becomes the first stitch of the front so they can't pull apart. Here's a photo where I've attempted (Windows Paint program is not the best graphic tool) to highlight which stitch goes where.



The stitch marked in yellow is the last stitch of the back yoke which now moves to the needle to be knit with the front yoke. The stitch marked in black is the first stitch of the front yoke which moves to the back. The resulting X keeps the underarm tight. This photo shows the stitches without the addition of my questionable drawing abilities:



Besides working on the red vest, I crocheted on the pale pink baby afghan, finished off a cap in the rainbow yarn with black ribbing that I started yesterday and made a second one.

A Red Vest For The Knit Red KAL

I've been working today on the vest for the Knit Red KAL and have 8 repeats of the lace pattern completed. I think I'll need three or four more before I divide for the armholes. The pattern is Feather & Fan - very much like the lace I used for the fancy baby blanket, but that one has every other row purled.



Working with the flash, it's difficult to see the stitch pattern so I played around in IrfanView and tried to make the stitches show up a little better. I wouldn't mind having yarn this color!



In other news, we went to the first garage sale of the season in the midst of a snow storm. Yup, another couple inches came down last night and this morning as a long narrow band of snow went right over top of us again. It's quit for now, but later tonight there is more on the way with the possibility of sleet & freezing rain. Spring is supposed to be right around the corner, but you sure couldn't prove it by looking out a window here. Anyway, the garage sale had lots of antiques - even a large spinning wheel like the one we found in the attic out at the farm. Only this one had the spindle parts that Mom's is missing. The wheel comes up to a little above my shoulder - I'd estimate a little under 5' from the floor to the top of the wheel. They also had an old rather primitive yarn skeiner - all too expensive for my pocketbook, but fun to see. I was keeping an eye out for wool sweaters that could be dis-assembled for knitting slippers or felted bags, but nothing like that was offered. It won't be too long though before there's more than one garage sale per week and I can do some serious hunting for yarn on the hoof.