Empty Nest

I don't get much computer time these days, but I'm not complaining. When Aurora goes off to college next fall, I'll have all I want and then some.

How do I feel about the impending empty nest? I'm very proud of her. I know she is ready to go build a life of her own and that she can be whatever she wants to be! And I won't have any trouble finding things to do with my time. I'm going to miss her , of course, (a lot!), but we're both gonna be just fine.


While not blogging lately, I have been knitting. I made a Helmet Liner for a friend of Aurora's who is in the National Guard, modeled here by a stuffed rabbit. (Battle Bunny? I know, that's just wrong, somehow.) Unfortunately it came out too big and I'm starting it over.


My Jaywalkers are done, ABK (All But the Kitchener) and I'm sure I'll take care of that this weekend.

I put aside my Dale of Norway sweater for a while in favor of more mindless knitting, and made two hat-and-scarf sets to be donated with the Cameron Village Library Knitters donation this fall. One set is garter stitch and one set is 1 by 1 ribbing. I used Lion Brand Homespun for this project. I like the way the finished project looks and feels, and I would certainly wear them. (I have a thing about not donating things to charity if I wouldn't wear them myself). However, I didn't enjoy knitting with this yarn. It's like..... fuzz wrapped in string. I tried several different needle types, but I was always catching my needle tips in a little bit of the fuzz or just the string. I used up all I had, and I don't plan to buy any more.




Then, because Mom came for another visit, I wanted a project without stitch counting so I could talk and knit at the same time. So I took an nice big ball of Bernat Handicrafter Cotton Ultrasoft, cast on for a diagonal dishcloth and just kept going. I finally started decreasing so I can tell you that in the end it will be about 37 inches square and will use up almost 2 12 oz skeins. So, I guess it's a baby blanket or a lap blanket.

Now that I've a nice stretch of mindless knitting, I'm read to take on Dale of Norway again!

Slow but Steady

I haven't blogged lately, mostly because my knitting doesn't change much from day to day.

I'm knitting away at my Dale of Norway baby sweater. The body is done and I'm ready to cast on for the sleeves.

Also, one of my Jaywalker socks is done and I'm almost to the heel of the second one. I won't bother with a picture -- everybody knows what Jaywalkers-in-progress look like!

In other knitting news, a couple of weeks ago I started teaching two of my co-workers to knit. They are both knitting like pros already! One is primarily a quilter (she makes wonderful things!) and will probably remain so, but I think the other has become a serious knitting recruit. She used to do beautiful cross stitch but mostly gave it up because of eyestrain. Knitting doesn't bother her eyes at all, and she's already made several very nice pot holders and dishcloths. The two of us are about to tackle Helmet Liners for the troops. The tribe increases!

Emergency Hats in Use

Last week, when I heard WonderBoy had outgrown all his hats, I declared a state of emergency and knitted up a couple of fast ones. This weekend I drove up to the Asheville area to see them in use. First up, we have the Spiral Rib Hat in Peter Pan yarn:































Then, we have the Earflap Hat in good old Wool Ease chunky:


He's such a cuddly, happy baby, and his new hats just match his amazing blue eyes!


I had a great weekend!

Jaywalker Sweater?

So, My Socks that Rock told me it wanted to be Jaywalkers, and who am I to argue? Good Choice.
I can't get over how gorgeous this yarn is. I am so tempted to knit a whole sweater!

Being a grandma rocks!

Wonderboy has grown into the sweaters I knit for him before he was born. The pictures say it all!


Then, the icing on the cake: I got a phone call saying "He's grown out of all his hats!" So I grabbed a spare skein of Peter Pan and whipped up an emergency hat. I used this pattern, but added quite a few stitches to make it bigger. Very soft and very cute! I mailed it off yesterday. I'm going to make at least one more to take to him when I visit next weekend -- something with ear flaps, I think.

Not too swift, but it works...

No swift, no ball winder, no kid handy to signal a touchdown for fifteen minutes while I wound up my skein of Lorna's Laces. What to do? I found a new use for my Pilates ball:

Yes, this means the first sock is finished. I like it. It looks kind of reptilian!

Oh, yes it does!

[Edited because Flickr mixed someone else's pictures in with mine. How weird is that??]

My skein of Socks that Rock arrived today, and yes, it rocks! Pictures simply cannot do justice to the colors in this yarn. I won it complements of January One and Blue Moon Fiber Arts; and it came with one of Cara's beautiful note cards. Can she take a picture or what?!? Thank you Cara and thank you Blue Moon!

I can't wait to see how this incredible yarn is going to knit up, but I'm being firm with myself and finishing my Lorna's Laces/Falling Leaves socks first. As I mentioned in my winning comment on Cara's blog, I have good use for toasty warm hand knit socks. The heat is out at work, and they don't expect it to be fixed for a few more weeks. This is not the problem in central North Carolina that it would be in, like, Wisconsin; but it is still pretty chilly. The up side is, I get to wear all the winter things that usually stay in the back of my closet.

My new and adorable grandson, on the other hand, lives in the chilly highlands of North Carolina, and so should get lots of use from everything I can't seem to stop knitting for him. This one, however, has slowed me down some. What you see here is the result of an entire snow day spent knitting, plus two evenings of knitting-and-classic-movies! It's a good thing it's size 18 months and he won't need it until next fall!

Soooo much better...

So, I kept looking at my Falling Leaves socks and they just didn't look right. I kept going back to the chart, adjusting my tension, changing needles; but they still looked weird. I went blog hopping to see what everyone else's looked like, and sure enough, they didn't look like mine. Finally, totally frustrated, I reread the entire pattern out loud, word for word. What was I missing? One sentence: "Chart only shows odd numbered rows, k all stitches on even numbered rows, k all stitches for bottom of foot." Doh! So I frogged them back to the toe and started over. They look better now.

Then, there is this. I had been reading about it, but I had to try it myself to understand just how addicting stranded colorwork is! I have to be careful when I pick it up, because I almost can't put it down. (Notice the nifty true-color enlarged chart in the background. I made it in Excel.)






It hasn't been all knitting here though. The weather has been on the cold side for North Carolina but very sunny and clear, so I took the Lowas out for a little spin:


























One of the best things about living in Raleigh is that I can be downtown in 15 minutes, or I can be here in 15 minutes:


And I have a great time in both places.

Maybe I should take my standed colorwork, hike down to the creek again, sit on this rock and knit.

Ready for the big time?

So, I practiced color work by making the We Call Them Pirates hat. Do you think I'm ready for this?:

It's sweater 10208 from Dale baby book #102. I've cast on, but haven't made it out of the ribbing yet. With the lightweight yarn and the leeeetle needles, it sure is a long way around!

I'm using Dale Baby Ull in a Royal Blue and a Light Gray. I had a hard time with the swatch, because in the chart the symbol for the light color is darker than the symbol for the dark color, and I just couldn't wrap my poor dyslexic brain around it. So, I recharted it using Excel. I resized the cells to the right proportions and colored them in with blue and gray. From then on it was a lot easier. It printed out a lot larger than the chart in the book, and that helped a lot, too! Also on the needles, Falling Leaves Socks from Knitty, in Lorna's Laces Shepard Socks color Ravenswood.

Pirates and Treasure

Pirates:

Here's Aurora running off to sea in her We Call Them Pirates hat. She chose the yarn -- Dalegarn Falk in a dark purple and lavender -- and I knit the hat. I did 2 repeats of the rows Jolly Rodgers instead of 3, so it's more of a skull cap. (And that may be the worst pun I've ever made.)(Which is saying a lot!)

Treasure:

I can't believe it! I won some Socks that Rock in the contest over at January One. Thanks Cara! It's my first skein, but I have a feeling it won't be my last!

We Call them Girly...

... just not to their faces! I've joined this:

because I want to get better at multicolored knitting and because my senior-in-high-school daughter loves all things piratey. She's chosen GIRLY colors for her hat: dark purple and lavendar. ButI had an idea for even girlier pirates and just had to swatch it with random stuff from the stash :

I'ts Bernat Softee Baby in variegated pastels, contrasted with a mystery yarn in black. I love it! I may make this one for me... with sparkly little beads in each eye socket.

In other news, I've finished my Broadripple Socks. I used Cascade Fixation, in variegated purple. We seem to have a thing for purple around here.

Lace and ADD Don't Mix

So, I've started the Mountain Stream scarf three times and ripped it out three times. As a card-carrying person with ADD and someone who can't even end a k1, sl1 row on the right stitch, maybe I shouldn't be doing this. I've put it aside for now, and during the quiet evenings of late January, I'll try it again.

In other news, I've obviously forgotten to post for a long time. First, there was this: I did it! It's nothing anyone would ever want to read, but it sure was fun!

Then there were three visits to the mountains of Western North Carolina (and my grandson, of course!); a very welcome visit from my mom; and a totally unwelcome visit from a mouse. The latter sent me into a cleaning frenzy. I scrubbed and relined every drawer and every shelf of every cabinet in my kitchen; and I washed everything they contained in hot, soapy bleach water. Except for my dishtowels and dishcloths. That was the drawer where the mouse met his untimely end. I threw out all my kitchen linens and bought new ones. Fortunately, none were handmade.

Then there were the standard Christmas activities and the standard year end activities.

Anyway, all that kept me busy. I did try to knit a pair of Jaywalkers from some Lana Grossa in a colorway that reminded me of Japanese Maples in the fall; but somehow it was not a good mix of pattern and yarn. My brother asked me tactfully if I had any blind friends to give them to. They look a lot better in the picture than in person.

Also, I think I misread the pattern. The ankle is too tight and the foot is too loose. I'll frog it and maybe try just a pain ribbed sock.

I'm having better luck with the Broadripple pattern. I love the pattern, I love the fit, and I love the yarn. It's sproingy!

So there, I posted... and will try to get back into the habit.

They've done it again!

Look what the lovely ladies of Knit Night at Cameron Village Library have done this time! This group meets once a month from February to November, to knit for charity. In November, everyone brings in the things they have made and they are divided and donated to three local charities. Last night after everything was organized, there were three heaping tables of beautiful hats, scarves, mittens, sweaters, and afghans. And this is on top of the Pink Shawls that were turned in for the special project in September. The talent, generosity and productivity of these ladies is astounding! And on top of all that, it is always a fun evening. We really do have chairs, but somehow a lot of us end up sitting on the stairs:

Here's Grace, our brave leader:

And here's Jessica (Hi Jessica!) modeling her creation: And if you click >>>HERE<<< you can see more of the fun.

I'm going to miss this group for the next few months. You can bet I'll be there in February!

New Project!

No picture of the Rogue yet. To get my model to pose I may have to book her through an agent! High School Seniors are very busy people!

I wasn't going to start another major project during November, because I'm enjoying NaNoWrimo so much and I can only handle one obsession at a time. But this morning I drove Aurora to Chapel Hill to compete in the state Japan Bowl, an academic competition about Japanese culture and language. It was a lot of fun and very interesting. She was busy studying and competing all day, but I was mostly sitting around waiting and smiling foolishly at people who forgot they were speaking Japanese. So I cast on for my very first lace project:
I love it! And yes, now I'm dealing with 2 obsessions.
It's going to be the Mountain Stream Scarf from The Knitting Zone. I'm making with with Kid Seta in color 721. I thought it was dark red when I bought it, but it may be a little purple.

Oh... and the NaNoWrimo word count is 3,700. I'm catching up!

It's done!

WooHoo! The Rogue is done! No pictures yet -- the model is off with friends. So I washed it, and it's blocking on the kitchen table. Pictures as soon as I can get her to stand still long enough.

The word count? Um... 44. Well, it's a start. And the evening is young.

I'm sewing as fast as I can!

The knitting part of the Rogue is done! I have sewn in the sleeves, but I still need to hem them; and hem around the hood, if I decide to do that. I really wanted to finish it up tonight, but I ran out of patience and was afraid I would mess it up if I continued on.

I actually wanted it done before today because it has been cool enough for Aurora to wear it; but also so that I could NaNoWrimo without guilt.

I love NaNoWrimo! I participated a couple of years ago and discovered that I'll probably never get rich publishing novels, but I surprised and entertained myself enough to want to try it again! So here I go... I'm getting a late start but maybe I'll make it up this weekend.

Goal for tomorrow: Post a picture of a finished Rogue and post a count of 2000 words.

Look Ma, No Arms!

If it had sleeves, the Rogue would be done! It's not really this color -- it's a darker, more leafy green.

It looks like I may have made some errors in the cables, but since it is going to be seen mostly on a moving teenager I'm not inclined to fix it.

This project has taught me a lot of things -- mostly that my tension sucks! It's just not consistant. It's not likely to improve at this point (I've been knitting about 40 years, I think) so maybe I should avoid large expanses of stockinet stitch from now on.

Don't get me wrong --even though it has that "homemade" look, I love it anyway, and I loved making it.

I think that I quilt for the end product, but I knit for the process.

When Life Happens, Blogging Doesn't

It seems like I posted only yesterday, but I guess not! I've been busy with the Good (Aurora's Senior Portrait, and a new Terry Pratchett book ), the Bad (car and cellphone trouble) and the Ugly (trying to bring a project in under deadline at work).

BUT -- Aurora's pictures are going to be lovely, Mr.Pratchett has outdone himself once more, everything has been fixed, and we may make the deadline yet; so everything came out OK in the end.

In spite of everything, knitting continued! I'm on row 51 of the hood of the Rogue.

While I was in the mountains with WonderBoy, I took an afternoon to wonder into Asheville (what a fun place!) and indulged in a little stash enhancement:

I'm thinking of making this with the yarn. The fabric may end up in a quilt, or in something for Aurora to wear.

Also while in the mountains, I finished the socks at the top of the post. It's my first real pair of socks (not slippers, not Christmas stockings, not booties -- socks!) and I love them. I hope to wear them with my hiking boots this weekend.

I'm off to tackle row 52!

WonderBaby, Indeed!

N is for Newborn!

WonderBaby arrived on Sunday, Sept 24 at 4:36 a.m. He is strong, healthy, and adorable. Mom and Dad are radiant and proud. I spent a wonderful week with them to welcome him home. Life doesn't get any better!

With his birth, he officially becomes WonderBoy; otherwise some day he'd have to tell me "Grandma, I'm not a baby!". Someday, of course, he will outgrow WonderBoy. Then I'll have to change it to the future slang equivalent of WonderDude.

(What's with all the funny names on this blog? Well, I have this teenage daughter, you see, and I've been lecturing her for years about not disclosing her identity online. Good advice for anyone, and practice what you preach!)

A Short Break

Announcing a short break in the blogging. I'm heading for the Highlands of North Carolina to chair the welcoming committee for WonderBaby, otherwise known as my grandson! He is expected to arrive sometime tonight, and I'll be staying for a week or so in a house without internet access. If I get the chance, though, I'll post an update!