Coco Bear

 Nice needles plus nice yarn plus nice pattern equals nice knitting.   NN + NY + NP = NK
Sounds like an algebra formula but it's true here as well.  With all the right ingredients, you can almost guarantee a good time.  One bad ingredient can make for a less pleasant experience.  Two bad ingredients, well, you get the idea.

I like the whole package with this little hoodie sweater that I'm going to call Coco Bear.  I just think the color reminds me of Coco Puffs, and the sweater looks like a teddy bear sweater pattern.  Easy. The pattern is published by Bernat and is from a flyer in the store, so it's tried and true.  Also, it's on Ravelry and I don't see any major errata.  The needles are the new Harmony needles from Knit Picks.  So far, everything's good.

 I finished a heel finally on one Uncle Albert sock, and it turned out pretty thick.

That may not be all bad, given the wear and tear on socks in general.  My socks tend to give out in the toe before the heel, but whatever.  It is what it is.  The socks are slowly but surely getting knitted, and I'm about to lose interest - they may soon end up in the WIP pile till next fall!
I don't ever want to take for granted all the good things in my life, but there's a time for everything.  Some things really work well given certain circumstances and seasons, but sometimes the season's change and it's time to move on to something different.

                                           (Time for a new To-Go coffee mug!)

I've begun to do more and more carding and spinning, now that the garage and back porch are suitable weather-wise.  I really am enjoying my drum carder and all the wool I have collected.  Making good use of them is truly fun.  Mixing colors and fibers has turned into more of a creative process than I'd expected!  Who knew?

Well, it's Tuesday, you know.

If it's Tuesday, this must be (not Belgium) the night I catch up on my Tivo shows.  And the night I knit like a fiend.  I do not deny that I love to knit; it's like a pacifier that I can get away with.  And it's very legal, so no one can fuss.  And to make it holy, God was a knitter!  Oh you didn't know?  Yes, it says in the Bible that God knit me in my mother's womb. So if He was knitting way back when, it MUST be okay!

The opportunity to remake an old sweater has been hanging over my head for a while (all winter).  So on Monday night I ripped out the stitches in the neck of the purple sweater, and re-knit several rows of ribbing.  The cast off had been too tight, so much so that I couldn't get it over my head.  Now all I have to do is block it.  Yippee!

I designated Monday as a play day, since I happened to get the day off at the last minute.  I took advantage of not having any scheduled chores and made a trip to Hobby Lobby and got this yarn.

I started a little hoodie for a baby with this washable cotton from Bernat.  Very soft and a sweet cocoa color.  I'm knitting on size 6 needles as the pattern calls for. 

I haven't forgotten the red wrap, in case you're wondering.  It's coming along just fine.  I worked on it some Monday evening.
I haven't watched any basketball this week.  All my teams are out and the fun is just gone.  Pooh. Instead I have downloaded some more knitting podcasts and listened to one on my way to work this morning.  An hour commute in heavy traffic was made nearly delightful  bearable because I was listening to the Knitmore girls talk about yarn!

I worked for about 8 hours straight, my only break being a 10 minute drive from one place to another.  Came home famished and could not resist the comfort that only a cheeseburger can bring.  It was good, really good, but I ate too fast.  Anyway, it was worth it!! I felt I deserved a treat after a long day at work and a bad week last week.  My friend's husband had a heart attack, my brother in law lost his job, I endured a personal humiliation at work that I'd rather forget,  found out that our quarterly paycheck that's a month late will now be two months late, and some folks I love are being investigated. (Don't ask!)   I am not complaining about my life, just sharing why I thought it necessary to get a cheeseburger this afternoon.  Like I said, it was worth it!

Uncle Albert

Twice this week I heard the song Uncle Albert and thought of the gray socks.  I figure that they really do deserve a name and even though I haven't had time to knit this week, I could at least pick up some heel stitches and name the little guys.

It seems like, if I had an uncle with a British accent, he would probably be called Uncle Albert and would be the kind of man who wears gray wool socks.

The weather has been pretty gray the latter part of the week, and once again, it feels like England must feel every day.  Wet, cool, damp, moist....but green.  It's sooooo green outside, and that is my favorite color.

On a sad note, my spinning group buddy, Marty, is going through chemo and about to start radiation.  All this time we've spent together, I never thought I'd be typing about her cancer.  I hate it.  She is such a lovely person and is such a talented spinner and knitter.  I got my knitting machine from her and don't know how much carded roving I've gotten from her, as well as stash-reduction sock yarn. She's a talented sock designer and  cookbook author.   I am praying for her healing and that she would be back to her old self soon, long shiny hair and all!

On a happier note, I will be participating in a community garden this year.  Woo Hoo!  My friend Marlene invited me to be her partner this spring and I couldn't be more thrilled.  She plants the usual stuff and I am excited to try them and a few new things as well.

 My lettuce in the back yard is doing very well, although the lack of sunshine and warm weather has kept them from flourishing.  I saved about half a packet of seeds from each variety so hopefully I'll be able to plant them in my new country garden!

Jaded

As of this moment, my bones are disagreeing with my work schedule. While I am committed to doing lots of things that require flexibility, agility and movement in keeping with the stamina and body of a 20 year old, my bones are objecting, rejecting and calling the authorities whenever I push the issue.  Point taken.  Will look into it, I promise.

My hands seem to be able to keep up pretty well with my knitting and spinning goals, and since these remain "old lady activities" I should be good for a while.

Since it was sunny and warm on Saturday, I did a little housework (to satisfy my conscience) and made my way to the garage to clean up my yarn-stash-area.  It's all contained on a large oriental rug that I've used as an imaginary boundary line for all my gear, yarn and fiber processing equipment.  I think I did a really good job and realized as the day went on that I couldn't stop.  I kept doing one more thing until the day was gone.
I dyed some wool and yarn with this Jade green dye from Cushing.

I determined to make the next swatch from my YOTM club.  It is called Angel by Debbie Bliss (queen of yarn in my little world!)  and is made of Super Kid Mohair and Silk. 

Later I finished the gray wool socks all the way to the toes.

Sadly I don't recall giving them a name.  Kind of like naming your new  black cat, "Kitty"  or "Blackie".  I am out of yarn for the heels so they will be knit with this ball of yarn, all of which is homespun wool.  You can barely see the thread where the afterthought heel will go.  

Today I spent my time helping move someone out of their 'corporate' office and to their home.  Home offices are becoming more and more popular, mostly for cost cutting measures.  In reality, home offices just mean you never stop working.  Home offices mean you start when you wake up, break for lunch or coffee, keep working in the afternoon, and pick up where you left off after dinner.  Just ask my hubby.   :-)

March Madness

  (this photo is not color enhanced in any way - just turned out that way at dusk on Sunday!)

Today is St. Patrick's Day and I've got a good idea what lots of you are doing tonight. (You've already told me!)  I, on the other hand, am having coffee.  I'm sure St. Patrick would get start at how we celebrate his life today! (LOL)

Anywho....this is where I change the subject back to knitting and spinning, avoiding altogether the serious loss I suffered last year with my brackets (NCAA).  This year I am just having fun with them. :-0


It seems reasonable to say that I am a novice at most everything I do, but I enjoy the learning curve - it's exciting to learn something new, and the joy of discovery is what makes life fun, don't you think?  I have made some choices about my life for the next year and I'm looking forward to a little sabbatical.  My kids (all four now) will be in town this coming year, as far as I know, and I can't wait to spend some really quality time with them before they move on to 'greener' (think $$) pastures.

            (This is my wisteria in full bud.  Can't wait for the blooms.)

It has been a long, cold winter and the thoughts of spring are a welcome change!!

We kind of dodged a bullet this past week.  A car accident on a busy, major interstate left us with the potential of having to buy a new car which we DO NOT have the money for.  Instead we got the stellar news today that the car can be fixed and I am eternally grateful to the mechanic and the lady at our insurance office for working together for our common good!  Hallelujah!

Not what you'd expect

Friday morning I woke up to the news of the earthquake and tsunami.  Frightening things in a place where there's no where to run - the island of Japan.  Today they are watching for and trying to prevent a nuclear meltdown.  Life is not always what we'd expect and sometimes there's just no way to be prepared for the unexpected.
My weekend in NC did not include a trip to the LYS after all.  Plans change and the unexpected happens.  (We had a car accident.) But I still had a wonderful visit with my FIL and got to see a dear friend who I've known for years.  She and I made plans to take a trip together later this spring, just us girls; something I never, ever do.   But I made a vow to renew my social life this year and this seemed like a great way to keep my promise!

While away this weekend, I caught up on some knitting, including of course the red wrap which is about to see the start of a new ball of yarn.

I wound the last hank into two balls and have the next to last ball ready to tie on!

I also knit a swatch with yarn from my YOTM collection on the drive there.  This is definitely a yarn I would pay money for.  Being a spinner, it's hard to say that about any yarn, but this one is knitter friendly and looks good, too.  I randomly took a size 5 needle that I thought would be appropriate for any of the yarns in the pack.

Last night I couldn't sleep and grabbed my lap top to look at YouTube videos of carding wool.  I found this one that demonstrates how to make roving through a diz, straight from the drum carder.  It was the kind of thing you'd enjoy dreaming about.  Sad to say I still didn't get much sleep last night.  High hopes for this evening, cause I gotta go to work tomorrow (Monday).

Look what came in the mail!

In spite of the fact that I haven't felt good for several days now, I am well enough to post a quick blog with my new yarn selections from YOTM Club.  These are the prettiest purples I've ever seen! (the photos don't do justice on this dreary day)
I had just said to my hubby as I opened the bag today that I may just switch to another club, since the selections hadn't quite resurrected the dead for me.  Or even charged my battery.  They really haven't inspired me much at all , up until now, that is.

Oh boy are they beautiful.  Purples that are pretty, not Barney-ish. And fibers that look so lovely and soft!  What a treat!

I will be taking a quick trip Friday and Saturday  with my husband to go check on my FIL, and I am anxious to try these yarns out on the drive over there.

If I play my cards right, I'll get to ......go to, .........wait for it.........Earth Guild in Asheville!  Crescendo, cymbals crashing, bass violins making all kinds of racket!  Do I love that store or what? I hope to get a new bobbin or two for my Kromski Symphony.  I only have three and it's impossible to make a three play onto a bobbin when all three are taken up with singles, ready to be plied. 

If there are two things that can cheer me up quickly, they would be yarn and yarn stores.  Oh baby, and I really need a little lift.  Just what the doctor ordered. And while we're at it, here is the set of Clover Bamboo  4s I finally picked up at Bliss Yarns last week.  Isn't She Lovely? Isn't She Wonderful?

The Dixie Cups

This little swatch is knitted from the February sample selection (YOTM club)..

  The funny thing about this yarn, or the strand rather, is that it resembles the thread you pull from a football sock, hoping it doesn't leave a hole.  When you pull it taut, its a tiny fiber, but when released, it goes to a full, fluffy piece of yarn that really puffs up when knitted.  You can see in the above picture that there is not a hole in it.  All the gaps are filled in and that makes for a really warm sock.  The colorway is not my favorite, only because I don't like red and gray together, but the yarn and swatch are soft and squishy.
(Somehow it reminds me of a box of Dixie Cups from our bathroom when I was 8.  If you'd been there, you'd agree!) 
Now this gray yarn is very much on the practical side.  It is straight and almost coarse. The fibers are not too long and have very little kink in the staple, so the sock I'm knitting is firm and flat.

The second photo shows the waste thread where the afterthought heel will go.  I hope to start the second sock before I commence the heel and toe of this one.  The yarn will be from the contrasting one I used on the 2x2 rib at the top.  Gray heel, gray toes.

This morning I spent some time spinning this lovely blend of dyed mohair, angora and corriedale(sp?) wool.  It very soft now that I've carded in some angora, and it should produce a good halo (see the fuzzy aura in the background of the swatch picture above) once plied and knitted!!

I myself do not usually display a halo once I've been plied and knitted. I usually display a grumpy attitude with generous amounts of blame to pass around to anyone close enough for me to reach.  I don't like any part of the process of 'being worked on' and I'll bet you don't either.  But, last night when my son was sharing his frustration about a college professor, I realized how much it sounded like the grown up world I've been in since I was his age.  A world filled with people who don't really give a rip if you like what's going on.  This if life, they say.

I really wish people had more compassion nowadays.  I wish people could stop long enough to say, How can I help? But they don't.  The policeman doesn't ask how you're doing when he writes you a ticket.  The IRS doesn't ask if its been a tough year when they send you a corrected tax return that says you owe a heck of a lot more than your tax preparer thought.  And my son's professor didn't care that the tests/exams were full of misspelled words and questions about nothing from class whatsoever.  This is life, as they say.

What's not to blog about?

I've read that knitting is very therapeutic and calming and I would have to agree.  Knitting is like yoga - rhythmic and steady and just the thing for frazzled nerves.  Today was a frazzled kind of day.  I was up at 4:15 a.m. and came home from work at 4:15 p.m. Didn't take a break all day, but ate on the go. It was a long day but in a good way.    So tonight, bachelorette night for me, I did what I wanted to do.  Put on sweats, warmed up some leftovers, grabbed my knitting bag and the TV remote and watched my recorded programs.

The beauty of knitting is that there is no danger of losing that big account if I make a mistake.  No risk of the IRS red flagging suspicious activity or of me missing a deadline that could cost me my job. (Except for maybe a self-imposed knitting deadline which is not dangerous or risky at all!)  See how beautiful it is?  Therapy and spa treatment in a cute little bag!

I found myself at a loss today, trying to remember names.  If I don't have an opportunity to write a name myself, I tend to forget it.  If I write or type it, that helps much more than just seeing it or hearing it. 
All my co-workers' names seem to rhyme.  All the volunteers I work with are different from year to year and even from month to month.  My friends and family are always getting married, having kids and grandkids, and some even get re-married!  Then there are my husband's friends, co-workers and my kids friends, co-workers, etc.  All this now sounds like a feeble attempt to excuse my lame memory.  Please forgive me, what was your name?

Here Comes the Spring

It seems to me that there are a few things I can count on in this life, and I'm not just talking about death and taxes.  One thing that's certain is that seasons will  always follow other seasons, like Spring comes after Winter, Winter comes after Fall, and so on.  (Are you with me so far?) Windy days will follow rainy ones.  Grubs will magically show up in my lawn, and moles will burrow just in case I don't want to pay for aeration. 

And another thing you can count on is that the Winter will have it's fair share of cold, gray, wet days. But Spring will surely have a few warm-ish days like today for instance!  Today the sun has come out, and if you stand in the sunshine, behind a wind break with a sweater on, you can enjoy a little of God's creation for more than a just a few minutes!
And look what greeted me when I was out there:  My lettuce sprouted!!!  Wooo Hooo!

Even the forsythia is bearing a few blooms. All sure signs that Spring's a comin'!!

Since it was so pretty outside today, I took a bunch of wool (mohair and regular wool) to card out on the patio. 

The blend is pretty but might cause a gag reflex in folks unfamiliar with sheep, goats and other livestock.  For those of you with some experience in these areas, please feel free to oooh and ahhh!

On the evenings and afternoons when I had a little free time, I spun and carded this dyed wool blend - still trying to come up with a name.  Curry?  Goldenrod?  Harvest Gold? If you click the photo, you can see it's two different colors.

It does me good to sit down to the spinning wheel when I get the chance.  I find a doorway, if you will, back to what's real and important in life.  Much of our society is hung up about things, the cost of things and the price of things.  It's hard not to listen to all the bad press.  It's important to remember who and what really matters.
If your heart is pure and right with God and your fellow man, nothing else really compares!

You're such a drag!

There are lots of choices when I go to choose needles for a knitting project, but it mostly boils down to two categories when I'm thinking of needle composition.  Slippy or draggy.  (I made up those words myself!)

Inox and Addi Turbos will give you the slippy side of life.  Bamboo or wood will give you the drag you may need so the needles won't slip out of your project, particularly with sock knitting and DPNs.

I started these little wool socks so that I'd have a take-a-long project.  I chose these longish bamboo size 3s because I like the way they knit and there's a decent drag without it being a hindrance.

If you think I'm a drag personally, I wouldn't blame you.  I can't claim to have glamorous hair & nails, jewelry or clothes.  I don't drive a fancy car or speak with a foreign accent or even eat at exotic restaurants.  I am by no means a jazzy kind of gal, but I do think I am thrifty, brave (sometimes), clean and usually reverent.  Scouts honor!

On another note, here is the latest swatch from the yarn of the month club.

Knit entirely (no purls) it's stitch definition is completely lost in its mossy appearance.  The yarn would be great for a scarf, wrap or hat.

It was hard to knit with, though, even when I used my slippy needles!

Last Days of Winter

As February comes to its close next week and the cold days begin to be outnumbered by the not-so-cold days, I am thinking fast about what can possibly be knit before it's over with.

Two fire logs are left in the box, in case it snows again. I still have all my sweaters out but... I'm occasionally pulling out some tank tops and capri pants on warm days!  The weather has been so iffy that even on days when I'm sure I'll be in the yard/garden, I end up staying inside or running errands in the car.

One good in-between-the-seasons project is my new wrap for summer.  It's made of a bulky cotton cabled yarn that I knit something with long ago, then frogged the whole project because the drape was not good.

The yarn is quite-red and appeals to my need for color and my wariness of starting anything big and woolly.

I'm using size 9 circulars but it's knit straight (back and forth) in a pattern called Little Waves from the book 400 Knitting Stitches.  Its very similar to the shell or shale pattern or  feather and fan.  There is not a row of reverse stockinette so the pattern stays smooth except for the yarn overs and K2tog's.

I've got a plain knitting border for stability but it will need blocking before I can wear it, so since it may take a little while, I'm not gonna worry about that today.
In fact, since that's my attitude, I think I'll call it the Scarlet (O'Hara) Wrap.  I'll think about that tomorrow, said a wise woman in 1939!

I've had a good weekend so far and am looking forward to family visits tomorrow night and again next weekend.  Work weeks are good but just like the end of winter, the end of a lot of things can be good.  It leaves room for new beginnings! Right?

And before I go, I have to give a shout out to my friends, family and anonymous readers.   Although I don't  know who reads my blog, I can see that every day somebody, or a few somebodies read my blog.  Thank you so much!  I need to blog to keep motivated to knit, and knowing there are readers out there helps keep me motivated to blog.  Whoever you are,  God bless you!!