Long Time Coming

KNITTING
Here it is - the sweater I've been anticipating for months is now the sweater I'm falling in love with.  It is just challenging enough to keep my interest and make me want to pick up and knit a few rows.  It is easy enough to grab when I sit down to watch TV or  work on while reading on my computer. I am thoroughly enjoying this project!

Colorwork finished! (about 250 stitches around)

The sweater pattern and video are not overly clear (or I'm overly dense) regarding the start of the sweater and the colors.  I assumed that I would be starting with the main color of the sweater when casting on, then switching to the other colors.  But the instructions tell you to start with pattern color 1, which is not the same as the main color.  Point taken.  Rip out and start over.

Neck edge cast on in wrong color!

Neck edge in correct color

 I quickly had to leave the double pointed needles (used for small circumferences)  and switch to circular needles.  Since none of them were long enough, I had three going at the same time! I needed at least 24-32 inches and only had 16 inch circulars.  It looked and felt like knitting with stiff spaghetti!

Connected two circulars into one long needle - much neater

All that's left of the brown yarn

The brown in the picture above is all that's left of pattern color 1.  I dyed one skein (only 1) and nearly used all of it for the color work.  If I ran out, I was not going to be able to replicate the color.  Thank goodness there was enough!

Center section to be cut (steeked) Yikes!@#$%

The front center has a purl stitch that's repeated all the way down the front, and will eventually be cut and a button band will be attached. This is the process called steeking which makes a pullover into a cardigan sweater. The reason this is attractive, is that you eliminate having to knit lots of separate pieces and then stitch them all together.  This sweater is knit all in one piece.

SPINNING
 In the very small world of spinners, there's a little war going on.  Everybody wants to get a Turkish spindle from Jenkins, and the one to get is the Kuchulu.  But you can't buy one.  The only ones being made are other varieties of Turkish spindles, all just a bit bigger than the teeny tiny Kuchulu which will literally fit inside your eyeglass case.  You can hardly even buy a used one, as they rarely become available and sell in just a few hours after being posted. Wow.

The idea behind these itty bitty spindles, is that you can finally take your spinning with you, and discreetly spin without making a big scene.  Other people are on their mobile phones, checking social sites and emails, texting and chatting.  For spinners, we've had to make do with taking along a small pair of socks to knit, so that we can get our little fix, the same way you might play with your smart phone.  But there's not really been a way to slip some spinning into your wait time at the DMV, or before the movie starts.  Now there is!  Now there are some super small, portable, handmade spindles, perfect for spinning on the subway or in the car without disturbing the people around you.

READING
 I can hardly remember what my reading goals for the year were.  This is a shabby area for me that needs some work.  Being distracted doesn't help.  I want to put a Shelfari or something on my blog page and  maybe that will help.  Any suggestions would be appreciated!

PERSONAL
My parents came for a visit last week and it truly filled my emotional tank.  We spent some good, concentrated time with each other and the rest of the family here in Tennessee.  I am so thankful for them and cherish each and every time we spend together.

Yesterday we all helped my son and his wife do some cleaning on their new house.  It's been vacant for a long time, and needed some TLC.  We painted, swept, vacuumed, steamed, and power washed. Good as new! Moving day is next weekend, and I'm glad there's a little break between the cleaning and the moving.  My out-of-shapeness screamed when we hit the sack last night.  I seriously needed some painkillers!




 

Out of this Whorl

SPINNING
In whatever time I choose to sit and spin, I am rewarded in the mega category with this kind of stuff: beautiful wool and angora for my upcoming sweater project.  I need a catchy, cutesie name for the sweater.  Something that makes you tilt your head and smile.   Hope to cast on this week!

Spinning for Sweater Project - Kromski 12:1 Whorl ratio

Batts and another bobbin full of yarn

Yarns already in the stash

New kid on the block - 11 wpi

KNITTING
I finally finished and gifted the Argyle golf club cover to my son in law.  He really liked it and that makes all knitting worth while.  Its bulky, but wasn't too hard - it just took me a while to finish it.  I'm so glad  it turned out well, but I had a heck of a time getting a good picture.  The previous posts have better pictures for sure. 

Argyle Golf Club Cover for my son in law

actual colors

Argyle Golf Club Cover in color (purple and yellow)

Wonderful Son in Law - golfer extraordinaire!

Sweater Project Swatches
To start the sweater project I need to achieve 19 sts. per 4 inches or 4.75 stitches per inch.  In the picture below, the wooden needles at the top were probably the right size for the yarn, but the gauge was off.
The pink size 7 needles gave a closer gauge, but still not on the money. The size 6 needles in the second picture were about as close as I was going to get. 

Size 7 Needles - gauge too large

Size 6 Aero Bernat needles - gauge just right!

PERSONAL
Lots of things are happening with our family right now, and after a couple of rough weeks, there is a lot to be thankful for.  My SIL and DD are back safely from Disneyworld and they had a marvelous time!   My DS and DIL are finally closing on their house this week and will be moving soon!
My husband works a few hours a week for our church on Sunday mornings, helping with the worship band and singers during the service.  Each week there is a different "worship leader" or "song leader" depending on your religious persuasion.  I have to say that each one, while uniquely different, is a truly kindhearted and good person.  People give these folks a bad rap sometimes, thinking they're diva's or high maintenance.  I have to say in our case, they are far and away genuinely caring, humble individuals, and every week my husband comes home from church, glad that they worked together. We are truly blessed to know these talented people.

READING
I have Careless in Red by Elizabeth George on both audio and ebook formats from the library.  That way I can jump from one to the other.  Good book, good writing, but a little sad, which doesn't make me jump at the chance to read very often.
I'm also re-reading this book by Stormie Omartian.  Very good, every time I read it! 

GARDENING
We have had so much rain this summer, that our ground is soft and saturated.  My zinnia garden is full of flowers, and I cut a few here and there for vases in the house.  They are so easy to grow, I sometimes forget they're out there.  My roses and whirling butterflies have had bugs all year, and the blooms are weak looking.  I'm sure its from all the rain and lack of sunshine.  Too bad!

Crank It Up

SPINNNNNNING
If there has ever been a time for me to go to a "Spinners Anonymous"meeting, it would be now.  Obsessed?  Overcome? Infatuated?  I can only say that I am a spinner; judge away.

You may recall that my biggest knitting goal for the year is to steek, as in, steek a sweater. So I've begun the process of spinning enough wool to make a sweater that I can steek. (More about that later.)

Squishy Wool

Smitty and the Skeins

This is the softest, cushiest yarn I've probably ever spun.  The crimp is super fine, short locks and a little angora blended in to make really round, squeezable, Charmin-tissue-like yarn.  What did that guy say in the commercial? So squeezably soft, its irresistible!

Mr. Whipple

KNITTING
Argyle-mania!  This is the first of two rounds in the pattern I'm using for an argyle golf-club cover.  In LSU school colors.  The needles have progressed from 5's to 7's to 9's.  Clearly I'm on a roll (no pun intended, Mr. Whipple).

Argyle Golf Club Cover

And before I get too lost in little projects, I'm determined to keep my learning curve steep.  I'm going for another try at the  "Beginner's Triangle Shawl" from Meg Swansen's book Gathering of Lace. 

Take two - Beginner's Triangle

Acrylic yarn (don't say it) on size 7 wooden needles.  A little too much drag, but I'll switch to circular needles soon enough, once I get the hang of the pattern.  I tried this before and got really hung up with the pattern.  Now I know why.  The purl row (or wrong side row) is included in the chart, and it's worked backwards!  What the??
Well, I can't argue with an expert.  It is the Beginner's shawl project for a reason.
The purl/wrong-side row is in the chart for the sake of the beginner, but it just threw me off.
Threw me for a loop.
Yanked my chain.
You get the idea.
Now I've got it, and I hope to make this a small little shawlette as a sort of draft for a future project: A prayer shawl.

Now to explain about the steek, mentioned before.  I got the Craftsy class on knitting an Icelandic sweater, and it will eventually be steeked, but the yarn must be wool. I have a lot of wool.  A heck of a lot of wool.  But none of it is the same gauge, color and/or breed.  I need pretty much 1,200 yards of the same thing.  That's a lot.  So I'm going to be spinning for the next few weeks until I feel like I've got enough yarn to knit a sweater.  I cannot wait.   I hope to start the sweater September 1st.  Be sure to check back by then!!

PERSONAL
I had a fun lunch with my baby girl today.  She bought my lunch and we took it to a local city park and ate at a picnic table, under the trees, by a creek.  Lovely!  Until some kind of acorn-war started in the branches above our table.  I never saw it coming until my daughter (who is 25) gasped and shrieked, thinking some kind of critter had landed on her.  It was just an acorn, but one after another landed on us and our lunch until one acorn literally bounced off her salad container and into her little salad dressing cup.  It could never happen again in a million years, and we will remember this lunch for a long time.  I only wish I'd taken a picture!

Quickly

In order to keep up with my blogging schedule, (self imposed) I am making this post without a lot of flourish, just so that I can say I posted something on Saturday.

KNITTING

Early in the evening, knitting while watching TV

End of the day after a good episode of Cedar Cove

The last post showed a golf club cover that looked a lot like this one, and that's because it practically is.  I frogged the one in the last post and re-knit this same section with only 48 stitches and smaller size 5 needles.  Much better!

PICKING

LLAMA FLEECE ONE

LLAMA FLEECE TWO

And I picked one of the two llama fleeces my husband's friend gave me.  This is the fleece on the lawn getting used to a new home.

  So far, so good.  This thing was so dusty and it took me most of a day to pull and shake and fluff the thing.  Back into a large shopping bag with very little thrown away.  I tried washing a sample and it felted immediately.  Now I know I will have to spin it with the remaining dirt, an then wash the yarn.  I think carding/combing it will greatly reduce the dusty quality.  Right now it feels like an old cowboy blanket that used to sit under a saddle.

SPINNING
And here's what I've been spinning!  JOY!  I do love spinning!

STARBUCKS GREEN

SAME GREEN NEXT MORNING

TWO PLY TURTLE FROM MY TURKISH SPINDLE! 

Mohair mixed with Angelina

White cloud of angora/wool blend

PERSONAL
I am working on some new life goals, and trying to work through the big rocks, as Stephen Covey calls them.  I'm re-reading a couple more of his books, and trying to see where everything falls.  I had to make a little boundary today, and it was uncomfortable and awkward.  I hate having to do that, because I want to please everyone.  But I'm old enough now to know when to say NO.  It always feels better when I do.

Sometimes people have legitimate needs, and sometimes its hard to say no when the request is perfectly valid.  But part of maturing and making things better for me and may family, is learning to be less grouchy.  I get grouchy when I have to do something I don't wanna do.  You too?  I feel like a kid being told to clean my room, or go apologize to my sibling.  Grumbling I go, doing the thing I don't want to do.  But now I'm grown up, and I can say no.  Its as easy as that.  Then I'm happy again, and so is everyone else in my house.  No one is wondering, "why is she ticked off?" or "did I do something to make her mad?"
Crisis averted before anyone else' mood is spoiled.  There!  Saying no is actually a very good thing indeed!

All Tied Up

You know those scenes in the movies where the good guy is tied up with rope, and they're trying to find something to cut the rope with?  Or they're tied to the railroad tracks with the villain is standing nearby twirling his mustache.

We all feel like that sometimes; we say, "my hands are tied" and we really mean it.  We wish we could do something to change the circumstances, but we just can't, because in a way, our hands are tied.  That is such a frustrating feeling! Life is so full of frustrating circumstances that I will have to agree with that little slogan,  Keep Calm and Carry Yarn.  Prayer and knitting are two of the best ways to get through a trying time.

KNITTING
As I finished these socks, and looked ahead, I knew my next project would be quick and easy.

Watermelon socks - DONE!

This is the beginning of a golf club cover, and while its pretty close to the pattern, it looks ginormous to me.  I think they could even be felted and still fit the club.  This is supposed to be for club #2.  Whatever that means.  I'd like to do an argyle pattern at the top, so hopefully the next post will have a little more interest.

LSU Team colors

starting a golf club cover

I took some time last Saturday morning to darn or rather, re-knit the toe of this pair of Shetland wool socks I made a few years ago.

Darning Socks

SPINNING
Tour de Fleece for me what a Tour de Flop.  I am not an avid spindle spinner, and the last week or two just did not afford me the opportunity to enjoy the challenge.  I won't dwell there, but will applaud all the great pictures I saw on Instagram and Ravelry.  So inspiring!!!

Tour de Fleece - dropout!

I've been spinning on my old Ashford Traditional, and my Kromski Symphony. Here is the purple yarn for the golf club covers.

And I'm about to start this little cloud of white wool and angora.  Slowly but surely spinning down my stash. 

READING
I haven't read much in the way of fiction, but completed a couple of Stephen Covey audio books, Habit 1 and Habit 2.  They are always worth my time, and make me want to be a better person.

I do spend time every day reading my Bible and a commentary by Matthew Henry; another of my goals for the year.  He is an excellent scholar, and brings incredible insight to every passage of scripture.

GARDENING
Everything is in full bloom, and since its July, I can't complain. In fact, it makes sitting outside a real pleasure, and very, very worth the effort.  The older the gardens are, the easier they are to maintain.  (You can say that again!)

PERSONAL
I have to say that in the grand scheme of things, I still have no answers to all of life's biggest questions.  People spend lots of money trying to figure out "Why?" and sometimes there's just no easy answer.  The world is complex and only our Maker knows the complete answer to that little one word question.  But I'm thankful every day to wake up and find I'm still breathing, and in my case, able to get out bed and get a cup of coffee.  
We have had a few moments of crisis lately, but find that faith and family help, and keeping perspective, finding a sense of proportion is always helpful.  I know of people with great disabilities and disadvantages.  If they can somehow manage to get through, my little problems are miniscule.  Like the song says, The sun'll come up, tomorrow!!