Knitting & The Road

Well, school finally finished up this past Monday (thanks again Mother Nature for all those delightful snow days this past winter!) and life has not settled into a summer routine yet. (Unless chaos counts. In which case, we have it covered.)

I have been knitting the past couple of weeks. Here's a FO (finished object) to prove it! (& two more projects in the works!)





I knit this little shrug for my 6 yr. old niece from the Canadian Worsted hand-dyed yarn I received from Caffeine Girl's blog. It turned out really well....I just hope it fits!

I started some socks (no big surprise there! socks are my "go to" project year-round.) I like the colorway which I picked up at Knitted Together in West Des Moines. The little touch of sparkle is fun and the colors remind me of tropical fish for some reason I am unable to explain. I'm just doing anklets as these feel like summer socks to me.



Also OTN (on the needles) is the Diana entrelac shawl I cast on late last week. I had a difficult time getting started. I had to frog the second tier 7 times before I finally got in the groove. I have now completed 4 tiers.



If you find it difficult to see, there is a lace leaf in the center of each little entrelac block. Every other tier, the leaves go in opposite directions. I thought this yarn from Knit Picks would be nice because the colors remind me of fall foliage. But in truth I'm not sure I'm happy with it. Something with longer color changes so that each block was a solid color would be better I think. I may pull out my JoJoland Melody and see what it looks like.

I've also been out and about shooting photos with my DD who is really a wonderful photographer in her own right. We went up to Humboldt and Dakota City and I came back with these last week:

More Malabrigo

This caught my eye several months ago.



It sat at the top of my stash for a few months while trying to get me to pick up on the vibe it was sending me as to what it wanted to become.

Apparently my project radar was down for a while as I was unable to figure out what this beautiful brown and blue Malabrigo wanted to be.

So, I took it with me to knit night at the shop where I adopted it.

There, my LYS owner, Leslie, and I scoured books for inspiration. We narrowed it down to a couple of scarves (because Malabrigo is totally wasted if you don't get to feel it close to you!!)

I decided on this Criss-Cross Stitch Scarf.



It's about four inches wide and four and a half feet long. Here's a close up of the stitch pattern:



It's very easy, mindless knitting. I really like what the stitch pattern is doing for the color way/varigation.

I've decided this colorscheme reminds me of Siamese or Persian cats with their blue eyes (even if the browns are a bit too dark!)

On another note: I taught my first sock knitting class last night. Six ladies attended and it was really fun! We meet again in 2 weeks with cuffs/legs completed and ready to learn how to make a heel flap and and turn a heel!

Hope your projects are coming along swimmingly!

Happy Knitting!

Yes, There's Still Knitting

I have been knitting, though the last few entries may not reflect that fact so well!

Here are some socks I've knit to enter into the state fair. (They're not blocked yet, so they should actually look better by the time I send them off!)



I used Knit Picks Palette yarn and their U.S. #1 dpn needles (metal) to whip these up. (A very quick knit! It's the Breeze pattern from knitty.com - I have knit two other pairs, so the rhythm was familiar.) I only used one, 50 gr. ball of yarn for this pair.

Then I whipped up a gift for my cousin and his wife who are expecting a new little one very soon. The Yarn Bee "Peach Fuzz" was carried along with some sport weight white acrylic I had in the stash. This is the softest baby stuff I have ever knit!



Finally, I'm just about to finish off the other pair of socks I'm knitting for the fair. These had to use two colors of yarn, so I'm combining the "apricot" [though it looks like shocking hunter orange to me!] Palette from Knit Picks with the Bare Essential I died last summer in the crock pot. I think the two will work ok together. Lord knows, these are some bright socks!




So that's what I do in the evening after the lighting is bad for photography and while I'm watching tv with the family.

Just in case you're disappointed there aren't any new sr. pics....here are a couple more from our last venture out....which took us to the library.








We will be shooting some in Sioux City when we are there for the 4th of July, so stay tuned....I'm sure there will be another installment on Sunday!

Girl's Best Friend Anklet

I was fortunate to have quite a bit of knitting time over the weekend. (Playoff games for the NFL......) I started the Girl's Best Friend Anklet pattern available from Knit Picks for a VERY reasonable price. (I think the pattern was $2.) I must say, I am enjoying it immensely. Here it is thus far:



I am using Knit Picks yarn: Pallette in the Rainforest Heather colorway. The pattern calls for US #1 needles to get 8spi and I found that's what I needed to use to get gauge. Hence the Harmony dpns (also from Knit Picks) which you see in the photo.

Here is a close up of the diamond band on the cuff.



It's interesting because once you complete the pattern on the cuff, you turn the sock inside out to knit the rest of the leg, heel, gusset, foot and toe. Thus your cuff is automatically ready to be turned over so that the right side pattern is showing.

As you can see, they are knitting up rather quickly. I finished the cuff and part of the leg on Saturday and got the rest done on Sunday. I'm sure I will have one sock done and be onto the second by the time I go to knitting with my friends on Wednesday.

I will use this pattern again for certain. This color is too close to the one I gave my sister for her birthday last year, so I will knit this pattern in another color for her for her birthday in April. I think she will love them!

Happy Knitting!

Caucus Night

The Iowa Caucus is finished. I found it really kind of fun, certainly interesting, and even exciting for a couple moments.

I started in the Richardson group. We had 21 people to begin with. We needed 31 to be viable. We ended up having to disband and join our 2nd choice candidate. So I ended up with Edwards (who was my #1 choice in 2004).

Our precint had a record turnout of 201 people at the Democratic caucus.

I took knitting because I'd heard there would be long periods of nothing much happening. It didn't turn out to be true at all. I found a lot of neighbors and friends to chat with. We talked about how the issues were affecting us personally. (Mostly health care system related.)

When I got home (about 8:15 pm) I started in on the Girl's Best Friend sock from Knit Picks in their Pallette yarn. I got quite a ways through it only to discover I'd made a huge error in the pattern. It was ok though, because the gauge was off and I need to change needles anyway.

Off to bed now. Proud to have done my civic duty.

I will caucus again.