Doing the Two Step

As in two steps forward, one step back!

Believe it or not, this mitten's entire hand was knit by Friday evening last week.
As I neared the lovely, pointed tip I had the sneaking suspicion something was wrong.
(That, and the fact I kept trying it on as I knit the decreases.)




WHEN will I learn to trust my gut instinct? (And the plain facts of what is sitting there on my body, clearly not fitting??!!)

The hand section was not long enough before the decreases began and thus the mitten did not fit.

While these mittens are lovely, and fun to knit....they're not exactly easy to frog.
I spent two hours Saturday evening tinking (that's unknitting, stitch by stitch) them to the point of where the decreasing had begun. It was tedious! (I've gotten good at wrapping stitches to ensure short carries on the back!)

Since then, they've been sitting and waiting for me to have a brainstorm on exactly how to lengthen them without overboard the other direction and ending up with palms which are way too long.

In the meantime, I've gone back to knitting on the endless garter stitch baby blanket from EZ's Opinionated Knitter. Bleh.

Happy Knitting!

Mitten Monday

Well, after a weekend of knitting fury, I am making progress on more mittens for Christmas.

Here is the completed pair which are my own chart/design. They turned out well I think! (Although there are some minor differences I can't account for since I knit them exactly the same way....but hopefully whoever receives them won't notice!!)

Queen of Hearts




This is a detail section from a pair I completed a few weeks ago, but haven't shown. I have a receipient for this pair. It was done using one of the charts from Lizbeth Upitis' book of Latvian Mittens, however I changed out the cuff to corrugated ribbing, which may be my favorite part of this pair.



Finally, this is the pair I've begun this afternoon. I'm using one of Lizbeth's charts for this pair as well, again switching out to a corrugated rib cuff. The friend this is intended for loves this color combination of the blue/brown and who can blame her? I think they're going to look terrific when done!!



That's the news from my knitting nest . . . how are your projects coming along?

Happy Knitting!

Something Snapped

Warning: This post contains almost nothing about knitting or photography (until the very end....where I threw in some gratuitous content.)

I had one of those moments in life where there's a choice to be made fairly instantaneously and you either have to act or not.

I was driving along one of the busier streets in town on my way out of town to do an interview. It was about 1 p.m. on a day when school let out early for teachers to have meetings. As I came down the hill near the park I noticed a teen-aged boy (close in age to my own son I'd guess) riding a bike and a small, red car which had come to a sudden stop nearby. Suddenly another teen male, face covered by a bandana, lept from the back seat of the car and ran toward the kid on the bike. By now I had passed the group, but something about the look on the face of the guy on the bike kept me watching in my rear view mirror. The masked teen from the car was chasing the kid on the bike, and other boys were emerging from the vehicle's front seats.

I had gone up the hill and around a bend by this time. I could no longer see what was happening. But the look on the kid's face who had been riding the bike was telling me this wasn't a group of friends joking around.

And so the decision moment was at hand. Keep driving and pretend I hadn't seen what I'd just seen? Or do something?

As I said, it was a busy street. There were at least 3 cars behind me and I had met 3 or 4 others coming at me who surely must have seen the same thing. A UPS truck had stopped half a block away to make a delivery as well.

Even as I pondering the choice before me, I took my cell phone out and had 911 punched in.

Ultimately I decided to flip a U-turn and head back to see if the kid needed help.
I locked my doors and kept the phone in hand.

As I arrived I could see the kid who'd been on the bike standing on the lawn in the same spot. I pulled over, rolled down the window and asked if he was ok. I told him I'd seen what had happened with the group of kids in the car.

Turns out the guys who had stopped had stolen the car they were in. They took his bike as well and had started to beat him up when they noticed the UPS guy and decided to split. He was shaken, but not hurt more than a few scratches.

He was, however, very thankful I stopped. (I think he told me thank you at least a dozen times between his calls to 911.) I stayed parked there while he called police and until they arrived.

Something inside me just snapped I guess. We hear stories on the news of terrible things happening to people and how people just pass by without stopping to help. I suppose I didn't want to be one more. That kid could have been my own son. And I would like to think someone would have stopped to help him.

Now for gratuitous content related to the actual purpose of this blog . . .

Today was my weekly Sit-n-Stitch group. I worked on the mindless sock I take there so I can visit at the same time. Last week I helped my friend figure out how to join the sleeves on the Wallaby she's knitting for a grandson.

On the way home from my interview this afternoon I was driving along country roads and saw a blue heron standing on a farm bridge (the kind which farmers install to cross drainage ditches from one field to another.) It was a lovely site and would have made a beautiful photo!

Progress

Well, I haven't completely fallen off the planet. I have been subjected to the earth's spinning of late. (Another week of off-and-on-again dizziness, nausea, etc.)

I have, however, managed to make a bit of progress on the knitting front. Here's the first of the Heart Mitts I designed myself completed.






I must say I've learned a bit about shaping and patterns in the decrease area at the top. This pattern cuts it precariously close. I'm working on another pattern based on Frank Lloyd Wright's designs which I will have to rethink the top area in the decrease section. In the mean time I have cast on Heart Mitt #2 so that I'll have a feasible pair to give at Christmas.

I've also cast on a lovely little piece of lace work which will be a gift as well. This is only my second piece of actual lace work. (The first was the shawl I made which resides with my grandmother.)(Why do I keep giving these pieces away?!?) Here's a sneak peak of the work in progress (obviously not blocked yet...)



I'm using fingering weight yarn with the colorway "Tidepool Heather" and US #9 needles. Guage isn't critical for this project. I think I'm going to like the end result.

It's been a busy week for me with work projects and the magazine deadline looming large. Also another big advertising project is coming in, so I need to schedule lots of interviews for next week. All in all, it's good to stay busy.

Here's hoping everyone has a good weekend!

Happy Knitting!

All Moved In

We got our eldest moved in to her new home at the college dorm on Friday. There were large groups of students awaiting the arrival of the freshmen who descended upon vehicles and took everything to the room for us....yeah! Never having lived in a dorm myself, I was pleasantly surprised with how much room they have. She's got a busy 4 days of orientation with lots of activities and even some classes already mixed in. The semester officially starts on Tuesday. We're really excited and happy for her! (A bit envious too, to be totally truthful! I loved my college experience and would go back to school in a heartbeat!)

New Bank

This is the new bank in town.

Higher Education

I've been shooting photos of the new building on the campus of our local community college. It's a very cool building....and green too! Here is one photo, four ways.
(Gotta love Photoshop!)

From Chart to Mittens

I started in on the mittens I made the chart for. This is what they look like in red and white:



This is the first pair I've done working a different palm pattern than what is on the back of the hand. I really like it!



The blue line in there is where I will put in the thumb once the hand is finished.

We'll see how frustrated I get trying to find the pattern which will make the decreases at the top look ok.

On a completely different note, my recognizance team at the state fair over the weekend reported in Saturday afternoon. Two of my four projects sent in had ribbons attached to them!!! Yeah!! The mittens had a 3rd place ribbon and the entrelac tote which is felted had a 4th place. I'm so happy to have won two ribbons!! I'm the teeniest tad bit disappointed that I didn't do as well, place-wise, as my 2nd Place ribbon of last year......but that minute shadow of dissapointment is quickly overcome by the sheer happiness of receiving two ribbons! (I really only had hopes that the mittens would get a ribbon of some kind....so the other is icing on the cake!!)

My First Chart

I printed off some knitter's graph paper and have been playing around with some charting for a mitten pattern of my own design.

This will be the back of the hand:



I plan to do the palm in alternating vertical rows of color. Right now I can't decide if I want to do black mittens with the pattern in red . . .

OR

red mittens with the pattern in white......

What do you think??

Here's the pattern for the wrist area:



I will likely use the Latvian 2-color cast on and do a fringed edge with a braided band above it before beginning the wrist pattern. If I don't think the wrist is long enough, I can add another braid before starting the main heart pattern.

Not sure who the receipient will be. It will be fun to see how it looks knit up. I may find I have to adjust the chart. We'll see. It's kind of cool though!

From the Top

I realized I hadn't posted the most obvious photos from our St. Louis trip--those from the arch. Amanda captured most of these, from either the van or at the top. I didn't go up this time, but waited down below with my knitting project in hand.

Enjoy the view!

Arriving at the riverfront:



Bridges over the Mississippi River:



Illinois:



Downtown St. Louis (& beyond!):



Busch Stadium:



The Old Courthouse:



From the base (see the windows at the top??!!):



This last is the only one of the bunch I took. Seeing the city from the top of the arch is pretty cool! If you go: be prepared for a LOOOONG security check point if you go in the north entrance (closest to the parking ramp). [Tip: walk around to the other entrance. Almost no one does, meaning the security line there is WAAAY shorter!] Be prepared to remove your belt and have everything scanned. They do refuse to admit people in this post-9/11 world. They turned the 3 people in line ahead of us around and wouldn't let them in after they failed the metal detector 3 times.

Blog Contest Alert!

Hey! My friend (& godmother of my kids!) is having a contest on her blog to celebrate her 135th post.

She's an avid sewer and made the CUTEST hat which she's giving away!

Go check it out at:


Sew Not My Day.

Union Station

Union Station was St. Louis' railroad hub back when long-distance travel meant taking the passenger train. Today it is a shopping center and hotel complex. Still, the architecture is wonderful. And you can't beat lunch at Hard Rock!

















Note to any and all persons who may have ever visited Union Station with us: Even though there seemed to be fewer shops inside, The Fudgery is still there. They still sing. They still give a free sample following the "show." The fudge is still really good!

Kid Paradise

The City Museum is new to St. Louis since we moved away in 1988. (Wow, that's a long time ago!) It is pretty much Mecca if you're a kid (or a kid at heart, or need to keep a kid busy.) It's a re-claimed warehouse/office building with 3+ stories of fun to explore and a human-sized hamster run attached to the outside of the building. Oh yeah, there's also fun on the roof, including a school bus perched OVER the corner, 11 stories up. (Yeah, you can go in. Yeah, the front door opens. Yeah, it's WAAAAY off the ground!!!)

Take a peek!


















You'd be surprised by all the places kids found to crawl around and explore. They had a great old arcade. And an area where they collect architectural details from old buildings being demolished. And several slides where you got on the slide on one floor and ended up down a couple stories. (One slide was made from the rollers at the loading docks, only instead of being flat to push boxes into the storage area, it was tilted for a pretty fast ride!)

All in all, if you're intrigued, or have kids, you should go if you get to St. Louis. Skip the added $$ for the roof if your kids are older than 12-13. Entrance bands are good for the whole day, so pack a lunch!

The Fabulous Fox

One morning we went downtown to take a tour of the Fox Theatre. DH had taken me to a Gordon Lightfoot concert there when we were dating. I was excited to get inside again as it is without a doubt THE most ornate theater I've ever been in.

Mr. Fox reportedly built 5 theaters around the country in the late 1920's. All were named "Fox Theatre." The St. Louis Fox was built in 1927-28 and openend in January of 1929, nearly 11 months prior to the stock market crash of Oct. 29, 1929 which ushered in the Great Depression. Hard to believe when you step through the golden doors......




and into the lobby......







When the theater opened in 1929 it was a movie theater. Can you imagine?? There was an older woman with us on the tour who had grown up in St. Louis. She had gone to the movies at The Fox as a girl/young woman. She didn't say an exact date/era, but did report that when she went, the price of admission was $.35 (thirty-five cents!)

The theater holds 4,425 people. The original Wurlitzer organ which was played when the theater first opened (the films were silent movies at the time!) is still at the front. Turns out this is the theater where the famed Stan Kann played the organ for decades. He made many appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. (Often had a vacuum in tow!)

Today, the movie screen has been removed and the theater houses live productions. It was nearly demolished in the 1970's after a series of rock performances had "nearly trashed" the interior. Thankfully that didn't happen.

This is the stage from the first of three/four balconies.....



The chandalier is 12' across. The little basket above the front curtain was used in the Fox's production of Phantom of the Opera. The phantom swoops down in very dramatic style to take the audience and cast back to the 1800s.

We got to stand on stage and tour back stage. It was interesting to see the signatures of all the people who've performed there on the walls. I photographed a few....like Santana and Richard Harris who performed in Camelot there. We got to see the five stories of dressing rooms.

We got to walk through the Fox Club, which is the second floor of the theater. It costs member corporations $20 to $25,000 a year to belong. For that they get to bring 8 people per night of a show to dinner 1.5 hours before the show and sit in box seats. We got to try the box seats, and frankly I didn't think the view was very great as the top part of ths stage wasn't visible because of the balcony above.

It was all very interesting. (Even the kids seemed to enjoy the tour.)

Today there are only three Fox Theatres remaining: Atlanta, Detroit and St. Louis. The Atlanta theater is purportedly quite ornate, but a different style altogether. The Detroit Fox is said to be a near duplicate of the St. Louis Fox.

The Fox is in St. Louis' "Arts District" which also houses the Powell Theater (now home to either the symphony or opera, I can't remember.) Here are a few scenes from the blocks immediately surrounding the Fox Theatre.