Rolling Rock

I finished my Rolling Rock sweater!  I love how it came out!

I learned a new technique with this sweater too, and I like it.  It is knit top down but with a contiguous set in sleeve.  I don't have a good picture of it, but basically you increase on what becomes the front and back of the sweater creating what would be a shoulder seam if the sweater were pieced.  Then more traditional raglan increases occur for the sleeves.

This sweater is a henley style, so it is worked back and forth until you have created the length you want for the placket.  I started this sweater before I attended Amy Herzog's retreat and so I was able to use information I learned to customize this to fit and flatter me best.  So I knit this length to the measurement I wanted without trying it on and trusted my math skills.

I found these perfect buttons at Wal-Mart while I was running through one day.  Shh! Don't tell anyone that I used crazy cheap buttons with this lovely artistic hand-dyed yarn!  It's probably a good time to tell you that the yarn is The Plucky Knitter's Traveler Sport in the color Speakeasy.  It was really lovely to work with.

I continued using my new customizing skills by placing some waist decreases and then increases to better fit my hips without ever trying it on.

And the same with the length.  I knew where I wanted it to end, and how much ribbing I wanted to have.  So I knit to those lengths and finished it off.  I did the same thing with the sleeves.

I didn't put this sweater on until it was completely finished with all the ends woven in.  It's fits exactly like I wanted it too!  I have to say that this was completely liberating.  I don't really have a Spidey-sense yet as to how it should all look on the needles, but with my new found confidence, I'm sure that will come soon!

Ten on Tuesday

This week's Ten on Tuesday topic is one that has been on my mind ever since I attended Amy Herzog's Knit. Wear. Love. Retreat in September. I left that weekend completely inspired and feeling empowered to knit beautiful sweaters, and I want to knit them all right now!

The prompt is 5 Favorite Sweater Patterns & 5 Favorite Sweater Yarns for a total of 10.

First, the patterns…..
1. Acorn Trail.  It is currently on the needles because I just couldn't wait any longer to start it, even though I already had multiple projects going and plans for lots of hats for Christmas gifts.
2. Birch Bark. Simple but with a fantastic cable panel for interest.
3. Dark & Stormy.  Again with the simple and a gorgeous cable panel for interest.  Plus I love the big shawl collar on this one too.
4. Flippant.  I can picture myself wearing this all the time.
5. Que Sera.  An oldie but goodie.  I have knit this one already in cotton.  The sucker is heavy and stretches horribly, but it's comfortable and cozy so I wear it a lot.  I'd like to make another on in a wool blend.  Maybe it would keep it's shaper better…

Now, the yarns…..
6. Madelinetosh Tosh Vintage.  This stuff is like crack for me.  I wish I knew how to quit it, but I love it's roundness and the stitch definition I get with it.  Plus it's even softer after washing :-)
7. Plucky Knitter Primo Worsted. It's very similar to the Tosh Vintage, plus it has some cashmere blended in.  Yum!
8. Indigodragonfly MCN Worsted. Very much like Primo and Tosh Worsted, but Kim's colors are so fantastic and deeply layered that the resulting fabric is just gorgeous.
9. Harrisville Highland.  This one is new to me and I am using it for the first time for a sweater.  It just feels like "Your Grandmother's Wool Sweater"  I think it's going to wear like iron!
10. Madelinetosh Tosh DK.  This is not as round as the vintage and makes a flatter fabric in both feel and appearance.

There's my list. Honestly, I could keep going on the sweater patterns.  There are so many fantastic patterns to choose from.  And I'm sure that as I read the lists of the other knitters playing along with Carole this week, my queue will grow!

What's your favorite sweater right now?

I'm So Indecisive

Have you ever had so many projects going at once, that you absolutely love, that you have a hard time deciding which one to work on when you do get a chance to sit down and knit?  That would be me right now!  This is what I have going right now….

First is my Toasty Twist Socks.  I have had this pattern in my queue for a long time.  It is one of the patterns for the Socks That Rawk! Ravelry group knit-a-long right now.  I decided to use my Rocktober color way for this pattern.  I like how they're coming out.  I do think though that the foot is a little looser than I usually like so I'm going to drop down a needle size for the rest of the foot.

Next is the Vamp sock from the Cookie A club.  The yarn is Pagewood Farm Glacier Bay in the club color Cape Cod Cranberry which kind of makes them the perfect color to be knitting in November.  At least in New England :-)  I'm through a few repeats of the cable pattern now and it is making sense and becoming more intuitive for me.  They're already knitting quicker than they were the first night I worked on them, but it's cabling with twisted stitches on every row, so I need to pay attention to what I'm doing.

This is Acorn Trail which is the sweater I just couldn't wait to cast on.  I. Love. It!  It is really the only thing that I really want to be knitting right now.  But I want to continue to make progress on my other projects too, so I've been using this one as a reward.  It's knitting up pretty quickly. This is the back after only 3 evenings of knitting while watching tv.

Rolling Rock.  What can I say?  Obviously I decided not to rip back the body and alternate skeins.  It may be a mistake, but in normal indoor lighting where I will primarily be wearing this, the color difference doesn't show.  So onward it is.  I'm on sleeve island with this one.  The only upside on this project is that I can knit away on the sleeves while I read and who doesn't love to multi-task like that?

So what to do?  How to decide what to work on?  The logical part of me says to finish Rolling Rock and Toasty Twist because they are the closest to done.  But the planner part of me says to work on Vamp because the next club shipment will be here in a few weeks and I should finish this one before the new one gets here.  And the dreamer part of me wants to work on Acorn Trail because I just want to be wearing that baby NOW :-)

Help…..?

I Should Bog That

Hello Dear Readers!  I can't quite believe that it's been more than 2 weeks since I last blogged.  I don't know what it is about this time of year that I always think that I will have more time available for leisure activities than I do, but…. I do.  Every year.  I'm sure it's the fact that vacations are over and the rest of my family is back to work and school which gives me several hours a day home alone.  What I always forget though is that these are not bonus hours added to my day. The house still needs to be cleaned, the laundry still needs to be done, errands need to be done, and life itself just plain continues on.

Anyway, I have been knitting, actually a fair bit.  But I've also had a wicked case of startitis.  There are so many things I want to knit, and I want to knit them all RIGHT NOW!!  I have too many active projects on the needles.  I really need to pare that down.  I have finished a few projects though.

This is Windschief by Stephen West.  I knit this in Madelinetosh Tosh Vintage in the color Fig.  This was an easy knit and quite quick really.  It's comfortable too!

 This is Habitat by Jared Flood.  I used Peace Fleece Worsted for this, the color is Father's Grey.  This was the first time I've used Peace Fleece and it was great.  I thought that it had a wonderful hearty and rustic feel to it.  It did have a fair bit of vegetation in it that was rough on my fingers from time to time.  I gave the hat a good long soak with some Eucalan when it was finished though, and it seems to have helped with that issue quite a bit.

 I also have to say, in terms of the pattern, that I think Jared Flood is a genius!  This hat is so richly cabled, but the crown decreases don't diminish them, or stunt them.  Somehow he always seems to figure out how to make it all flow together and still be gorgeous.

I finished these socks a few weeks ago and just kept forgetting to show them off.  I love the color of these socks!!!  The yarn is Miss Babs Cosmic Sock Yarn and the color is Inkwell.  This was the yarn and the Istanbul pattern from the August installment of Cookie A's Sock Club.  As you can see, the front of the sock is a beautiful lace pattern….

 and the back is a basic rib pattern.  These are so comfortable and fit so well!  I'm sure they'll get lots of wear this winter :-)

So those are the finished projects.  I'll try to log again in a couple days and show you all the projects I'm actively working on.

Finding My Happy Place

See this kid?

Good looking kid, isn't he?  He would be my youngest child and today the one who makes me appreciate why some animals eat their young.

It began innocently enough like this.....
Chandler: Mom, where are my spare helmet parts?
Me: I don't know.
Chandler:  You said you were going to put them somewhere safe so I'd know where they were the next time I broke a buckle.  And I need a clean sweat band too.
Me: Are you sure they're not in your hockey bag?  Or your room?  Why would I have them? You drive yourself to practice now.
Chandler:  I looked and I couldn't find them, but I'll look again.
Me:  Do you want me to take a look tomorrow too?  (Now, you experienced parents know that this is where I made my first mistake...)
Chandler:  Would you?  I'd really appreciate that.

Fast forward to today when I actually crossed the threshold into the deep abyss that is his room.  Oh. My. God.  Let me say that mostly I think that I am a good parent.  After 3 sons I have pretty well mastered the art of picking my battles and navigating the excellent life lessons to be learned by natural and logical consequences.  Let's just say that the natural consequences of the state of his room were about to start trickling down the stairs and attracting vermin. Not good.  Into his room I went armed with trash bags, laundry baskets, pledge and my vacuum cleaner.  I handled it quite well really even after 2 bags of trash and 3 baskets of laundry were removed.  Where I lost it though.....?  That would be when I decided that looking in his desk for the still missing helmet parts was a good idea.  His top drawer is filled with pencil shavings.  That's right.  Pencil shavings...... Because apparently it was too much of a hassle to get the trash can TWO FEET AWAY!!!!  I'm going to need an adult beverage tonight.  Just saying.....

Time to take a deep breath and find my happy place......

So let's talk knitting and what's on the needles :-)  I'm still chugging along on my Rolling Rock.  This was my Plucktember project that clearly didn't get finished in time.  So on to Plucktember..... I took this picture this afternoon and am just seeing the block of lighter color......  It's the first time I've noticed that so I'll be waiting until we have a day that's not overcast and look at it more carefully.  I'm 3 inches from finishing the body, but I suspect now that I may be ripping back some and alternating skeins.  It's crazy how they can look so excellently matched but it's not until you see them like this that the differences show.

I've started a few new projects too.  The Socks That Rawk group on Ravelry chose Toasty Twist for one of the knit-a-longs this quarter.  I've had this pattern in my queue for a very long time!  I cast on with Rocktober in lightweight.  I love this color but have been having a hard time finding a pattern that works well with it. I'm not sure this one's a winner either, but I'm going to knit a couple more inches before I decided.

This is a hat by Brooklyn Tweed called Habitat. I'm using the Peace Fleece that I bought while away on for the Make. Wear. Love Retreat.

This is the beginning of Windschief by Stephen West.  I'm using Madelinetosh Tosh Vintage in the color Fig.  (Ribbing.  Super inspiring, isn't it? LOL)

This next one isn't on the needles yet, but I can't wait to start it.  It's Acorn Trails by Amy Herzog.  I got an email Saturday that this was released and all I could think was that I needed to knit this sweater and I needed to do it right now!  And gosh, wouldn't that look great in Harrisville, which my LYS pretty much always has in stock!  I was thrilled to see that Harrisville was the yarn that was used! It took all of my self control not to make a special trip to Spinning Yarns on Sunday to buy yarn for this.

But I went yesterday :-)  I'm hoping this charcoal color won't be too dark for the lace and cable work.  I'll be swatching in the next few days to decide!

I'm feeling happier now.  Yarn does that for me :-)  Thanks for letting me rant a bit!

PS - The helmet parts are still missing.  I guess I'll be calling Promasque tomorrow to order more....

Knit Wear Love Retreat

Last weekend I traveled to the Sebasco Harbor Resort in Phippsburg, ME to attend the Make Wear Love Retreat hosted by Amy Herzog.  It was an amazing weekend!

When we checked in we received an amazing goodie bag that was filled with swatch size samples of some top notch yarns plus some fun accessories.

The first day for me was a full-day class on Knit to Flatter.  If you don't have this book in your library yet, you should get it.  It's full of helpful information on how to identify your body shape and then how to choose sweaters to best flatter it.  It also has some great patterns included.

The next two days were filled with classes on modifications with Amy, fabric with Clara Parkes, and color with Mary Jane Mucklestone. Yeah.  It was awesome :-)

Mary Jane designed a cowl for us so that we could experiment with color. I chose grey,white and red for mine so that I can wear it with my winter jacket.

 I picked colors that I would wear.  Other people just picked 3 or 6 colors of scraps they had in their stash.  You can see some of the results here.

There was of course some "camp" fun too. There was a scavenger hunt that I did a miserable job completing.  Some of the campers really got into it though and had fantastic pictures of their finds.  Saturday night we had a show and tell of our good and bad sweaters, got to try on Amy's samples, and had a lobster bake.

What knitting retreat would be complete without some fabulous vendors?  We had beautiful yarns from String Theory, Indigodragonfly, and The Woolen Rabbit.  I also stopped at Purl Diva and Halcyon Yarns along the way to the retreat.  I gave myself permission to buy whatever inspired me so I came home with 2 sweater quantities, 6 hats, 1 sock yarn and a skein of true lace weight.

I have already swatched with the Indigodragonfly MCN Worsted I bought.  I'm going to make Birch Bark with it, which is one of the 3 sweaters that Amy designed for the retreat.  I know the patterns are exclusive to the retreat for now.  I'm not sure when, or if, they will be released to the public.

I love the names Indigodragonfly gives their colors.  This is Curse Your Sudden but Inevitable Betrayal (Firefly).

So that's the nuts and bolts of the retreat, but I also have to say that I met some wonderful people too!  I know it's been said many times before, but I have to repeat it.  Knitters are some of the best people on earth!  What other group of people has such instant comraderie and friendship?  All it takes is sticks and string to have something to discuss.  

Ten on Tuesday

10 Books on my To Read List

I enjoy reading almost as much as I enjoy knitting.  When I decided to really embrace audiobooks as well, I discovered that I could do both at the same time!  Life is good!  I generally though have a print book and an audiobook in progress at all times, because sometimes you just want to feel a book in your hands.  Or an e-reader :-)  When this week's prompt came from Carole I vowed to not let Tuesday get by me without posting.  After reviewing my wish lists on Amazon, Audible and Goodreads, I decided that these are the books at the top of my lists.

1. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson.  Coincidentally this is the book my Book Group has chosen for October!
2. Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
3. Inferno by Dan Brown
4. Fall of Giants by Ken Follett
5. The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
6. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
7. The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian
8. Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman
9. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
10. The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo

I'm adding a bonus selection too. This one isn't available yet, but it's definitely on my list.
11. Be Careful What you Wish For by Jeffrey Archer.  This is book 4 in The Clifton Chronicles and I can't wait for it to come out.  I am in love with this series! It's going to be a long wait for me until March!

WiP Wednesday

August is over and I have made a significant dent on my UFO's.  I'm pretty proud of myself that I did not cast on anything new and worked exclusively on existing projects.

I'm trying to continue working on WiP's, but also allow myself to cast on a couple new projects.

My Vodka Lemonade was cast on in late July, but I hardly worked on it in August.  I worked on it quite a bit over the weekend and am about 25% through my yarn for it.  I can't wait to separate the sleeves off.  There are getting to be a LOT of stitches on the needle now!

Last night I cast on Istanbul from the August Cookie A Sock Club shipment.  The yarn is Miss Babs new sock yarn, Cosmic, in this truly fabulous blue called Inkwell.  I. Love. This. Color! It makes me happy just to look at it :-)

The only thing I don't like about this sock so far is that the left leaning decrease is a slip 1, knit 1, pass slipped stitch over as opposed to ssk.  It's not laying as nice and smoothly as I'd like.  I'm slipping the stitch purl wise, but should I be slipping it knit wise?  I'm going to try a few and see if it looks better.

What do you think?  Am I doing it right or wrong?  Why decrease this way vs ssk?  Should I just change to ssk?

What I did on Summer Vacation

August is the month of vacation. A month to rest, to renew, to plan, and to prepare to begin anew.  I spent the month cleaning up some projects.  I decided to combine the Sock Knitters Anonymous Challenge, Summer of Socks, 26 Pair Plunge and Stashdown for a personal challenge to tackle my pile of UFO's.  Some had been lingering a short time and some significantly longer.

These two are projects that I cast on in July.  I wanted to finish these so that I didn't fall behind on my club kits.

These are much older.

In total I had 9 pairs of socks in progress!  Let me show you what I finished!

This pair I finished today.  The pattern is Dorothy Gale Socks from the Woolgirl Wizard of Oz Club.  I started these in September of 2009. That's right.... 2009!  I knit the 1st sock, but was not completely happy with it.  The pattern is really cute, an honestly great tribute to Dorothy in her blue and white gingham dress and her rich brown braided hair, but the yarn.....?  I don't love it.  I love the dye job and the vision of it, but the fabric it created is truly flimsy. These will be house socks as I don't believe they would hold up inside shoes.  But I'm glad they are done.

This pair is Crest by JC Briar and was the Rockin Sock Club kit for May.  The colors played beautifully for me and I love the striping I got, especially on the leg.

This pair is Tiberius from the Cookie A Club June kit.  This was a new yarn for me, SweetGeorgia CashLuxe Fine, and it is fantastic.  I would absolutely buy this yarn and would recommend it.  It's a nice light feeling yarn that makes a beautiful fabric and has great stitch definition.

This is Jubilee, also from Cookie A Sock Club, but from June 2011.  These were designed using Hazel Knits Artisan sock which is one of my favorite sock yarns.  I used the club yarn for the other pattern from June 2011 and used this old Hazel Knits club yarn from my stash.  I started these in July 2012.

At some point I decided I needed a break from all the socks and pulled out this hat that I had started this spring.  The pattern is Chelsea Market Hat.  It's an easy pattern and used just one skein of Madelinetosh Vintage.  I intended to put this in "The Gift Basket" but I might just keep it for myself instead.

So that's what I finished during the month of August!  Now I'm going to work on my Vodka Lemonade sweater while I wait for some Plucky Knitter yarn to arrive.  I ordered some Traveler Sport so that I can make Rolling Rock for Plucktember.  

Ten on Tuesday

Ten on Tuesday

It's been several weeks since I've participated in Ten on Tuesday, simply because the day has gotten away from me before I could post!  This week I'm doing it first, BEFORE I get involved in the daily summer craziness.

The prompt this week is 10 Words that Describe You with no elaboration.

1. Reliable
2. Thoughtful
3. Creative
4. Friendly
5. Competent
6. Innovative
7. Confident
8. Respectful
9. Smart
10. Conscientious

So here's a question for you.....  I take pride in everything I do.  Whatever I do, I like to do it well and I want to be proud of my efforts and what I leave behind.  What word would you use to convey that sentiment?

Want to join the fun?  Visit Carole's page to join and see what other people share.

Time for a Finishing Fest

August is the vacation month for Socks Knitters Anonymous but it has turned into the "Free Up Your Needles" month in anticipation of the new year to begin in September.  I gathered up all my SiP's to get organized.....

The good news is I found all the projects that I have on my Ravelry project page.  The bad news is that most of the patterns have to be located still.  That shouldn't be a big deal as I'm pretty good at making a working copy of my patterns and keep the originals in a binder or I know what book they are from.  But I do have 9 socks in progress.  The top picture is the ones that will quality for the SKA challenge, and they are all first socks.

The bottom picture is socks from my sock clubs and I am working on the 2nd sock for both of these.  I'm not quite keeping up but I'm not horribly behind either.  My RSC club arrived on Saturday and the Cookie A club should arrive Monday.  I should finish both of these this week then move onto my older SiP's for the rest of the month.

I wonder how many of these older projects I'll be able to complete during August?

I also got the itch to start a new sweater recently.  I cast on Vodka Lemonade and have been poking away at it a bit at a time.  It's a top down sweater that begins with a collar that is 5 inches of seed stitch! 5 Inches!  Perfect for mindless knitting :-)

Do you have anything fun planned for August?

30 Years?

It doesn't seem possible, but evidently it's true! I graduated from high school in 1983 and Saturday night I attended my 30th Class Reunion!  Crazy! I had a great time catching up with classmates I hadn't seen in years as well as having some laughs with friends I am still close to.

Here I am with my elementary school classmates Damon, Tod, and David.  It was fun reminiscing about all our high jinx from sneaking off school property during recess to go to the corner store to buy candy, to hanging out at Debbie's house which was across the street and smoking on lunch break. (We only did that a couple times before getting caught! LOL) It was a fun time!

What did you do this weekend?

A Random Catch Up

I can't believe it's been nearly a month since I last posted. There has been lots going on in my life, so here's a quick post of some of the random things I've been up to.

I was late planting my flowers and garden this year :-(  My hangers and deck planters are finally nicely filled out.  My garden is doing pretty well too, except that my corn didn't come up this year and my zucchini plants have that powdery/mildewy thing again this year.  I made sure they were plenty spread out and only water in the morning.  I'm wondering now if I have diseased soil?  I don't know, but my peas, green beans, cucumbers, carrots and tomatoes are doing great.  I should be picking cukes by the end of the week!

The dogs have been into all kinds of trouble this year.  Neal had a growth removed from his foot and it has been an EPIC battle to keep his foot clean and dry.  We've been to the vet 4 times in 10 days between him pulling his bandage off, sneaking out of the house and walking into the lake, etc and so forth.  Stitches come out Tuesday!  Yippee!

Emma has found all kinds of goose poop to roll in, even though we clean it up every. darn. day.  But little white dogs who roll in goose poop and then wish to sleep on my bed at night get baths before bedtime.  She's not impressed, but she sure smells better!

Tom took off the week of July 4th and we had a Staycation.  After years of wishing we had a jet ski, we finally caved this year and bought one.  We're having lots of fun with it :-)

My favorite little munchkin came to spend a couple days at Auntie Dianne's :-)  She is so much fun!  She's 17 months old and a busy, curious little girl.  We played ball, bubbles, side walk chalk, walked the dogs, climb on everything, and played by the lake.  She's not the only one slept well at night!

I was summoned for Jury Duty for the month of July.  So far my name has not been pulled to sit on a case, but I go again next week for selection again.

Chandler and I have also been visiting colleges he'd like to consider applying to.  Last week we went to Stonehill College and Boston University.  Tomorrow we're going to University of Vermont.  He still has 8 more schools on his "potential" list, so we'll be spending a lot of quality time together in the car.

I have managed to get some knitting in too.  I'm working on a Chelsea Market Hat.  I really like the pattern so far.

I started Tiberius from the Cookie A June sock club.

And I finished Dumbledore's Christmas Stockings.  I used Socks That Rock lightweight in a millend that I had in my stash.  I'm really happy with them.  This is definitely a raven color way and I did have some dye come off on my fingers while I was knitting them.  They'll need a vinegar bath before I wear them, but that's not a big deal.  The fit is great on these and I expect they'll get a lot of wear!

They are also my first finished pair of socks for the 26 Pair Plunge.  I fell really short last year on the plunge, only completing 13 pairs of socks, but I'm going to try it again.  It's only 2 pairs of socks a month plus a couple.  Totally doable, right?

The Summer of Socks Begins!

It's time for Summer of Socks!  I look forward to this every year and usually I'm chomping at the bit, ready to go on Memorial Day.  In the past though, the SOS has followed the calendar and not started until June 21st.  This year though, the wonderful moderators decided to adjust the KAL to run from Memorial Day until Labor Day.  I love that because to me, these two holidays mark the beginning and end of summer.  It's a No Pressure year too, which I love.  Knit anything you want, including WiP's, and it counts!  Perfect!

So I'm continuing on my quest to keep up with the 2 sock clubs I joined this year.  I recently finished Petrosinella which was the Rockin Sock Club March shipment.  This pattern was a little hard on my hands and I had to take regular breaks from it, but it was worth plugging along and finishing them.

They started with a pretty picot edge and then followed by a lace and cable pattern.

The heel flap is eye of the partridge which I hadn't done in a while.  I think it's quite pretty in this variegated yarn. Then I love how the cable lines up to split and half of it runs along the side of the foot.

It ended with my favorite wedge toe.

So March is done and May's kit is here and next to be wound and cast on.

I also finished one of the patterns from the April Cookie A club.  This pattern is Tulip Socks.  I substituted Hazel Knits Artisan sock yarn in the color Pink Ribbon for these.  The club yarn is a gorgeous lavender from Dream in Color Everlasting sock, but I think that tulips and pink just go together.  I'm going to use the lavender yarn for the other club pattern.

These were pretty straight forward and an easy knit.  The one thing that really stood out on these was the toe.  The instep had more stitches than the foot so with a little clever decrease in just the right place the 2 purl stitches on the sides of the instep become a frame for the toe.  I love little details like this!

The June shipment arrived last Monday, so in my quest to keep up I'm going to cast on one of the June patterns with the club yarn, then go back and do some of the old kits that are still waiting to be knit.

Happy Summer of Socks!