Ten on Tuesday

It's the week after Thanksgiving, and so it's officially the Christmas season.  With that came a cold front this weekend and suddenly I. Am. Cold!  It's time to re-evaluate my mitten collection and add to it.  Again, perfect timing with 10 on Tuesday as Carole's prompt this week is:

10 Mittens/Mitts I'd Like to Make

I merely had to go to my Ravelry queue to get me started today :-)

1. Winter Wonder Mittens - I'll admit that I've already started these, but stranded colorwork and magic loop are not a god combination for me.  My floats are too short going from needle 1 to needle 2, so they need to be frogged and restarted with dpn's

2. Postwar Mittens - I just love these and the color combinations are endless!

3. Breathe Deep - The pattern on the hand is simple but interesting.

4. Swansea - I like the texture of these.  The bobbles remind me of little snowballs.

5.  Eugenia's Mittens - I really like the cable on these.

6. Cloisonee - A simple mitten with some fun on the cuff!

7. Snowflakes in Starry Skies Mittens - More snowflake mittens, but these have snowflakes on the palm too.

8. Green Autumn - I've loved these for a long time!  Initially I couldn't find the Vogue Knitting magazine that they were published in, but now I can get the pattern through Ravelry!

9. Genmaicha - These have been in my queue for a long time!  Maybe I'll finally get to them this year.

10. Susie Rogers' Reading Mitts - this is another pattern that I've had in my queue for a long time.  I'm thinking about making these for my book group Yankee Swap.  I think they'd be perfect!

Honorable Mention - I just had to add one more, Clepsydra.  I've actually made these once before, but the yarn I substituted had a really different row gauge so they ended up ridiculously too long.  I'd like to try them again with a different yarn and a little more confidence to modify the length if necessary.

These are some of the mittens I'd like to make.  How about you?  If you'd like some more ideas be sure to check out the links on Carole's Blog. I expect my queue is going to grow a LOT today!

Visiting

Last weekend we went to Alabama to visit my middle son, Justin.  We had a fantastic time!  We brought our youngest son, Chandler, with us too.  He is a junior in high school and has no idea what he wants to do for college, so we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to do a school visit.  It gave him an idea as to what a big Division 1 school, far from home, would be like.  So we started our weekend with an official school tour Friday morning.  (Typical teenager, can't do anything without his phone :-))

Then we headed over to Justin's apartment to meet up with him.  As it turned out, all 3 of the boys that he lives and a few other kids from the waterski team had their families visiting last weekend too! The boys decided to have a party so everybody could meet.

Here's a little glimpse of his apartment.  I don't know about you, but the places I lived in as a student were no where near as nice as this!  He lives in a 4 bedroom/4 bathroom townhouse, fully applianced and furnished including a washer & dryer with utilities included to a capped amount.  It is off-campus housing that caters to students and very common in Tuscaloosa.  They also have a clubhouse with a pool, hot tub, pool tables, movie theater, fitness center, etc.  Amazing.

Anyway, it didn't take much encouragement for the moms to jump into action and start throwing some food together.  The dads manned the grills, and supervised the keg and cigars.  One set of parents came prepared to make margaritas.  After dinner, there was a rousing game of beer pong with father/son teams.  It was pretty hilarious and probably not all that different from a regular game weekend :-)

Saturday was Game Day! We headed over to the Quad to enjoy the festivities.  I have never seen anything like it!  EZ-Up tents were as far as the eye could see and they were fully decked out. Lots of food, tables decorated with tablecloths and flowers, flat screen TV's playing all the pre-game stuff, and if you can imagine it it was probably there!

The game was a lot of fun.  It was the first time that Alabama and Texas A&M had met since A&M joined the SEC Conference.  Sadly, UA lost, but it was a fun game to watch.  I really enjoyed the marching bands. This is the A&M band, who happened to be staying at the same hotel we were at.

And the UA band.  It's a little hard to make out, but they spelled out USA and played music to honor each of the branches of our military.

Here we are enjoying the game. We had great seats on the 30 yd line, 27 rows up on the visitor side.

Before the game, the band percussion section did a show on the Quad.  Here is a small section of it. I hope you enjoy it!  As a former band geek myself, I loved it!


So that was our weekend!  I had a great time, but the best part about the entire weekend was seeing my son, in his element, doing his thing and enjoying his friends. I am a lucky mom that I got to see and experience that.  It makes it a little easier to have him so far from home when I know first hand how happy he is.

WiP Wednesday

It's been a couple of weeks since I've blogged. There hasn't been as much knitting as usual going on for me. We had some storm prep to do for Hurricane Sandy, which we survived just fine fortunately. We also went to visit our son in Alabama for a few days, and while we were gone we had our wood floors refinished, so there was lots of preparation to get read for that too.  But let me show you what knitting I have been working on.

I joined the Mystery Sock KAL on SKA.  The designer is Erica Lueder who is well known for her textured patterns, especially her Harry Potter themed patterns.  This is Moody's Secret Stockings.  I'm just about finished with clue 2.  Clue 3 will be out tomorrow.

I'm also working on one of the patterns from Cookie's October Sock Club shipment.  I'm using one of the Hazel Knits October colors for this pattern and saving the club yarn for the other pattern.

I'm just about finished the body of Lilianna.  I'll be binding the body off tonight and starting on the sleeves.  Hopefully the next time you see this it will be a FO.

I have about 4" to go to finish the first sleeve of Vodka Gimlet.  And again, hopefully the next time you see this it will also be a FO.

So that's what's on my needles this week!  How about you?

Girl on Fire

I only have one pair of finished socks for October and it is a pair that I started in September to participate in 3 KAL's.  I missed the deadline for The Cookie Crumbs group, but I finished in time for the Hazel Knits group which was a designer challenge, and Sock Knitter's Anonymous which was a technique challenge.  The technique was for everybody to knit with the same color and the color selected was red.

The designer challenge was any pattern by Rose Hiver.  I chose Katniss, a pattern inspired by the heroine of The Hunger Games books.  Katniss always wears her hair in a braid and this pattern features a braided cable on the front and back.  It also has a great ribbed gusset that I really enjoyed doing.

The Details:

Pattern: Katniss by Rose Hiver

Yarn: Hazel Knits Artisan Sock, color Barn Door

Needle: 2.25mm

Mods: None

Now I'm getting settled in for Hurricane Sandy.  I've been to the store and stocked up on food that I can prepare without needing to use the oven.  The generator is out and checked, and gas has been purchased for it.  Hopefully we won't need it, but where I live if the power goes out for weather related reasons, it's out for at least 3 days.  The only thing left to do now is knit!  If you're on the east coast too, I hope you're all settled in too and that you'll be safe!

Ten on Tuesday

Halloween is next week and it's time to think about preparing for all the little ghosts, goblins, princesses, super heroes and their friends who will stop by hoping for a treat. Honestly I get way too stressed about this!  I don't want to give out crappy candy, so what is the right candy?  The BEST candy...?  How perfect is it that this week's 10 on Tuesday prompt is:

10 Favorite Candies in Your Trick or Treat Bag

These are some of the treats that I loved finding in my bag as a kid!

1. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
2. Milky Way
3. M&M's
4. Kit Kat Bar
5. Tootsie Pop
6. $100,000 Bar, although now I think it's called $100 Grand
7. Hershey Bar
8. Junior Mints
9. Milk Duds
10. Whoppers

Looking back at my list, I sense a theme.  There's chocolate in every single one of those!  And I remember the thrill I would feel if there was a FULL SIZE candy bar!  So that's what I do, give out full size bars.  I usually only get about 20 trick or treater's in my neighborhood, so it's something that I can afford to do. The looks on their faces when I drop that in their bag is priceless :-)

Thanks Carole for another fun topic!

Dovetail Cowl

I think I may have found the perfect cowl!  It is Dovetail Cowl by Carina Spencer.  I made the large size so that it can be doubled up or worn long.

I love that it is a textured design that looks fabulous on both sides.  It looks super sexy modeled on my deck post, doesn't it? LOL

And a crappy iPhone photo with it being worn doubled.....

I used Malabrigo Rios in the color Azul Profundo. I find Rios to be such a wonderful yarn.  It's round, cushy and has wonderful stitch definition.  It's also a super wash yarn and has a great price point!

I"ll probably make this cowl again.  I'd like to make one in the small size.  There is also an option to make a rolled edge before the patterning begins.  The only thing I would do differently is that I would cast on with a larger needle, then switch immediately to the smaller needle on the first row.  If you look at the first picture you can see that one side, the CO side, is tighter that the other.  But that's it!  Wonderful pattern and I look forward to trying more by Carina Spencer!

WiP Wednesday

It's been a while since I showed you what's on my needles and getting attention.  There are quite a few things actually, and they're almost all red!  Weird.  But I'm feeling inspired to get some of these finished, so I'm going with that feeling until it passes.

First, I have the Katniss socks.  I cast these on for the SKA red challenge in September and the Hazel Knits RoseHiver challenge for Sept/October.  I need to finish these by the end of the month for both challenges.  That shouldn't be a problem as I am ready to start the heel flap of the second sock.

I started the Lillianna sweater for my niece.  I have 1 1/2 pattern repeats done on the body and the pattern calls for 4.  I tried it on Morgan this weekend and it will be a perfect fit for the winter. My sister loves it!  We decided that since it will fit Morgan through the winter that long sleeves would make more sense here in NH, so I'm going to lengthen the sleeves.

Vodka Gimlet is coming along as well.  I am ready to start the "hem detail" at the bottom of the body.  I'll be starting the sleeves in no time and wearing this soon!

I also have a cowl that is almost finished so I decided not to show you that today.  I'm hoping/expecting to finish it tonight!  You should be seeing it as a FO in the next few days.  Then I will have to decide whether to keep it for myself or gift it.  It will be a tough decision.

I've gotten two sock club shipments in the last week too.

This is the yarn from the Cookie A Sock Club.  The yarn is from Green Mountain Spinnery, which is kind of local for me.  I've not tried any of their yarns though because none of my LYS carry their yarns.  I'm not sure I like it.  It has a rougher and earthier feel to it than what I usually like, but I can see how it will work nicely with the cabled sock pattern included this month.  The lace sock pattern though.....? Not so much.  I'm sure I'll knit it sometime, but it's not screaming at me yet.

 I also got my Rockin Sock Club kit.  It's Socks That Rock lightweight and....

 some complimentary Silkie.  The sock pattern has as option to embroider with the Silkie.  It makes a very cool Stained Glass effect on the sock, but there is no way that I will go to that extra effort.  There is also a pattern for a colorwork hat which is what I think I will make with this kit.

I'm still expecting my Hazel Knits sock club and Plucky Classics.  The Hazel Knits is shipping today.  I wonder if it will be in the brown family too?