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?