growing

Starlight is growing, growing, growing.

I love Virginia Beach winter weather

Today I spoke briefly with my aunt, uncle, and a cousin in Southern Harbour, Newfoundland.

They had been hit by a huge snow storm and were snowed in. My cousin's husband was supposed to arrive last night, but he couldn't even make it all the way there because of the road conditions.

I have no photos yet, but here are two from a storm in Bonavista a few years ago.






Notice the iced over fence rails! Brrrrrr!


Now, here's what I see in my front yard:


And today's winter temperatures reached 62F or 16.666C. I'll take that any Jan. 27th. I love Virginia Beach winter weather.

Don't get me wrong, I love Newfoundland, and can't wait to go home this summer, but right now, I plan to enjoy what the folks in VB call winter.

starlight

I thought I had somehow managed to change my password and was locked out of the blog for the last few days.
Nooooooo... Apparently, even though I signed up for the new Google blogger, my account was hit by the change over. It took me a week to figure this out!!! Like I said, I am new to this blogging stuff… but DUH!

Now that I’m back, I have what might not look like much, but let me tell you, this is much progress on Starlight. Check this out:

Here's a close-up

I know you can’t tell, but I’m soon to start the waist shaping. Sami says she’s at the sleeve attaching stage. I can’t wait to see it.

I love Starlight...but I don’t think I’ll be monogamous. It is going to take a while, and knowing my “get something finished” mentality, I suspect I’ll need a few quick knits to play with as I go. I’m thinking some Christmas ornaments a la Two Old Bags.

I know, I know… I am just impressing you to no end with my planning… The fact that I can finish one in a half hour is part of the attraction. Maybe I’ll do a few booga bags with these yarns:


I've finished the body of the Guild Sampler Knit Along Vest. But I'll wait until the next meeting to add the bottom band and do the finishing.

Teenage son has a “gig” tomorrow night. The bassist for the band has “exotic” hives and there was some fear they wouldn’t be able to play, but he’s a trooper. So The Couch Jumpers will try to beat out 11 other bands tomorrow night. Maybe exotic hives will give them the edge.

Guess what this is? ,




Well it used to be the Einstein body and upper parts. But then I tried it on... and I looked like a short square person… think Sponge Bob.... only I was blue/green not yellow.

What was I thinking?!?! I knew I wouldn’t like the fit of the Einstein, but NOOOOO, I had to give in to peer pressure.... Well OK. They didn’t really pressure me at all, so I guess it was peer envy. I fell under the spell of the lushly thick alpaca boucle Einsteins’ the Wed. night knitters were creating. Yarn fumes, as the Yarnharlot would say, took over my better judgment. So, even though the Einstein was about 3/4 of the way finished, I knew I wouldn't wear it. So, I ...r-r-r-r-r-i-i-i-i-p-p-p-p-ped.. Man, that was a lot of ripping!

I decided to use the yarn on the more fitted shawl collar cardigan from Adrienne Vittadini.

So now, I have started Starlight. The yarn, Rowan’s Silk Wool DK is marvelous to work with. Yeah! Freud would say, I intentionally made the garment blocky to get to the scrumptious Starlight. Who knows the mind of the inner knitter?

I also finished the body of the Guild's Knit-a-long sampler vest. I’ll post photos of these once I get a little of the work visible on Starlight. So far, I've only cast on and knit the garter stitch band for the fronts and back.

Jan. 12

The lace-wing socks are calling to me.
Cascade Fixation, easy lace, and shortie socks. Three of my favorite things all together...and I have dozens of Fixation in my stash.

The lace-wing socks are calling, even though I am working on the WIPs below:

the bottom of the Einstein ,



the Guild Knit Along sampler

a car sock for TS

and I’m lusting after Starlight.

Returning to teaching this week really cut into my knitting time! Today’s mantra is KNIT FASTER, KNIT FASTER.

I’m really liking the sock for TS. He’s into ska music and because ska and checks go together, he asked me to design and knit them for him. Check out that heel! I think I’ll call them ska sock when I’m finished. Then lace-wing becomes the new car sock.


***
I get to play roadie tomorrow night. The Couch Jumpers, (TS’ band) will be playing at a local karate studio. I’m bringing my knitting. I certainly won’t be jumping up and down, or skanking

[English prof. aside: I wonder if this is the correct form of the word…. Or is it doing the skank?]. Anyway...I'm wearing an air cast on my left foot, so no skanking for me.

Jan. 11

Last night I visited Ewe Knit Kits and Yarns for knitting night. All the regulars were there… well Dona was there, but she was in the back learning how to knit two socks at the same time, on one circular needle! Two of us worked on our Einstein jackets. That is the new knitting I just had to join. Peer pressure is such a bear! Last Wed. when I attended the knitting night, everyone was just starting hers or just finishing the body. Mary Jo started hers that night, so, of course, I caved to the pressure and bought the alpaca boucle the next day. By Sat, I was well along.

Now I am back to the body being only about one quarter finished. I had to rip out!

I blame it all on Sideways. I zipped through the entire body on Sunday night, only to find I had lost track of the gauge. The fabric was way too flabby, not at all dense like I wanted it. Before I could reconsider frogging, and just do the usual: fudge it, I ripped. After all, Sally Melville is coming to Ewe Knit Kits and Yarns’ KnitaPalooza 2007. I don’t want her seeing a flabby or a fudged Einstein. Sigh.

Why, oh why didn’t I pay more attention? I DO know better. But…I want to finish the Einstien FAST. Because I saw The Starlight sweater from Rowan's Classic Style at Ewe Knit Kits and Yarns. And I WANT it NOW!! This entire book is filled with great patterns. I can’t wait to get started.

I am supposed to be working on the website that supports my teaching, but the website is unavailable. So...having a little time on my hands, I read the Yarn Harlot’s most recent post. She’s going to speak to the Kitchener Waterloo Knitter’s Guild. My mind wandered... and wondered. Kitchener-Waterloo reminded me of Grumperina’s grafting skills, which led to wondering why grafting is called Kitchener stitch.

Because I am originally from Newfoundland, Canada, and I have family in Toronto, I knew about Kitchener-Waterloo, the “twin cities,” and I knew Kitchener was some British military guy, but that was it. How did grafting become associated with this “British military guy?” Ah… how my mind wanders… or allows me to stay away from cleaning and other sundry chores.

An ask.com search and few mouse clicks taught me that I am not the only person who pondered this question.

Of course, as I was on the site, I had to look around. A quick skim of the reference category has enticed me to add this link to my blog visiting list.

In personal knitting news, I continue on my Guild knit along, the Blues Band Guild Vest, also known as the Sampler Guild Vest. After taking the photo, I see two, big, honking mistakes! I think I’ll just fudge them instead of frogging. Yesterday, because I fell victim to peer pressure/envy, I started yet another project. More about that one later.

Jan. 4, 2006

About two weeks ago, I dug through my closet to find my gray cashmere (store-bought) t-shirt. I found it, wore it, but I didn’t notice this until I was just getting ready to wash it.

ARGH!!!! I know what this means…. Bugs! I’ve been fighting (not winning the battle against) an invasive backdoor Trojan on the computer… and now this!!! Those of you who know me, may be acquainted with my sizable stash. These holes mean I have to go through, not only my closets but the entire stash hunting for the critters that chewed on my knitwear. I really had other plans for this week….and month. Death to all bugs!


The sweater has languished on the washer while I tried to decide what to do about it. Today I found this on grumperina's latest post. Check out the Jan. 3 post. As there are two holes though, I wonder if it is worth it? I can imagine myself ever so carefully cutting, kitchener stitching, hand washing, and wearing it again to find new holes. That would really...well, bug me.

link for kitchener stitch

silk/alpaca scarf my design

TS returned from school and fixed me up with photos.

scarf 1

Welcome to my New Year’s resolution blog. My goal is to post twice a week about knitting, yarn, knitting, stash, knitting, and more knitting.

While I know what I am doing when knitting, blogging is totally new to me. I do not know what I am doing, so this should be interesting.

I’m trying to figure out how to add links in an organized manner and how to upload photos. Maybe I’ll just wait until teenage son (TS) returns from school and can do it for me.

Beware bragging below:

Speaking of TS, he’s a member of a band called the Couch Jumpers. They’ll be playing in Battle of the Bands competitions at Cape Henry Collegiate and at the Peppermint Beach Club, in VB, on March 2, 2007.

I frequently listen to the Couch Jumpers because they practice four houses up the street at the bass player’s house and record at my house and at the bass player’s. The Couch Jumpers do a few covers, but most of their music is their own. Pretty impressive! I’ve linked to them at the right…. you too can visit myspace and listen in once they finish recording. Until then, here's a song by TS. It's similar to the Couch Jumper's music.