Mikknit

This means that at lunchtime today, the week is half over. Right? This has already been a long week for no good reason, so I’m not looking forward to 3 more days until the weekend. I’ve got a cold, so that’s part of the problem, and our bathroom is torn apart so I can’t take a shower (ugh)… so I guess there are a couple good reasons why the week is seeming so long.

But at least I can still loaf on the couch and knit, even if I don’t have the energy to do anything else!

I’ve been working on socks, since I signed up for Socktoberfest. In thinking about what I wanted to do for Socktoberfest - did I want to just continue my general sock-knitting habits, did I want to make Christmas gift socks, socks for me, or did I want to have a goal of knitting X number of socks? - I decided that I’m going to knit socks for the kids. I’ve got a ton of leftover sock yarn and it’s in amounts sufficient to make little-kid socks, for sure. But in order to do that, I want to have a clean slate at the beginning of October - I want to finish the socks I’m knitting for myself. Made some good progress on that front in the last couple days - I bound of sock #1 on Monday night and promptly started sock #2. I worked on that a bit yesterday, and I should be able to get to the heel today if I escape to the coffee shop while my mother-in-law is here to play with the kids. We’ll see if that happens or if I hide in the sewing room instead and finish up some of the stuff cluttering my desk.

Here are the socks as they are now:

Lana Grossa Meilenweit Fun - color 83, I think (I will edit this if I track down the ball band) on size 0 circulars, 72 stitches. I made those pants, too, by the way.

I also finished Grace’s sweater and it turned out well, but I don’t care for the buttonholes - they distort the shape of the buttonhole band in an unattractive way. No way am I going to redo them, though! I started this on Friday, Sept 8 and finished it on Sunday, Sept 24. I did have to start over a couple times, since I originally was doing it all in one piece but discarded that idea, then I cast on too few stitches for the size I wanted (I was sort of basing this on the child’s size 4 cardigan sweater in The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns) - turns out it’d have been just fine with fewer stitches, it’s quite big on her.

But cute though!

And without the distracting cuteness:

Guess who chose the ladybug buttons? Heh.

And now off to retrieve that sweater from my Mom’s car…

I feel like a huge crowd of guests has shown up at my door and I’m still sitting around in my pajamas at 6PM. Well, I *am* still sitting around in my pajamas, but that’s beside the point.

So if you’ve come over from Stephanie’s blog looking for actual recent knitting content, I’ll apologize. There’s not been a lot of notable knitting here lately, or at least nothing really interesting enough to blog about.

I did finish the knitting on a cardigan for Grace, at least:

Cardigan sweater pattern from Knitter’s Handy Book, Plymouth Galway color 605

This took me about 10-12 days to knit, with a couple start-overs of the back. I have yet to seam it (duh), and it’ll need a neckband and buttonbands as well. And buttons. I loathe sewing on buttons. But I should be able to finish it tonight or tomorrow, depending on how readily the kids go to bed tonight.

After I finished knitting Grace’s sweater last night, I cast on for a sweater for me. Yes, I’m actually going to take the plunge and knit something for myself other than socks! I’m using Peace Fleece in Sakhalin Salmon, and I love it so far. The yarn doesn’t have a ton of give to it and it’s a little “rustic”, but it’s pretty nice to work with anyhow. Maybe it’s the whole philosophy of Peace Fleece that’s making me so happy, who knows.

Not yet to the amorphous red-orange blob stage

I’ve got the ribbing plus one round of the body done so far. 2816 stitches down, about 928374100 to go. But at least I’m knitting it in the round, all in one piece - that way there’ll be no seams to sew at the end. But sadly, I’m knitting it in the round, all in one piece, which means that I’ll be carrying around an awful lot of sweater with me if I choose to take this out of the house. At least I’ll have plenty of opportunity to wear it this winter. Brr.

Oh yeah, woohoo! I managed to be here at the right time and snagged one of the slots in Scout’s Indie Swag Club! I was hemming and hawing and trying to decide whether to do just one month, three months, or all six, and went for the happy medium with the 3-month subscription. Should be just right, I think.

I’m very excited to see what shows up!

Though I was disappointed that she would not be in the Twin Cities, I was happy to learn that Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka The Yarn Harlot, would be speaking within a reasonable drive. We packed ourselves into the car and drove over to Eau Claire, where we had dinner, paid a quick visit to Yellow Dog Knitting, and then trotted over to the Masonic Lodge to see Stephanie.

Not the best picture of her, but she kept moving on me!

She took a couple pictures of the audience (more than half of whom had driven from Minnesota!), and then…

Then there was this kid onstage with her!

Yep, that’s my kid. She said “I’m a baby!” when Steph asked what her name was if she was a boy or a girl. Of course. I thought we were past the being a baby stage now that Arlo isn’t a little baby, but I guess not. She got off the stage and spent the rest of the time roaming the auditorium and the rest of the building with Chris and Arlo.

We weren’t the only ones there with kids:

I spotted this woman knitting with her little one in the sling

I’ve done this many times, though not once they get old enough to be grabby - that’s just asking for trouble. I talked to her later and got a good look at the little cutie pie, who appears to have as much hair at 4.5 months as Grace does at 3.5 years, plus she was wearing a very cute pair of knitted pants. I think they may have been knit from the Little Turtle Knits Picky Pants pattern. Great pattern, for sure! If anyone knows who this woman is, let me know!

I saw a few familiar faces - Knittymama and Knittybaby (who is extremely cute and chubby!), Chris, Tipper, Cori, Shelley, and some other people who looked familiar but whose names I couldn’t recall. Speak up if I left you out!

And now here we are at home. The kids are finally in bed (only 3 hours or so past bedtime), the photos are uploaded, blog post written. Now I think I’ll find myself a glass of beer and do a little knitting.

It’s a gigantic shawl!

For reference, that cardboard cutting mat I have it laid out on is approximately 70″ by 38″, the marked area is 68″x36″. Do you like my creative extensions? Hahaha. If you can’t make it out, I had to take a couple of pieces of cardboard to extend my workspace and weight them down with some of Chris’s heavy geek math and computer books.

I’m pretty darned thrilled with how it turned out! It’s so soft and I’m just floored by what the blocking process did. I forgot to take a picture of it before I blocked it, but the difference is just incredible.

I’ve got some more of this yarn in a chocolate brown, and I think I’m going to make the Leaf Lace Shawl for myself. Right after I finish the Peace Shawl that I started in May or June of 2004, which I’m going to go dig out as soon as Arlo is out of my hair. Hopefully I can find both project and pattern and figure out where the heck I *am* in the pattern!

I want to talk about blocking lace, but I just don’t have my wits about me enough at the moment to come up with anything remotely resembling coherence. Suffice it to say that the process of blocking amazes me!

Bear with me - I’m reorganizing my photo gallery and some images may not display properly. I hope to have everything back together shortly!

Found the camera cable! It was in the camera bag *blush* Whoops. So here are some pictures… obviously a fancy new camera doesn’t automatically imbue me with talent for taking good pictures.

This is the bag I made for my Secret Pal. Again, it’s denim for the outer (had a big chunk of that in my stash and there’s still quite a bit left. There may be a denim bag for *me* in the future.

The inside of the bag. I LOVE this fabric! If it’s not clear enough, those are knitting needles and the occasional crochet hook. I got it at Hancock Fabrics and they had a few other prints in this line - yarn, stockinette stitch, reverse stockinette, needles AND yarn. Very cool.

And my finally completed Socka Spiral Rib socks. I love them! I just wish the one on my right foot had those great bright orange stripes, too. Guess I’ll have to track down some more and try again!

I’m in the process of binding off 982734 stitches for the Flower Basket Shawl. I’m hoping to get it washed and blocked while Arlo is napping. Hopefully he’ll cooperate with that plan!

I’ve got a small child trying to climb under my shirt here… I think maybe he wants me to get off the computer and nurse him. Stinker.

Long time no blah blog, I guess. I’ve been busier trying to get the house into some semblance of order (it’s not working), sewing an outfit for the wedding reception we went to (pictures to come once it’s ironed), and traveling to Pittsburgh for said wedding reception. I packed a couple socks to work on on the trip - I finally found sock #1 of my looks-like-Trekking-but-is-really-Socka spiral rib socks and finished up sock #2 in the airport shuttle to go home. Also made some progress on sock #1 of a toe-up pair in Meilenweit (I think) self-striping yarn.

I may have completed the last pattern repeat on the Flower Basket Shawl - I’m taking a break from putting it on waste yarn to check the size. Hopefully it’s big enough and I can get the edging done, block it, and send it off. I’d love to have it warming a wonderful person and helping her fight her illness, rather than sitting uselessly in a basket in my house. Here’s hoping… And it is indeed big enough! Hooray! Hopefully Grace will be asleep shortly and DH and I will find something to watch on tv so I can get my knit on.

I’ve got pictures of the bag I made for my SP8 to share, too, but of course the camera cable is AWOL. I got a new camera, so you think I’d maybe have smartened up and designated a cable-storage place, but noooo. Of course not. Maybe if I got off my duff and cleaned…

I’ll get on looking for that and maybe I’ll have some pictures to share with you in the morning. Just wanted to let you know that I’m still here!