Mikknit

Still alive. Chained to kitchen stove canning produce. Send more wide-mouth jar lids.

The winner of the vacation story contest is Nia, of Knot Knitting! I’ll repost her story here, it was pretty funny!

Last month my husband Jim and I went on vacation to my parents house on Lake Superior in Michigan, my brother, his wife and my friend Michelle all joined us up there. The second purpose of the trip was to buy my grandma’s 1997 Buick and get the license and registration. Once that was done we were cruising in the Buick to Tahquamenon Falls.

At the falls my family said: “I’ve had enough nature. Is it time for beer?” and the phrase “beer:30″ was answered when someone asked the time.
So after nature and beer we are cruising back home in the Buick and my husband finds a cassette tape in the glove box and pops it in the player. He says he will take it out if someone can guess what the horrible music is. We guess a couple of things, then try to forcibly remove it from the player. After a couple minutes of pushing and grabbing and I believe the people in the backseat held him down I got the tape to eject all while still driving. Jim then yells “NO CAPTAIN AND TENNILLE FOR YOU” and throws it out the window. So somewhere up there is Captain and Tennille Sing the Hits if anyone wants to find it.

Thanks for entering, everyone!

Real knitting content to follow tomorrow.

Only 3.5 more hours to get your vacation stories in! I will close comments on the contest post either at midnight tonight (if I’m still conscious) or tomorrow morning. Any posts made after midnight CDT will be disqualified.

I’m dealing with some seriously soul-sucking allergies here, so I haven’t gotten any pictures taken. I’m also fighting some bad knitter’s ADD, not helped at all by browsing on Ravelry. I’m knitting on the endless sleeve of this Wonderful Wallaby (only sleeve #1, might I add) and since it’s mindless stockinette my brain is flitting back and forth to all of the things I want to knit NOW!

• The Luna Moth Shawl, for which I have some lovely chocolate brown alpaca.
• The February baby sweater from Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitter’s Almanac. I have the yarn for this but my copy of the book is MIA.
• I am still coveting the yarn from Beaverslide Dry Goods, but have several sweaters’ worth of yarn to knit first.
• The Peace Fleece sweater is asking to be revived, just as the weather is warming up again.
• The green/yellow yarn from Stonehedge Fiber Mill is screaming at me as well
• My spinning wheel is glaring at me, disgusted with how it’s been neglected

Strangely enough, I am not at all interested in knitting socks right now. My brain has moved on to fall/winter knitting. This will be an issue if we have another month of warm weather, I think, but at least it’s been getting nice and cool at night - then I can wear my nice wool socks to bed

I hope there’s something on tv tonight sufficiently interesting enough to get me through the last couple inches on this sleeve. At that point, I may reward myself by sewing buttons onto the Baby Surprise Jacket and suffering a little bit of babylust.

It’s been lots of fun reading your stories! Lots of “Aww”, lots of “Oh good heavens, I can’t believe that happened!” Remember, you’ve got until midnight CDT Friday to get your stories in!

I’m currently stalled out on both of my sock projects (Baudelaire and some toe-up socks in *my* yarn from Northwoods Dyeworks), I finished knitting the felted pirate hat from Moth Heaven on Monday and have been farting around since then. Finished up the Baby Surprise Jacket during my 5-ish hours hanging out at Borealis yesterday but haven’t gotten the (incredibly, painfully cute!) buttons sewn on yet. Still not wanting to touch either sock. So instead of casting on a new project, what to do?

It’s been cool here lately, so I’m thinking about fall and winter. Oh yes, Grace has outgrown all of her sweaters - she has her papa’s long torso, so while they “technically” still fit, they’re far too short to keep her warm. I dug out the Wonderful Wallaby I’d started for her back in March or April but had put away out of sheer boredom and also because of warm weather. I’ve been cruising along on it, finished the pouch today and have the body up to the armpits if I follow the measurements in the pattern. I’m going to measure her in the morning and will undoubtedly lengthen the torso by an inch or two. For now, I’ve started on the sleeve and I’m being reminded just how noisy metal DPNs are. Oy. One more inch and I can switch over to my nice quite bamboo size 7s.

I’ll do my best to break out the camera tomorrow and get some pictures. I’ve been dragging lately and for some reason it’s just too much work to actually take pictures of stuff and put them onto the computer.

We’re off to the State Fair on Friday - I’m hoping to get into the Creative Activities building this time so I can get a good look at all of the great knitted items entered in the fair. I know *so* many people who entered things in the fair this year! I wish I’d gotten around to it… Next year, I will do it for sure.

I know, I promised this last week, but I’ve been very busy. The kids’ room has some good progress on it but I still have to finish up the curtains (which are very cute and not all that hard to make, it’s just a pain working with the blackout lining!), get Chris’s desk sold and out of there (any locals need a nice desk?), put shelves and clothes bars in the closet, and find a door for the closet. Yeah, it might be a while. But they’ve been playing so well up there, not so much fighting as they do when confined to the downstairs. Here’s hoping that lasts.

Anyhow, on to the contest. Holly of HollYarns suggested this for my contest theme and I thought it was great, so we’re going with it.

I want to hear your vacation stories - something funny, something terrible, something incredible, whatever memorable vacation you would like to tell me about, I want to hear it. If you have pictures to share instead of or in addition to a story, do that too! I think a link will have to suffice for that, though - I don’t think one can post images in a comment here.

The prize, which I’m sure is the most exciting thing here: Two skeins of Merino Sock from Northwoods Dyeworks* in Sundae (you can see it knit up here).

This stuff is nice and soft! 245 yards/50 grams per skein, 100% merino (superwash!).

I may find something else to tuck in with the yarn, some stitch markers or something, I’m not sure. I will choose one person at random from all submissions on September 1, so you have until midnight Central time on August 31 to get your story in.

I’m eagerly awaiting your stories!

*I can’t recommend these folks enough - they dye pretty yarn, make some awesome tie-dyes, and are just really nice folks. Libby is working on an online shopping cart, but in the meantime you can call or email them to order.

I just realized that it had been two weeks since my last post, and close to three since my last knitting-related post. I wish I could blame it on being really busy, but I think it’s just been sheer laziness. Well, I have been emptying the catch-all room (formerly the computer room/office/library) and preparing to paint it and make it into the kids’ room, but that’s been done in spurts and certainly hasn’t been so much work as to make me fall off the face of the earth for so long. We’re painting the room today and hopefully I’ll be able to get the bunkbed brought in and put together tomorrow. I’m still going to have to track down mattresses for it, I’m thinking Ikea might be the easiest. I’m not 100% sure it’ll be the cheapest and/or best option, though… I guess I should make some phone calls in the morning. The plus on the Ikea mattresses is that they come all rolled up, so they’d fit in my minivan. I can’t argue with the convenience of that.

On to the knitting content!

I finished the BFF Socks (the website is still down?!) on Friday or Saturday, I think it was. It was a great pattern to knit - easy enough to not need the pattern but interesting enough to keep me from losing my mind. I know they’ll be well-received!

BFF Socks by Cookie A., knit in Shepherd Sock - Mixed Berries colorway

I’ve also started a Baby Surprise Jacket - my first one. I checked out The Opinionated Knitter from the library and I think it will definitely be going on my wish list - I am enjoying just reading through it. My cousin is having a little girl in December and when I showed her this yarn she made some very positive noises:

Handspun wool, ~600 yards, 8.35 oz (both skeins combined) click for closeup

I finished this yarn ages ago with the plan to make a sweater for Arlo, but I thought it’d be very nice for a baby sweater - I love bright bold colors on babies. I cast on on Sunday, goofed up to the point where I had to completely rip it out, and then started over again. It’s been going strong since then, thankfully!

I’ve just started the increases here (closeup)

I am really enjoying how this yarn is knitting up. At first it wasn’t really pleasing me, as I’d been hoping to see *all* of the colors in the yarn, but that’s just not going to show up in garter stitch. Right now it really reminds me of the recycled sari silk yarn - I think it’s that red that does it for me.

I also have a sock going, surprisingly enough not from Sensational Knitted Socks. However, it is another Cookie A. pattern - this time it’s Baudelaire. I’m really enjoying the pattern, but the yarn leaves a bit to be desired. I’m using Universal Yarns Pace, which is a wool/nylon blend. The yarn seems to be of good quality, but this particular color is scratchier than anything I’ve ever felt. The other colors are nice, it seems, but this one - I love the color, so I’m hoping it softens up considerably with washing. If not, I guess I’ll wear them anyhow. FWIW, Borealis has this stuff on clearance now - they’ve found a solid-colored sock yarn they like better (Opal, I think), so they’re making room.

I’m sorry for the poor quality of the picture, the light this morning left a lot to be desired.

Alright, I think it’s time to go shower and wash the green paint out of my hair. But first, I want to tell you that I got a package in the mail today and (time and small children permitting) I will be posting a contest tomorrow. Holly gave me a great idea for a contest, so I’m really excited to get this started!

I hope all of the MN folks are safe and all of your friends and loved ones are accounted for after the bridge collapse.

And for those who missed the news: 35W bridge over Mississippi River collapses. This is so damned scary.

I either need to start knitting faster, start showing a LOT more in-progress shots with incremental progress, or think of things to talk about other than knitting if I want to blog more than once every 10 days or so.

I finally finished my Twin Rib socks in Trekking XXL color 108. The second sock absolutely dragged on forever. They’ll be great to wear now, though!

And of course I had to cast on for a new pair immediately:

BFF Socks

I’m using some well-aged Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in the Mixed Berries colorway. This is an extremely poor representation of the color, you can see a better representation here. It has been a long time since I worked with this yarn and I’d forgotten how much I enjoy working with it. I’m using KnitPicks 2.25mm needles instead of my usual 2.50mm, which makes the fabric much cushier and should make it last much longer, as well.

I need some suggestions - I have a ton of friends who have either just had babies or are due within the next 8 months (ha!) and I am looking for some new & different patterns for baby gifts. I normally knit soakers, but I knit two in rapid succession over the past couple weeks and I’m burnt out. I’m looking for sweaters, booties, etc. Things that can be knit out of sock yarn are a bonus! Thanks in advance!

And now out into the heat to let the kids play. Whee.

I’m working on getting back into the swing of things after being in lovely Ashland, WI for the last 1.5 weeks. It’s tough - I really miss being there. Funny how I wanted to get the heck out of town when I graduated and now I’d love to move back.

Anyhow, on to the knitting and knitting-related chatter:

The main reason for our vacation was my sister’s wedding on 7/7/07. They got married near this lovely view:

Big Bay State Park on Madeline Island, WI. More pictures here

They picked a gorgeous spot, no doubt about it. A gorgeous day, too. It was hot and humid on the mainland, but on the island it was breezy and cool. Ah, Lake Superior.

Of course I had to take the opportunity to give handknit socks:

Socks for BIL in Fortissima Socka sportweight yarn, lost the ballband so no clue on the colorway

The Green Bay Monkey socks for my sister. As you can see, I neglected to pack the sock blockers. Wish I had…

No word on whether they’ve opened them yet and whether they love them or not. I’m assuming they were/will be well-received, though. Both have appreciated handknit socks in the past.

I also did a little shopping, of course. Ashland is home to Northwoods Dyeworks, which is where we’ve been buying great tie-dyed clothing for the past several years. Now, Libby is dyeing and selling yarn as well. I had to buy some, of course - how could I not? She doesn’t have an online store just yet, but she’d certainly be glad to mail you some yarn! I had to buy this:

100% Merino wool sock yarn in the Gogebic colorway

Yes, I know I don’t like to knit socks with 100% wool, but I figure I could make something else with this stuff if I don’t want to use it for socks. We’ll see. I ordered some other yarn from her too, which may well show up here as a contest prize in a few weeks. We’ll see if I can come up with something creative for a contest.

I also found some yarn from sheep that live on Madeline Island:

Bulky yarn from Fly Away Farm, sadly not online that I can find.

It’s very pretty, though a little rough. I’m sure it’ll make a nice hat and mittens or maybe a scarf for the Red Scarf Project. We’ll see.

I also did a little knitting - had to bring more sock yarn with me because I knew I’d finish the Monkey socks while we were there.

Twin Rib pattern from SKS, Trekkling XXL in color 108 (ball band missing, so I may be wrong)

I just grafted the toe on this this morning and started sock #2 at playgroup. Only got a couple rounds done, though. I’m just not feeling it right now. Maybe after the kids are in bed…

I joined Mystery Stole #3 and I got a little over half of the first chart done on vacation, until I ran out of energy and concentration to work on it. I still haven’t downloaded the second chart, too. I suppose *that* could be my project for after the kids are in bed, but who knows - black yarn, black beads, nighttime knitting… Not such a good combo. We’ll think about that one for a while. The sock will definitely be more conducive to catching up on my huge backlog of knitting blog reading!

Well, since it’s just me and the kids this week (Chris’s work sent him to Montreal right after our vacation, how nice), I get to feed them things for dinner that he won’t eat/doesn’t love. I should go check the pantry and see what sort of non-husband-friendly foods we have, haha.

Have a great week, everyone!

I had a post almost completed and then I accidentally navigated away from this page, losing the post. Grr!

I’ll try to post later when I’m less irritated with myself.