First Peek

Here's the first progress shot of Mediterranean Lace from A Gathering of Lace. DD will have to choose between this and Secret of the Stole as it progresses. This one is in Jaggerspun Zephyr, a blend of 80% merino and 20% lace.

Secret of the Stole starts around October 5th and there seem to be hundreds in the group for this mystery stole. I know they are all over the world and there seems to be a large German representation. That is so neat to me... what the world needs are more knitters and fewer warriors.

This is posted primarily as a bribe so that DD will finally look at this blog and see her birthday wishes from back in mid-July...as she said today - oops...

As Snoopy says: Bleh

Well I didn't get the job. I'll be calling next week to see if they will tell me why as they are still running ads in the paper.

So while I'm sitting here eating dirt (hard to do when you're on the 2nd floor), I'll console myself with knitting. I finally found stitch holders so can finish DIL's tote bag.

I've also started Mediterranean Lace from A Gathering of Lace. I'm doing it in Jaggerspun Zephyr. It's on size 2 needles and the other lace I'm knitting is on size 1. The Market Bag is on 11's so it's hard to get used to in switching back and forth.

I've been spinning a bit and playing with settings on the wheel. It's trial and error but I'm determined to finish spinning this stuff called Blue Suede Shoes. I have two other rovings from Crown Mountain Farms to spin but I'm going to play with some other stuff first.

Ravelry has been wonderful at enabling - and not just for knitting. There is a group for tea lovers and someone mentioned a masala chai from a store so I ordered some. WOW, this stuff is wonderful. Lots of spice and very soothing. It smells so very good and the house carries the smell all over - and I love, love, love it.

My DD is working at losing some weight and I am too. We are both at the same point of loss. She has a slight advantage as 3 kiddles keep her moving. I'm not going to adopt any to keep me moving - just go up and down stairs and walk around the complex. I was going to go out tonight but it really looks like the skies are about to open up. Hope so - it's been too dry around here and I want a pretty fall. Where I live, I can see Signal Mountain rising above me like a huge wall. It's all wooded and I am looking forward to seeing some color on that hill. I promise to take photos when the colors change.

I have a sister in NH who talks about all the New England colors - as if I don't remember. My response is her area's colors last about 1-2 weeks where ours last about 3 months.

I'm off to knit in my corner now and dream nice dreams.

Finally

Finally I've had a job interview - well actually three today - one after the other. There were three individuals at the same company who interviewed me. Now I get to wait 7-10 days to hear something. Did I ever mention I hate to wait for ... well almost anything. I have patience with people - not with events.

I remember seeing a tee shirt years ago with one of the Peanuts gang saying Give Me Patience...NOW I loved that saying. I didn't realize at the time that it really related to me. I learned that much later. The first major time is when a due date came... and went and went and went. DD was about 3 weeks late. DS did a bit better - but labor was induced there.

Scheduled surgery - give me a break - do you know how many scary stories you can be told in the one to three week wait before surgery???

Now I have to wait for a job decision. Will I do well during the wait? Durned if I know but I'll give it a try.

Finally I took some photos of knitting projects in process and will post them here.
This is the center panel on the Unst Bridal Shawl from Heirloom Knitting in the UK. I tried to pull it out a bit to show the pattern.




Next is the Purple Russian Stole from Piecework Magazine. This is on hold right now because my stitch count is off somewhere and I can't find the boo-boo. This is majorly infuriating right now so it goes out of sight for a while.


This one starts with you knitting that bottom border. Then you pick up stitches and start up. You end up doing your side borders at the same time the center panel is knitted. At the far side, you again knit a border and graft it back onto the completed panel . We'll see how that goes.





Finally my Noni Market Bag with Fuschias. I'm finishing up the handles as soon as I find some stitch holders. I found the needle to graft the handles together so that's part of the battle. After that, I knit the flowers and stems and then comes the felting.
Pretty dull looking, right? I believe this is some of the most boring knitting I've ever done. It's not really mindless in that you are knitting with two strands of yarn so have to pay some attention to what you are doing. Still, I can't wait to get to the flowers.

And finally (but without photos) I received two lace patterns I ordered from The Alpaca Yarn Company. The first is Misty Morning Shawl and the second is called Forest Path Stole. I believe I have stash to knit both of these - maybe. If not, I have some beautiful blue merino with tussah silk that I purchased from Halcyon Yarn waiting to meet my spinning wheel. Photos later when I recharge the camera battery. I saw the charger, just have to remember where I hid/put it.

New Project (Thanks to Ravelry)

I've been enjoying myself on Ravelry - it is addictive for sure. Seeing all the projects and all the completed projects and all the prospective projects is a bit daunting and exciting at the same time. There are some very interesting groups there as well and I've joined several.

I'm still unpacking -- very slowly as I run out of room to put some things and try to rearrange to make more room. If the maintenance needed on this place would be completed by the management, it might be easier - I'd have half a room available. It's a structural problem so it is up to the management to fix it. Meanwhile, I wait.

My next stunt will be to move half a dozen boxes to the dumpster. Since it isn't household trash (or maybe I can call it that and make things easier) I'm supposed to arrange for them to meet me at the other dumpster so they can open it for me... Or I can be like others who dump the non-household trash outside the gate to the second dumpster so staff can do the cleanup. I've seen dishwashers and mattresses most of the time - but wood and old furniture have appeared at times.

So the new project will be a gifty for my DIL and she's seen a photo from the website already. I'm doing the Noni Cascading Fuschias Market Bag. Bought the pattern and the yarn at the LYS on my first visit. The store is called Genuine Purl and it is a gem! Also bought a skein (1100 yds) of Claudia Handpainted Yarn in a color called Oops. This is a 2/20 silk and luscious. I'll probably knit the Swallowtail stole from Interweave Knits from it - actually can probably make two of them with that yardage.

I'm about half-way through the knitting of the bag - then I need to do the handles and the flowers. Then I felt it and block and dry it and then it will be done. There are three sizes and this one is the biggest. I'll do another for me later - maybe with a dark blue background color.

So off to clean up after my dinner and then some knitting time for me. I'll see how many rows I can get done tonight.
Enjoy your evening and I'll be back - hopefully with the finished photos of the bag.

I'm In

I received my invite to Ravelry last night so I've been spending time getting some beginning stuff entered. I was on the waiting list just over a month. I love the potential that I see on this site - and I think it will be an additional help in prodding me to finish some projects and become a bit more discriminating in my choices for future projects.

It would be wonderful if someone would set up a similar project for stitching stuff too. I can hear someone saying "Well, do it" and my response is I don't have the computer language coding knowledge to do that - nor the desire to be that involved in one project. I think that it would be difficult to maintain a site and still have time for other life events.

I need to take another photo of the purple Russian Lace Scarf - may try outside if the camera doesn't melt in the heat. On second thought - I'll wait until tomorrow morning. I think the light will be better - and it will be cooler.

Happy Birthday to DS

Two years and 3 weeks after DD, DS arrived. So here is wishing him a happy b-day!




I'll add more knitting photos and maybe some stitching ones in a few days. I've got to get some way figured out so that the colors are more 'real'.

So happy birthday again son, and may you have many more.

Tired of White

There has been too much white in my life recently. White knitting, stitching on white, white wrapping paper used by the movers - just way too much.

I decided to change colors - at least the ones I can control so I bought some beautiful Jagger Spun Zephyr, 50% merino, 50% Tussah silk and started knitting...

The background is the July/August issue of Piecework. The pattern is Russian Lace Scarf.











Here is a closeup of my knitting:
The left side may look loopy and it is as each row starting on that side has a yo before the first stitches. They will be picked up later and become the base of the scarf's main pattern. If this is confusing, it will make more sense in the next entry. Four more pattern repeats (IF I counted correctly) and then the pick-up of stitches begins.

Off I go to finish lunch and knit a bit before taking on more unpacking and moving things around.