Prizes!

I received the tape measure today in the mail from Michele. I wasn't the first to use it though. Kat in the Insomnia group was curious how wide her project was so it was cool to whip out the peppermint tape and have it oohhh'd and aaahhh'd over, then used.


Before that though, Sharon aka Stitchjones, delivered a skein of her yummy sock yarn in the winning colorway. I had participated on one of her contests and was declared the winner a while back ago. Sharon hadn't any of the skeins available until recently when she dyed some new stuff up. I'm looking forward to after holiday knitting and future socks with this yarn (named I'm With The Band):


I did a new WIP photo of the Baby Love #2 blanket (pattern name is Logan's Half Blanket - but I also have a nephew by that name so confusing), you can see in the sidebar. I have I think half a skein left to go. Yea! I'm finishing this tonight before I go to bed, no matter what the time. ;^)

So in a moment of insanity last night while Bobbie was checking in her charity yarn and she flashed that she had four skeins of purple yarn that I said I'd take them and make another baby blanket. Crazy right? Thankfully this stuff is aran weight and I'm so totally using the US10s on this next blanket. I'm also going to 'cheat' and do the Diagonal Baby Blanket. Big Yarn, Big Needles - Fast Project. I also took two half balls of yarn that will be used for preemie hats for a different charity project. Here's the yarns:


Smaller group for the Insomnia group and they rearranged the furniture. I also had the problem of the sun shining in at just the right angle to hit one window and then bounce directly to me. Such an odd problem to be having this time of the year. ;^)

Need to make dinner and then back to the knitting - blanket must be done tonight!

We might be on a roll dear....

I slogged on Sunday afternoon and evening and met success in completing the Razor Shell Lace Scarf - yea! I had to wait until Monday and a clean empty kitchen sink before I could soak and block. I'm not sure why people have problems with their Malabrigo Lace (quick knock on wood) after wetting and blocking. I used some Lavender Eucalan I have and a nice hot soak for about half an hour before taking it out of the water. Gentle squeezes to get the excess water out and then a quick roll in a towel before pinning to the ironing board. Blocking really did help things out I think. Here's what I ended up with:




I had cast on for Mom's Driver's Gloves but I'm not sure what it is about the pattern that isn't speaking to me right now but seeing the Original Spiderman Mitten on my desk decided what I would work on Monday morning - it's mate. So between household chores and shows and computer time I finished up the second mitten before bedtime. I think they will go to Logan, he's five and should have small enough hands for them to fit and maybe not be toooooo long:



Looking at these coming off my list of projects in progress at Ravelry made me realize that I hadn't spent any time on the second blanket for the Baby Love Project. So I picked that up last night and added rows to it, then remembered to pick it up and work on it while I was watching 'Sara Conner' on HULU and then watched last week's episode of 'CSI: NY' (I'm the only one watching either shows and they also occur at the same time as shows the rest of the family watch, so this is how I continue to watch them). Just have to remember to jiggle the mouse every ten minutes or so and the screen saver won't activate (yes, I know it would have been easier to change the time preferences). I'm continuing work on the baby blanket this evening and well into the second skein out of three. I may just be able to get it to squeak to the proscribed length.

We've stumbled into a show on one of the cable channels called 'Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations'. Anthony travels to different countries and goes local eating what they eat. He has a particular fondness for anything coming from a pig and loves it if its also fried. They bleep his language, but doesn't use it a lot, has a penchant for drinking a lot and used to also smoke on the show but that isn't often seen (mentions that he's a two pack a day guy). So the show is sightseeing and food with local culture and a character doing it all.

Why do I mention this? Well, Michele (PDXKnitterati) had a statue as an indicator of where she was this last weekend and asked the readers to guess where she was. I'd shown the statue to Brandon and we both had no idea. Well in the several episodes that were recorded this weekend we were watching was one set in Colombia. The city of Medellin had a plaza with similar statues, one with a lone horse. Brandon pointed out the similarity.

Kat, a nickname due to an overabundance of curiousity, and I'm at the computer doing a search trying to find out the plaza, then skipping that and going for the artist's name. Artist is a Colombian named Fernando Botero, so used that as a search along with 'man & horse' and came up with the fact that Michele was visiting in Clayton, MO. The statue was in front of a Starbuck's too. Yes, Michele picked up the first peppermint mocha (changed from latte) of the season there. ;^) While now knowing that she'll have trouble hiding in the future, she also decided to reward me with a seasonal tape measure (scroll to the bottom to see) from Lantern Moon. Thanks Michele!

On the book front I'm making progress in decreasing the pile of books beside my bed and also going through the ones the library delivers. I've noticed that there is a definite trend in writing in the first person. I used to hate that and toss the book to the side without reading. Now I give the book a chance before I either continue or toss. I also have found that frame of mind also impacts the enjoyability of the reading. One book I recently finished I had tried to start probably six months ago. I found it slow reading and put it aside for another book. Luckily it didn't get chucked into the 'take to the bookstore for trade-in' pile.

I'm not sure if I'm lazy, the books are really that good, or what. Justina Robson's 'Quantum Gravity' series comes to mind as a recent example. I enjoyed the first book, kind of felt like I got bogged down in the middle of the second book and the third book I'm having a hard time jumping into at all. In fact I've put it aside after three chapters (it's also a library book) and started another book, put it aside also (another library book alas) and then fell into that book I had put aside for six months and gobbled it up like hot buttered popcorn.

What gives? I've read previous books by both of these authors and enjoyed them, why am I having a hard time starting one a new series, and the other a continuation? Am I being lazy and want it to come easily to me? Have I rotted my brain with 'candy' reads? (Candy - not a lot of thought or effort, usually pertaining to something in the romance genre - predictable in the extreme.) Then I looked at some of the books coming up and they are all in the first person. Why? Is it easier to write? Looking back while writing a blog I get tired of seeing all the "I's" and try to mix it up.

Anyway share your book thoughts, or not. I need to get back to 'Inside the Actor's Studio' and the interview with Daniel Radcliffe and working on that baby blanket so that I can get back to some serious holiday project work - I have seven pairs of mittens/gloves to make as well as five hats and four of those beaded necklaces to whip out before the 25th. Why am I working on this blanket again? I don't have time!! Oh, yea, its for charity and that's important too.

Congratulations for making it this far. ;^)

One step forward, two back

We drew Brandon's cousin, Kyle, as our person(s) for the family gift exchange this year. So I started Jared Flood's Turn a Square hat and used some leftover Lion Brand Wool-Ease and some leftover Nashua CreativeFocus. Actually both are leftovers from other hats that I've done. The hat pattern was fun to have a set repeat to follow for doing the striping and using the jogless join was a fun trick to learn too. Otherwise it's just a basic hat with raglan decreases. Kyle's hat from the top, with Brandon modeling for me. One shot is really dark then the batteries died so I haven't gotten Brandon to model again for me:

A trip through Jo-Ann's netted me a deal on more Wool-Ease for making Corbin's Spiderman mittens. Just the right red and blue and an extra navy blue to use with the leftovers to make some nephew hats. I tried starting the mittens yesterday and was diligently following the directions when I realized that there must be a mistake in how I'm reading them, but then going back to look a the two that are done I'm not sure....I frogged before checking. I think the floats of the black were a little tight the first few rows anyway and need to make sure that the next start is better about that.

Same trip to Jo-Ann's also had a trip into The Knitting Bee where I picked up three skeins of Berroco Pure Merino to use on Kyle's Fingerless gloves. Squishy soft yarn! Great deal too since it was the yarn of the month and I got 15% off. I had made it through a good portion of the thumb gusset when I looked at how big the hand is becoming. I tried it on and it seemed too loose. This meant I had to set it aside until I could have Brandon try it on as a size check. I was following the XL directions using the correct needle sizes. So I'll be frogging back that glove too.

Before I had started the mittens I started another Baby Love Blanket called 'Logan's Half Blanket'. The pattern calls for a chunky on US10, I'm using the DK I have and using US7s and I'm doing the 'larger' sized version. That thankfully is coming along fine so far and I'll take it again to public knitting today at Insomnia.

Have not yet started a batch of soap. I'm not sure why. I did get Brandon to take all supplies down off the top shelf of the pantry so that I could get started. Rediscovered that I had a full container of olive oil up there. Sigh. Not a problem! Means more castile soaps or ones with olive oil when I get them started.

Took the previously finished Baby Love Log Cabin Baby Blanket to Haggen's last night, but missed that Bobbie wasn't going to be there. Did have fun chatting with Susan and Gail, then Jeanette. Had not seen Jeanette for a while since she's busy taking classes Thursday afternoons to become a Civil Engineer when she grows up. I got to take a look and give Susan an idea for a name for one of her dyed sock yarns. She's doing a variety of dye experiments for future lines. An enjoyable couple of hours knitting and chatting!