Judy Pascale Yarn Purchased!

Ok, I GOT IT! Decided on the Gloss yarn from KnitPicks. I figured this would be a nice departure from my normal Blue/Green/Purple colors :) Will still have to hunt down/purchase some beads to go with it, but I think this will be a GREAT yarn for a lovely vest. Perhaps I'll wait until I have the yarn to pick out beads...so I can see how they interact with the color.

Ok, back to Guidepost sweaters...#2 is almost complete now. Plan is to finish #3 by the end of October then I can move on to other projects...

Busy Fingers

SOOO Sorry! I know I said I'd try really hard to do some blogging while I was away...but every time I tried to contemplate what to write, there was SO MUCH to say that I couldn't possibly figure out how to consolidate it into the short period of time that I had available to me...

I did get quite a bit of knitting done - mostly while sitting in airports!! Here's my first day of travel! I finished it up just a couple of days later - ok, well, not FINISHED...still need to actually tuck in the ends...but the way I did it, I didn't have to sew ANY seams!! Knit in the round up to the sleeves, backwards loop cast-on sleeves, knit to top. On the back, pick up stitches from the existing side of the sleeves, knit till even, cast off both shoulders together! Super simple.

So, that was the first one. In between I ended up knitting two Mason Dixon Dishclothes and a Mason Dixon Hand Towel. Sadly I forgot to take pictures of those, and no longer have them...more on that later.

On the way home, I started my second sweater when I arrived at the airport at noon...and had a LOT of time to knit. I finally arrived home to my apartment at two minutes after Midnight! Here's what sweater #2 looked like by the time I arrived.

In other news, I decided while I was away to participate in a Secret Pal exchange, so I'm eagerly awaiting my SP Downstream assignment!! The theme for this is Spooky/Fall/Spring SP. Ok, so the spring part is for those "down under"...actually I think I might enjoy doing a spring theme. Fall would be nice too...actually picked up a couple of things while I was away in the event of a fall themed DS. Also just "got back" from setting up a SP email address too :) Can you tell it's my first one and I'm a little excited?

LOTS of vacation news, including Fiber Festival and Baby Shower to come...soon, soon. I need to also make a decision on yarn for the Judy Pascale vest and get that ordered as well. While I found some great stuff at the Fiber Fest, the person who suggested I was unlikely to find the right thing there for my vest was totally correct. Tons of GORGEOUS hand painted wools, alpacas, even llamas....but not a lot of cottony yarns.

Important Knitting Lesson of the Week

• Knitting while Walking - Good!
• Having a free glass of wine on an airplane (while seated in First Class!) - Good!
• Knitting under the influence - OK
• Knitting while Walking under the influence - NOT ok!!

Done!!

I am DONE!! Everything has been finished, it all looks beautiful! I'm packed and headed out in the next few minutes, but in the meantime I wanted to leave you with this:

ARGH!! Planning, packing, and finishing!

Ok, well, I haven't started physically packing yet...but I'm mentally packing...now I just have to get it down on paper so I don't forget all of the things I want to take with me!

• Camera and battery charger
• "Pixie Dust" for baby shower
• Genealogy research docs to work from
• All the knitted baby stuff
• My Grape Arbor shawl (checked baggage)
• New projects (checked and carryon)
• Books to read
• My drop spindle for the Fiber Fest
• A photo that I want to do the Felted image of
• ...

And I'm sure that's just the partial list! Also cleaning, have to check in with my cat sitter, drop off my ball winder for knitting class prep at the end of the month, do a whole bunch of laundry, including the baby gifts...would really like to do a test wash so I can see for myself that they're not going to all fall apart!! Bibs are done, buttons installed - they look GREAT! Will try to work in a picture in the next day or two... Started curlique's for the tops of the hats finally...about half done on that...they go quick though...

Finally decided what to do next... I wanted something relatively small and compact that wouldn't be too intensive, since I have the Judy Pascale class/vest coming up soon, don't want anything too large... So, the West Orange Knitters had previously decided to do Guidepost Kids Sweaters as a charity project for the year. We had the great fortune to have several different people donate a couple of bags each of acrylic yarn - some of it pretty ancient. Since the patterns are very basic, and very straightforward, these will be a great project to take home with me.

So, I have 4 different sets of yarns for four different sweaters.

• Solid teal, teal/peach/white variegated, white
• Dark peach, light peach, cream
• Bright green, green/yellow/white variegated
• All sorts of ends of blues and a cream

I'm sure that will be plenty to keep me busy!! I might not actually take all of it...will decide probably based on the fullness of my luggage!

Quick Update!!

THE KNITTING (and cross-stitching) IS DONE!!!

Finished burp cloth #7 last night!!

Now I just have a heck of a lot of finishing to do! Will be tucking, snipping, and buttoning tomorrow...

Oceans, Cotton, and Cross-Stitch, Oh my...

Here's an interesting diversion a friend just sent me... Oceangrams! Go to the site and you can send a message in a bottle...or just wait for a little while and you'll pick one up! These can come from anywhere in the world!

Now on to the cotton. Our guild is bringing in Judy Pascale this fall to teach her Vertical Vest class! I'm very excited about this class, but now find myself with the following dilemma... We got the materials list the other day - here it is:

For the beaded vest you will need between 1050 and 1300 yds of fingering weight yarn (Koigu or something similar). She sells the beads she uses in her class, but if you want to purchase your own, you will need to buy size 6 seed beads. I did not ask how many oz of beads needed, but can do that.

For the other vests, you can use any weight yarn from fingering to worsted. You will be doing a gauge swatch so will be able to make it to whatever size you want. She said that Cotton Classic is a great yarn to use for our area, she loves how it works up, but cotton or wool is okay. No chenille or textured wool, cotton, etc.

So, I did some hunting online the other day to get an idea of what I was looking for, and found a few options. First, I'd like to stick to cotton or a cotton blend, but I WILL be doing the beaded vest, so fingering weight is a must. I'm also going to reserve a decision a bit, since I will be going to the Fiber Festival in three short weeks in NY, so may find something there that I'd like to use. I am a little afraid though, that they might not have much cotton, since it's a spinning fest in NY in the fall... Will keep an open mind however!

In the meantime, this is what I've come up with:

Yarn possibilities:

Mississippi 3 Print

$6.10 - 230 yds

Meilenweit Cotton or Cotton Fun

$7.35 - 207 yds

Mayflower Cotton 8

$3.59 - 186 yds

Rowan CashSoft

$8.50 - 197 yds

Stork by Dale of Norway

$5.00 - 195 yds

Mondial Cotton Soft Yarn

$6.95 - 196 yds

Ringspun Cotton

$12.00 - 700 yds

Also in my stash I found Paton's Grace mercerized cotton. I don't have enough for this project, but it's a lovely yarn and another that I might consider.

Edited to add:
Two more links that Janette (aka - my enabler) sent...so I have them when I'm in NY ;)
KnitPicks Gloss
$3.99 - 220 yds

And a SALE! on Mississippi 3
$2.50 - 230 yds

Oh, and I know that the CashSoft doesn't have any cotton in it, but it looks SOOO lovely that I had to consider it... No idea what color I want to do this in either...but will let you know all of that as soon as I figure it out!

As for the Cross-Stitch? It's actually going pretty well! I worked on it for several hours last night...the good news is that there isn't really ALL that much to it! But, off to stitch now!

Closer and Yet Farther Away...

Oh, I am SOOO nuts!

Completed:

• Baby Afghan!! Yep, it's actually, totally done!
• 4 pair Booties - sewn up, ties in place!
• 3 hats - still need their tassels :(
• 7 Bibs! - picked up the buttons for them this evening!
• 5 Burp Clothes - two more in progress...
• 1 Scarf - Started and Finished today!

I know, I know, where are the pictures??









And here's the scarf...

Ok, so what's this about "yet farther away"?? Yeah, well...dropped by Joann's today to pick up buttons for bibs... and found a few other things... Actually, they were having a GREAT sale on a whole lot of different things - picked up a bunch of cotton yarns on deep discount - 400 yds sport weight cotton for $2.10!! But, I also found a pair of very nice little Counted Cross Stitch patterns - marked $5 and $7, then 30% off that! So, one of those will also need to be completed by the shower...the other is a birth announcement, so it'll have her name, Ava Rose, as well as her birthdate. I'll be able to do everything except the date in advance, then I can take it to them when I go to visit after she's born. Here's the bad photo of the first one...two weeks to get it finished!...you can get the idea anyhow...

Progress!!!

Wow, busy weekend!! Knitted Saturday Morning. Knitted at lunch Saturday Afternoon. co-Taught a knitting class with 16 learners (and 3 teachers!) late Saturday Afternoon!

Woke up Sunday and started crocheting the border around the afghan squares. Crocheted through two movies. Crocheted through lunch. Crocheted through the KnitWits meeting. Came home, crocheted a border around the afghan.

Sewed in ends of afghan. Sewed in ends of remaining booties. Made Plyed yarn ties for booties.

Ok, so sum total COMPLETED for baby shower:

• Baby Afghan - DONE!
• 4 pair Baby Booties - Sewn up/Ties made - need to insert Ties
• 2 Baby Hats - Need tassles on tops and a third hat
• 6 Baby Bibs - Need buttons and to tuck ends on two or three of them - will make 1 more
• 4 Baby Burp Cloths - Need to make 3 more

Whew! The only thing totally not started is the scarf for mom-to-be...that'll go up quick.

Sorry no pics...will try to take a few tomorrow night and get them up. Right now need to get to bed...Job interview for a "dream job" of sorts tomorrow!

Baby Knitting

Wow, what a month!! Yes, that's all it has been is 4 1/2 weeks since I started baby knitting!! You've all been carefully following the saga of the Log Cabin blanket. The squares, are DONE! Here they are:


Once I completed them, I laid them out on the floor and with the help of several other people, we balanced colors, checked for duplication, etc. I'm pretty happy with the final arrangement, shown above.

Now that the knitting is done, I have only to finish it. How to do that you ask? I'm going to do a single crochet border around each square, slip the squares together, then do a full single crochet around the entire afghan. So, the only remaining question is, do I crochet in blue, or in pink?

The verdict is in, I bought my final ball of yarn this evening...and it is....


Yep, that's right! 90% certain they're having a baby girl! Ok, lots of work to get done now. The shower invites are all printed, envelopes are printed, and I picked up "It's a Girl" sparklies to glue to the invites.

In other related knitting news, I've been making baby bobble hats...will make a third one to include my new color! Still need to add tassles or squiggles or something to the top...planning on the squiggles actually.

Made three pair of baby booties last weekend...one more to go...in pink. These little puppies are AWESOME, and knit up in about an hour and a half. They also have an eyelet row just at the ankle. I'm planning to twist two strands of yarn together to make ties - two of the other colors...so they'll bring the multiple colors of the blanket and hats down to the booties!

Am also working on a box of bibs and burp clothes...will go through my remaining colors of cotton and pick out the best baby girl colors. My goal is 6 and 6. I'm at nearly 5 bibs and 3 burp clothes. Making good progress.

So, that's the update for now. Have to be up early tomorrow, but wanted to share the great news!

Spinners Day Out!

This report is also somewhat overdue, but hey, better late than never, right? Last weekend, 7 brave souls set out on a three hour tour, a three hour tour... Ok, so it was really only 2 1/2, but who's counting? We went to visit with Ella, a lovely woman, fantastic spinner, and awesome cook! You see, Ella used to have a Fiber business for various spinning fibers, from washed, uncombed naturals all the way up to Quiviet combed top!

Ella graciously opened her beautiful home to us (Look at the living room lamp!! - and it even turns!), preparing a lovely (and completely South Beach friendly!) lunch of various finger foods, dessert, and WIDE array of beverages ;) It was nearly 1pm when we arrived, and after a brief visit to the restrooms (we stopped at a "gas station" in Bartow...oooh, SCARY place!), and an ever so quick glance around at the piles of fiber so lovingly laid out, we sat down to lunch. Candace shared stories of her experiences with Hurricane Katrina animal rescue, and we all shared other stories and got to know each other.

Once the food was sufficiently demolished, and we'd all had a few bites of Ella's lovely (healthy!) dessert, we attacked the fiber! I wish I'd taken pictures before we hit it, as it really was a lovely sight - boxes full of beautiful fibers... Instead all I can offer is these photos of what it looked like after we were through... Needless to say, the prices were excellent, and we can all feel good about helping Ella to clean out some of her overflowing closets! Now WE'RE the ones with the overflowing closets! I have had three bags of fiber (one for me, one for SOS, and one for Melody who was unable to join us) in the back seat of my car all week. I delivered Melody's yesterday, and today brought mine and the guilds fiber into the apartment...trying to find space was really quite frightening!

After we made our purchases, we were able to find a few minutes to break out the wheels and spin. Candace got to try out Ella's Electric Spinner, and was so inspired that she immediately came home and started planning how to make her own! We'll all look forward to hearing how her creativity turns out. Ella surprised us all a bit by standing up at her wheel! (She usually does sit down, though at the electic spinner, she uses the entire living room!!) Ella also shared with us how she does hand spun BEADED yarns! We suggested she come up to the Fiber In and give a demo, but in reality it might not be until next year. What a lovely person!

Ellen spent some time playing with her new drop spindle!

Nancy showed us all how to Navajo ply on a drop spindle - definitely a good person and great technique to know!

As we were wrapping things up, Ella brought out a bag of vegetable scraps from lunch, for us to go "feed the animals" Huh? Yep, it seems that her neighbors have their own little mini-zoo of sorts (animal rescue I believe), including two deer, a goat, and an emu! Ella warned us before we went out to beware of the emu, since he just sorta bites at anything in reach. I should have listened better - he was trying to get me and my camera while I was taking these!

Long Past Due Photos

For various reasons, all related to the "surprise element", there are a few photos that never made it up here. So, if you didn't get to see the Grape Arbor Shawl, here it is!! I'll of course post photos of the first one once it's complete. I hope to finish it while on vacation to NY. The plan is to have all baby shower knitting done before I leave - more on that later. So, the final photos of the Grape Arbor Shawl II, as well as some of the other items I made, a Chemo Cap and bookmark for Dale.

The Wait is Over!!

Have you been waiting to see the Grape Arbor Shawl?? It's up! Donations will be accepted until tomorrow evening if you haven't had a chance to donate but would like a shot at this shawl or any of the other items up as prizes!! I've got to say honestly though, I'm almost more jealous of the person who wins that AWESOME cartoon from Gregg!!

Baby afghan is going well...three squares complete, 4rth nearly so... Have also started Mason Dixon Burp Clothes... 1 down, 1 in progress. Gosh I've got SOOO much I want to knit in the next 7 weeks!! Haven't started any of the M/D Bibs yet, but those will follow soon!

Sorry no pics tonight...trying to check in on a bunch of different fronts...catching up from the computer (Internet) being down last night :(

PS

Um, yeah...that ink refill thing?...yeah, not so much... *grumble*

Grizzly Bears in the Wild!!

Yes, this is a completely Off Topic post...but it's just too cool not to share!! Love nature? Love bears? Check out this National Geographic WildCam site!!

Saturday, Sweet Saturday!

Have I mentioned how much a LOVE my Saturday Knitting meetings?? It's a great bunch of people, with lots of awesome ideas, and it's totally MY day! So, I can knit, enjoy, chat, go to lunch, and I don't have to feel like I have to run home and get to sleep since I have to work the next day... It really is the ideal day to knit because not only do I get to enjoy Saturday, but I can get excited about other projects, and I still have Sunday to follow through on them! For those of you following the Log Cabin Baby Blanket...it's growing! I've decided two things about the blanket. 1) Each of the squares will have a unique center square color. 2) Each of the squares will use only 6 of the 7 colors in the overall afghan.

As for the baby shower, the invitations are planned out...will need to print them. So, that combined with the fact that I've been out of printer ink for the last year or so...well, went shopping at Office Depot today...and found something I wasn't really aware of before...REFILL KITS! Anybody ever tried them? I'm hoping they work well...a little concerned because the cartridges haven't been used in so long, but, well... I'm told I have 14 days to return for a full refund if it doesn't work :(

Also on the subject of the baby shower and the Log Cabin afghan, I picked up a copy of Mason Dixon Knitting at B&N on Tuesday just to check out what was in it. Now, I have to say, I'm usually not one that's too into knitting books. Most of them have a whole lotta crappy patterns that I could never see myself actually knitting... NOT THIS ONE!! What an AWESOME, and FUNCTIONAL collection of patterns! I've heard the text is also very interesting, though so far I just keep looking at the pictures and haven't actually read any of it yet. However, I NOW OWN IT, so I'll be doing some reading very soon!

Sorry B&N...actually had planned to buy it at Amazon, but then thought it through... 33% off at Amazon, then I either have to buy something else to get up to the $25 free shipping level, or else I have to pay shipping... Alternative? 25% off >$20 purchase at Borders - and Tax Free at that! Probably about the same price as paying shipping at Amazon, but I have it in my hot little hands RIGHT NOW!

So, what's the first thing I'm going to knit from M/D Knitting? Well, aside from the Log Cabin Afghan that I'm already knitting... I LOVE the Bib and Burp Cloth patterns!! Cute and simple! So, since Michael's has Sugar 'N Cream on sale for $1 a ball... I do have a whole box of it already, but, well...I just couldn't resist. I think this will make some great Bibs n Cloths!!

Chip-N-For-Dale - Thanks and Last Call!!

First, the Orlando Area Knitters want to thank all of you who have so generously responded to the letter we sent out requesting your help! Your donations have been wonderful, and every cent will go directly to help Dale and her family with their expenses. If you haven't been following her progress, you can do so on her Journal blog at http://www.jarrett.ws/dale/.

The Final "Grand" Prize of the fund-raiser will be posted on Monday, and I'm thrilled to say that it will be the Grape Arbor Shawl (pattern from WendyKnits) that I knit for this event. It is truly gorgeous, and I hope you'll drop back by the Chip N site on Monday to see it! http://chip-n--for-dale.blogspot.com/ My shawl aside, if you have been waiting for the right time to make a donation, NOW IS IT! Donations will close at 11pm on Tuesday night.

We're so close! Wouldn't it be great to break $3000? Thank you again and God Bless!

Jody

LOVING THIS!!

Hooray!!! This new afghan pattern is AWESOME! Went and picked out two more colors to add to the initial 5...dark peach, and light purple. The finished square is about 15"x15". I'm going to do a 2x3 blanket, with a (probably single) crochet around the edge. Then will crochet the two blocks together. The color to put it all together? Well, that all depends...either "Berry Blue" or Hot Pink! Should have a better idea which I'll need by the end of the week. I'll definitely have plenty of time though, since I have 4 1/2 more squares to knit!


Janette shared a blog with another really cool idea tonight as well...a Random log cabin afghan!! 5 colors, same order, strip height determined by a random number generator! (dice would work as well). What a great idea!! I might do this just for the heck of it sometime...we'll see...still too many projects too little time.

Checked out Mason Dixon Knitting last night as well...the book that is. It had some truly awesome patterns in it!! I'm not usually much of one for pattern books, but I really like this one. I think perhaps this weekend I'll pick up a copy...there are a number of additional things in there that I'd like to make for the baby.

I'm feeling much better now...

Many thanks to Janette for her very quick response to my earlier plea for help. She recommended the Mason Dixon log cabin pattern...and here's where I'm at now...

This is actually a pretty cool technique, that I haven't done before, so while it's all garter stitch, I'm still learning things, including some great starting and finishing techniques to avoid having to deal with a lot of ends when I finish!

I found an interesting technique recently that I wanted to share...it's for making a braided "rope". In this case I used three strands of sock weight yarn. In one end, I tied a loop and looped it over the knob of a dresser drawer. Then I walked it out to full length (about 1 1/2 yds in this case) and began twisting it. And twisted, and twisted. Once it was highly overspun, I held out a finger to keep the tension in the strand and mark the center. Held the two loose ends together, and allowed the whole thing to ply up (just the same way a single on a wheel will ply if you release the tension on it!). Here you can see the great 3-2 ply rope that I've made! This is, btw, the new strand for my pendant cutter. Had to prep it for my trip to NY in September...not to mention it's coming in very handy for my current project.

Does this look right??

Started on the afghan this afternoon...the stitch pattern is VERY open. I'm not entirely sure it's appropriate for a newborn either... I'm a little afraid that they would get their little fingers caught in the open-ness of the pattern. Besides which, it's very hard to count rows...since the row definition is so bad. The full width picture shows the whole 8 1/4" block, while the second focuses in a bit more on the details of the pattern. I would LOVE some feedback on this, cause I'm not entirely happy with it...may very well switch to a different pattern.

There is one on the yarn jacket that's actually pretty close to what I had in mind I think...except I just looked inside and realized it's a crochet pattern...I could always do it in garter stitch though...

Or, let's see, here are a couple of the other patterns that I really liked when I was looking today...

The Knit Crossword Afghan is very interesting...
Would cut back on the size. I would want to spell Love Baby or something on it though, and you can't really cross those like a crossword. Ideas for what could be crossed?

The Leftover Afghan is also nice, and would be very simple to knit. I don't want color to go all the way across though, I really prefer the idea of blocks of some sort...

The Short Rows Afghan also appeals to me to a certain degree. Remember, we're talking bright kiddy colors...actually, the colors I picked out are almost the exact same ones shown in the Caron pattern.

For that matter, the Knit Tiles Afghan would work just like the one that I'm trying to do, but with a better actual knit pattern...

I would LOVE some feedback...I don't have time to wait until next weekend...need to get crackin' on this!