One down, one to go...

Here is the finished Log Cabin blanket (thank you Mason-Dixon Knitting!). I find the colors absolutely delightful. I believe I likened it to knitting out of a box of crayons, and boy howdy! Casting off each strip and picking up stitches for each new one got a little tedious, but I just love the finished product.

Thank you for your kind words, Peg and Jo. You are both sweethearts. We are all missing Dermot very much. He was a good boy, and well loved.

I've been okay, though. I whipped up these little wristwarmers from Weekend Knitting in the past couple of days. Small! One color! Short row shaping! Fast!

My hand and arm with glove and coat sleeve. Note the poor exposed skin. Not so fun with the frigid weather and wind.

I'll just put on the lovely blue wristwarmer (the book calls them "Fingerless Mitts"). No exposed skin! Toasty warm wrists! A project that was not a square!

Now to finish the blanket for the other sweet baby who's coming (how are you feeling, Rachel?). Then, who knows? Socks, sundresses for toddlers, a possible attempt at fair isle knitting, the options are endless.

Love,

Kim

Home stretch for the Log Cabin

It's almost done! I cast off the last stitch of the last strip this morning, and started a half-double crochet border in purple.

It measures 35 x 34 inches right now (almost a square meter). The border is only about half an inch wide, so it's not going to add too much to the final measurements, but I think this is a fine size for a baby blanket. The baby girl to whom this is going has dropped, so her mother is very eager for her to arrive. The rest of her family is, too! We can't wait to meet her.

I found that Stephanie Pearl-McPhee will be in Ann Arbor again (Scroll down to August 4 --I'm the one holding the travelling sock and a photo of Rose). She was fabulously funny. Going to hear her talk is what kicked my butt back into gear to start knitting again. I had been dealing with tendinitis, and though it had been treated with a cortizone shot months before and not bothering me anymore, I was still nervous about picking up the needles. That visit is also what inspired me to get blogging.

Sadly, I cannot go this time to see our dear Yarn Harlot, because she is speaking at 2pm on Palm Sunday. Last August, I left right from church, was an hour and a half early, and still ended up in the overflow room (had fun anyway). Palm Sunday services tend to be quite a bit longer than regular Masses, so if I even try to go this year, I would definitely be in the overflow room again. Plus worn out from two extra-long Masses that morning. I wonder if the choir would notice if I got a sub? Just kidding.

Love,

Kim

The five stages of grief

1. Denial
Ruffle?
What ruffle?







2. Anger
I'm getting a looser gauge on the Options than on the Addi Turbos? Son of a b*?@#!!
Do you know how long it takes to complete these longer strips? #!?@*!





3. Bargaining
Maybe if I take a break and knit Rose some socks it'll look better when I get back to it.







4. Depression
I just don't care anymore. Fine. My time and energy have been completely wasted. Who cares? I'm going to go eat a pound of chocolate.







5. Acceptance
Well, at least I have a ball-winder.








Love,

Kim

Back to the Log Cabin

Dear Rachel,

I still haven't recovered from yesterday's excitement. Neither has Dermie. He has very strong feelings for natural fibers, you see. He felt the yarn was meant for him. I haven't been able to convince him otherwise, yet.

Thank you for loaning me your #5 Options. As you can see, the blanket is fitting much better on this circular. This is six stripes on each side (almost). I'm aiming for nine on each side, although if I run out of yarn or patience before then, I reserve the right to end it all early.

I am really enjoying working with the Options needles. The cable has zero memory, the tips are solid, slippery, and really sharp. I picked up all those pink stitches with no hassle. The needle went right through and pulled back the the yarn first time, nearly every time. Not so with the Addi Turbos I had been using. I was almost to the point of dreading picking up all those stitches (with each edge getting longer and longer) because the yarn kept slipping off the needle before I could pull it through the stitch, and it was taking forever to get started on a new color. I'm telling you, I breezed through the pink. I like how sharp they are, too, although I may have to alter my knitting style slightly because of it. When I use circulars, and the stitches get bunched up on the left-hand needle, I usually take my right index finger, put it to the tip of the left needle, and use my left fingers to slide the stitches down onto the cable. Well, with Options, it's not very comfortable to do this. I'm experimenting with alternatives.

I like the Options so much, I probably will own a set by spring. An interchangeable set just makes so much sense, and the quality is good. Thanks for letting me try yours.

One last thing, just for fun, and just because I want to see if I can manage to put it up:

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."
The Midland
The Northeast
Philadelphia
The South
The West
Boston
North Central
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

Love,

Kim

What a weekend...

Dear Rachel,

I'm so glad it's Monday. As I went to bed last night, I thought to myself, "I can't remember the last time I was this tired." This from a person who has a 20-month old daughter. We had our Wyandotte Heritage Days this weekend, and I wore myself out with working, festivities, and rehearsals. This was Saturday: the man who is playing Sky came over at 9am to practice our duets and run lines. He left around 11:30, we ate, put Rose down for her nap, and changed into our historical costumes. Lauren came over to watch Rose, and we went to the park to sing old songs from 1 to 4. I actually left a little early so I could get changed back into normal clothes before going to church to play Mass. Then it was back to the park to play guitar for a special outdoor Mass (Fr. Ray looks great in a cassock! I should have brought my camera!). I got home for the last time around 7:30, starved but too tired to do anything about it. Andy came down from putting Rose to bed and volunteered to get Chinese. Kung Pao chicken, yum!

Okay, Sunday: church all morning, more singing in the park in costume all afternoon, Guys And Dolls rehearsal from 4 to 8:30, Chinese leftovers, and bed. It was a fun weekend, it's just that it was so non-stop. I just ached from weariness. Today I feel much better.

And here's the nearly-current status of log cabin (I picked up another color right after I took this picture):

Like I said on the phone, it's 16 inches wide now (17 inches long), and I think a 32 inch wide blanket will be a good size. Of course, I could run out of yarn, or I could get tired of it before then, but we'll see.

Here's Cozy, just in case you were wondering about it. As you can see, we're getting ready to have some Fall in the house. Today is turning out to be a gorgeous day. When Rose wakes up, we're going to have a walk with the wagon, which she insists on calling "doo-doo." She used to call it "wagon," but now it's "go in doo-doo." And when we say, "Honey, it's called a wagon," she says, "go in wagon doo-doo." You gotta wonder what goes on in those baby brains.

Love,

Kim

What's happening to the time?

Dear Rachel,

Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care?

I swear to you, since we've started this blog, I've spent much more time playing around with it and reading other people's blogs than knitting. This was supposed to encourage my progress, not halt it. Now, I grant you, I have been having fun, but I can't tell you how many times I've said to myself while sitting at the computer, "Why am I not knitting?" and "I really should be knitting," and then continued to stare at the freaking monitor. Argh. Not to mention the lines I need to be memorizing for Guys and Dolls.

Here's our much improved Dermot modeling Cozy:

My camera won't let me take extreme closeups. I wanted to show the stitches themselves, but all I got each time I tried was an off-white blur with some holes in it.

Really, the project I'm working on the most is the Log Cabin. It's 15" across and I'm using a 16" circular needle. I think I can make it work for a couple more strips, but when it gets too bunched up, can I borrow your #5 Options tips with the longest cable? :)

In baby news, Rose had her first violin "lesson" yesterday. I thought I'd die of cuteness.

Love,

Kim

Log Cabin is growing

Dear Rachel,

I'm moving along on this log cabin blanket, but not much else. The Cozy wrap is languishing on row 8 (11 if you count the garter stitch border), and I'm not posting any pictures until it actually looks like something other than an unwound ball of twine. I've come to a screeching halt on the green ribbed sweater, after really cranking along for a good 8 or 9 inches. I just can't make myself pick it up.

I took Dermot to the vet this morning to have surgery. His bladder stones had not shrunk at all on the new diet, so in order to avoid the possibility of the stones shifting and blocking his urethra, he had to have them out. Poor kitty. He came through it well, though, and we'll be able to bring him home tomorrow.

Anyhow, back to the knitting, my hope is that starting this blog does give me a bit of motivation to show progress, like you said the other day. In the meantime, a completely gratuitous picture of Rose on the train at Greenfield Village:


Love,

Kim