Stitches South, Rock Show, New Yarn Shops

This post has been written in my head for weeks. Unfortunately, taking the time and energy to physically write this post has been lacking. Each week I add a little more to the mental post. Prime example, first came a business trip for an entire week, followed by Stitches South, then a minor crisis at work, a rough weekend with the boys, a real crisis at work, and then a rock show. There; now you know everything that happened over the past few weeks.

First; Stitches South! Need I say more? It was my first Stitches, first fiber festival, ever. It was awesome! Per Ravelry there have been some mixed reviews of Stitches South in general. I had a few expectations, a few goals, a list of shops, and a budget. At the first stop, my primary goal, I spent the bulk of my budget at Knitting Rose Yarns. DH is getting a totally awesome sweater with the custom order I placed with Lise. If you haven’t met Lise; you should, she is awesome. I think I could easily adopt her into the family. Next, I found some Romney wool at Highland Handmades. Naturally, my spinning wheel hasn't been humming much over the last few weeks. What little spinning has been the same old white BFL I’ve been spinning on for over a year. From there the next purchase was DK yarn at Webs followed by Kollage needles (size 1 square needles) and some HiyaHiya needles in size 000. Then DH and I made one last swing by Knitting Rose Yarns again for some sock yarn. (Who would have guessed I would pick up sock yarn?)

Next, since I had to travel for work, yarn shops must be on the list for hotel stays. I stayed in Boardman, OH and located the Flaming IceCube yarn shop just a few miles away from my hotel. What an interesting shop. There’s a vegan café as part of the LYS. Interesting combo but I wasn’t brave enough to try vegan food when the Italian restaurant came so highly recommended by co-workers. My souvenir yarn was some Malabrigo bulky yarn. I think a cowl is calling my name but darned if I can figure out which one.

Lastly, the rock show was in Memphis TN area. My Father-In-Law owns a rock shop and will vend at rock shows like the Memphis Mineral Fossil Jewelry Show. Since it was a weekend show and close enough to meet up with the Things; we went. DH drove up independently of the boys and me to help his Dad set up.  After I finished work, I picked the boys up and off we went towards Memphis. While we were at the show I was able to knit a few rows to the Amiga cardigan from Knitty.

My goal is to have a blog post later in the week or next week at the latest detailing all the knitting I have been doing lately. (FYI all pictures today are from my Stitches South Loot.)

Vacation

Last week the entire family spent the week in Florida. Of course Disney was the destination of choice. However, there was still a couple of spring training games for the St. Louis Cardinals. DH is an avid Cardinals fan so we drove the extra distance to Jupiter, FL for the last game of spring training. The boys LOVED the game although Thing 1 swears his parented lied! In his mind, he was going to get to play a baseball game instead of watch a baseball game. The game was an afternoon game so we went down the day before, stayed in a hotel overnight and went to the beach in the morning. Thing 2 ran from the water while Thing 1 wanted to go further into the water.  Silly boys.

While riding shotgun, naturally, a pair of socks were in my hand. The striped vanilla socks grew slowly as I assisted in navigation and watching for peace cars (police cars). The peace cars were not for DH but for the Things who both love to see the cars alongside the road and up close. As a result, the socks are finished with a 5" cuff and afterthought heels. The heels were finished during the week when we spent the few, very few hours in the condo. On the way home, I was able to cast on another pair of socks. Thing 1 answered the question of top down or toe up with a loud top down! Cast on early in the morning and taking roughly 2 highways most of the way home results in fast growth on a sock. By the time we made it home I had an 8" cuff and waste yarn placed for the afterhought heel. 

Progress!

Oh my, the knitting that's happening! So really, almost no visible knitting progress has been made in what feels like a very long time. However, some progress is always made (unless illness is involved). The last sweater has been finished and the ends have been woven in on all sweaters! Everyone is wearing their sweaters and appears to almost enjoy them as the weather is getting warmer.  I think the ladies at daycare appreciate the sweaters more than my boys do.

Next up, the socks that have been on the needles, forever, are past the heel. As I am inclined to do lately, instead of knitting a heel when I come to that area of the foot, I place a little waste yarn and continue on up the leg. Most likely these will not be all 100 grams (almost knee highs) because I'm itching to cast on a different pair. Maybe the next pair should be green to reflect spring. However, they still need a 6" cuff and leg before I can call them done.

Lastly, there's the Moderne Log Cabin Blanket by Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne. Why does my brain say, "Oh! Warm weather, let's cast on something big, bulky, and extremely warm to work on."? I suspect that I will never know. In the blanket is a lot of random acrylic yarn that I have owned for years. Each ball/skein was originally bought as a pound of yarn and used in other projects.  Fortunately all of the colors almost go together and will look almost as if I purchased the yarn for this project. Currently I am toying with the idea of not finishing the blanket with an edging. If I don't edge the blanket and leave it as a finished WIP, as the boys grow, I can add more to the blanket until eventually it covers their beds with room to spare. Right now, I think I want to make 2 blankets just right for each child to sleep with. Thing 1's blankie is falling apart and will need replaced if we (as parents) are allowed to do so.

Finished

The third Flax in pictures:

Nananana-boo-boo! (as stated by Thing 1)

Do I need to make a 4th; for me?

Sidelined by the Plague!

Oh my Goodness, what a past few weeks! Did you know it's possible to catch the plague? I swear the Plague! According to the doctor I saw what I really had was the flu. I disagreed with him but it's hard to argue with fever logic and science. Fever logic said everyone at work had a nasty cold that took them out of the office for a day or two without a fever while I had a nasty, nasty fever on top of a freight train and Mack Trucks taking turns running me over was the same cold. Do you have any idea how much I hate nasal swabs and science?  I was determined to go back to work the next day and the flu would not allow me to. I am obviously a very logical person when I'm sick.

 

Thing 1 modeling Daddy's Sweater

I spent most of last week lying on the couch sleeping and attempting to convince my children Mommy couldn't play. The poor boys treated me wonderfully, within toddler reason. There were so many comments made along the lines of "Momma, you sick? Oh. Momma you feel better yet?" Such sweet concern from my babies; makes me feel like I'm doing a decent job parenting.

 

Told you Thing 2 hates it

Up until I got sick, I was zooming along on DH's sweater and actually made Thing 2's sweater by the end of the Ravellenic Games. Kudos me! When the plague hit, I had roughly half of the second sleeve to go and I wasn't sure how I was going get the sweater finished by Friday (Feb 21). Guess what- the games didn't end until Sunday! Instead I spent quality time at the Dr's office knitting through the illness and after finishing the second Flax sweater I stopped knitting to speak of until I made it back to work.  Naturally, the tails are not yet tucked but that doesn't matter. Thing 2 HATES the sweater. I'm not holding out hope that when I finish weaving the ends that he'll decide he loves it. Such is life.

 

Slow growth is still growth

In addition, the self-striping socks are growing slowly. The 5 minutes I felt like knitting after finishing the sweater was spent on this pair of socks until this weekend. This weekend a completely different bug hit. I must knit a blanket and it MUST be the Moderne Log Cabin Blanket by Ann Shayne and Kay Gardiner. I have lots of random acrylic that's going to be tossed into this blanket. Late last night I send a series of text messages to DH, my Mother-In-Law, and my sister asking: Blue or Green. I needed someone to pick the next color for me. I used the beige and maroon but then I couldn't decide between the two colors I remembered owning. As I went to dig the green (picked by my sister) out, I also found black. Now I know there is red, beige, green, blue, and black going into this blanket! I have no idea why I want to knit a garter stitch blanket but I do.

 

Charming! Enthralling!

Stay tuned, we'll see how long my interest lasts in any of these projects!

Matchy Matchy Progress

Naturally, when a pair of socks comes off the needles, another pair must go back on the same needles. Typically the next pair must be cast on within 24-48 hours. It took almost a week for the next pair to be cast on. Oh dear, all was not right in the world! Just kidding! Since the latest socks are not on my feet and all but 4 grams were used in the making of those socks, I think the same recipe should be used. This pair will be mine; I hope. This newly started pair is using Patons Kroy Socks in the Sporty Stripes colorway. In my opinion, the stripes are not required to match in handknit socks. If I buy striped socks, then the stripes must match!

Most of my attention has been on DH's Flax sweater. Big surprise there! As the sleeves grow, "design elements" keep making their presence known. For example, near the hem is a split stitch creating a light area that almost looks like a hole. When all is said and done, I may find it again and duplicate stitch over it to fill it in. The sleeve last night told me that I started a reverse stockinette for a couple of rounds. Naturally, it's impossible to discover this during the knitting of that row or the next. Always problems are to be discovered at least 3" back. DH will love this sweater, design elements and all, if he knows what's good for him. (I almost sounded intimidating there didn't I? Wonder if DH would agree.)

DH kept the boys home for a Daddy date and it sounded like so much fun that Mommy had to join them. So I took half a day of vacation from work and left at 3 (yes my half day started at noon). When I made it home we headed out to Walmart for a movie (not released yet) and yarn. Walmart's CaronSimply Soft is considerably cheaper than Michael's but limited in color choices. Thing 1 chose a kelly green while Thing 2 chose Autumn Red for their sweaters. Now I am backed into a corner for their sweaters. It will happen and must happen soon! There are no choices left for me.  Actually, a lot sooner than I expected I cast on for Thing 2's sweater. Currently it is designated as lunch hour knitting but soon, very soon it will be prime knitting!

Snowbound!

Oh man! The things you need to see to believe! I would have never guessed the south did not have salt, sand, and plows for snow.  By now, I'll assume everyone in the US has heard about the snow that shut down the south.  I was at work when the first flakes fell and honestly, I thought nothing of the falling flakes except that it was the first snow! Yay First Snow!!! I love the first snow of every year to the point of giddiness. Now I know; snow in the south is to be feared! Tuesday, I left work about 2:30 grabbed the Things and headed to a co-worker's place to crash for the night. The gentleman's house that we crashed at ended up holding 17 people; 4 of which was his family. Generous people and I cannot thank them enough. Instead of staying roughly 24 hours, the Things and I stayed 48 hours. It was taking roughly 4-6 hours to make the 1 hour drive for the other co-workers to drive home. Instead, the extra day allowed 95% of the abandoned cars to be moved off the highways.

You would think that the days off of work would result in a little more knitting time for me. Wrong! I was concerned about the Things destroying the co-worker's home and running out of knitting. The nagging voice in the back of my head warned me to take DH's sweater along with me to work but I was just going to go home to work on it. Instead, I took the socks, you know, the ones that were almost out of yarn. Thankfully I managed to knit slowly enough to keep the yarn lasting through the snowed in period. I cast off the night before we left and was hoping the hook from the Rainbow Loom would work to tuck the tails. Nope. Since I asked, the wife wears the same size shoe as me, so the socks that were for me are now hers. I took them home to tuck the tails and wash them. I hope she likes the socks and knows how much I appreciate them taking in a dozen stranded travelers.

After finishing the socks while stranded away from home, I dedicated myself to finishing the body of DH's Flax sweater body.  The underarm length to hem length is supposed to be 18.5" for DH's size. Instead, he wants 21" for the perfect length in his mind. FOREVER knitting! Only it didn't take as long as I thought it would. I finished the body bind off at 10:45 PM Sunday night. Go me! Naturally any time I finish anything or any part of something, I must try it on. For scale, the underarm length hits me at mid-thigh. However, it's almost perfect on him! DH is one of those tall people who have a hard time finding the perfect length shirts so I'm glad he's happy even though it could be dress for me!