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! 

Slow and Steady

Slow and steady wins the race, or so I've been told. My socks made from a full 100 grams are almost done. Approximately 8 grams per sock remain to be knit. These wonderful socks (will be wonderful when they are done) are knit toe up from a 12 stitch cast on and increased to 64 stitches through the foot. After turning the heels, I knit roughly 3.5-4" before adding calf shaping. I marked the center of the back half of the sock (calf side) and have increased 1 stitch to either side of the marker. Then I increased every 4 rows. I stopped increasing when the stitch count reached 88 stitches. Based on that number (88) I feel like my calves are HUGE, so let's just call them curvy. This weekend I made the decision to do not work on DH's sweater but to finish my socks.

That decision may have been a little ambitious. Monday morning, the socks are still progressing but the sweater has been a kitty resting place. When I did work on the Flax between last week and this weekend, a certain Kitty decided to be social. The world's most anti-social kitty has been feeling the need for company. If I had common sense, I would be terrified! Anyways, I had to work hard to pull the yarn out from the skein hidden under Kitty.  Then because it moved, it must be attacked! So gross, I hate knitting with kitty slobbered yarn. Now that it's dried, you can't tell where the slobber was. I guess I should be happy he didn't break the yarn, like a friend's cat did years ago.

Next up I'm going to be joining the Ravellenic games with Team Geeky Girls Knit. I'll be entering into the WIPS's Dancing event and should hopefully finish DH's Sweater. I could attempt to sandbag and work on a toddler sweater because I'm sure I could start and finish one of those in the Olympic time frame. There are a few days to consider further. Wonder what DH will say if I bump up a toddler sweater ahead of his.  

Found Knitting Time

Wahoo!  I forgot that today I had safety training in Birmingham!  Know what training means?  UNEXPECTED KNITTING TIME!!!  That’s not to say I did not listen or participate.  In fact, I listened carefully and am taking the messages to heart.  Execution I may not be so hot on until I practice my to-do list.

The picture above was what the socks looked like this morning when I made it to work.  There was not any knitting on these socks from lunch the day before and morning.  Progress is slow if you only work on it during lunch.  However, from noon to four there was the safety meeting.  It is like found hours in which to knit!  I sat and knit through the meeting under the table surrounded by co-workers.  Below is the picture of the socks as I made it home after picking the Things up from daycare.

 

The greater chunk of my knitting time has been taken over by DH’s sweater.  My goal is to hopefully finish the yoke portion and separate for the sleeves by bedtime.  Of course, I will need a lot of child wrangling from DH in order to accomplish this feat!  So far, he is doing well tonight; after all, I am typing this post right after dinner.  Last night as I was knitting I discovered I had a small problem.  My small problem wasn’t so small because I kept nodding off over the knitting.  Somehow, no stitches were dropped or lost.  This is amazing because it has been a rather stressful week at home.

The stress this week was mostly home related.  Did you know that you should take time to think sometimes?  For example, if you go grocery shopping Saturday afternoon and by Sunday night, the meat you tossed in the freezer doesn’t freeze, you may have a problem.  If on Monday evening, things are still not frozen and the ice appears to be shinny, the freezer may not be working.  If Tuesday’s frozen pizza was not frozen, there is a LARGE Problem.  The good news is that we rent so all it took was a phone call.  The downside was I called too late to save any foodstuff and oh by the way, the new refrigerator arrived Friday.  Goodbye lots of food that was not ready to be tossed and brand new food.  Hello large expense in replacing the stockpile of food.  Such is life; at least this fridge is much larger than the last!

Must not knit all the THINGS

Knit all the THINGS is in full force. The toe-up socks are progressing nicely. The shawl has no progress from this weekend and DH's sweater has been cast on. As I said, must knit all the things! I had to stop myself from casting on a cowl, a toddler sweater, mittens, and a hat. I don't even know what patterns I would use for most of these items. The cowl would have been fingering weight and colorwork.  The mittens would also be colorwork while the toddler sweater would have been the same pattern as DH's pattern. The hat, I have no idea what techniques it would use. Oh WAIT, I need a scarf too.

OK, I need to come back from the edge a little bit. 3 projects, 2 of which are larger projects are quite enough. Pull it back a little for sanity's sake. Oh, I could use a blanket too.  Beep Beep Beep, backing the truck up 3 projects are enough, more than enough. Focus on the socks, sweater, and the shawl.

Socks; OK the socks on the needles. This weekend I finished the foot and turned the heels. For these socks I'm doing a short row heel. Typically, short row heels don't go deep enough for my high arch. This time, I decided to go a little further on the short row than my usual 12-14 un-wrapped stitches. I left a total of 8 un-wrapped stitches to see if the extra stitches give the little bit of additional fabric I need for a good fit. Looking at the heel now, it may be a little pointy and not a lot of depth to it. Time will tell. In the meantime, I'll continue to knit the leg until I run out of yarn.

Next up, I took time Saturday afternoon to run errands without help. Amazing! DH stayed home from work with the man cold/bug. While the boys went down for their afternoon nap DH played computer games and I went to the LYS, Michaels, and the grocery store. Totally AWESOME! I picked up an extra cable for my interchangeable Hiya-Hiya needles and the connector from InThe Making. From there, I went to Michaels for Caron Simply Soft (approximately 2200 yards needed) and finally the grocery store for food stuffs.

DH's Sweater is made out of acrylic yarn because he doesn't want scratchy yarn and I have some doubts as to how much he'll actually wear the sweater. I was cruising sweater patterns the other day for some odd reason and pulled up Flax by TinCanKnits. When I showed DH, his response was that's not a bad sweater. When he says something like that, he does really like it because normally I get an "eh" from him. Plus, I can knit 2 more toddler sized sweaters that will match Daddy's Sweater. That way I might, just maybe, have a shot at the boys wearing a sweater. So after I bought the yarn, I cast on that evening. Then I knit 2 rounds before I discovered that something didn't look right. I twisted the join, first time EVER that I have twisted the join. Dang it. Oh well, casting on twice just prolongs the pleasure right?

The shawl has seen no love because clue 2 just came out Sunday and I don't watch Downton Abbey often. Such is life but sometime Monday the cheat sheet should come out and then I'll be able to work on the shawl. I will also work on not casting on more items than I have needles or yarn for. Wish me luck, I'm going to need it. 

New Year = Cast On

DH's (Bigfoot) sock on my foot and my foot included for scale 

DH's socks are finished! I was able to start my next pair of socks by claiming that I needed bright light to unpick the ripcord for the afterthought heel. Get out of guilt free card! While I have not made much progress on my socks, at least DH's socks were finished and he feels loved once more.  No matter how much I've grumbled and how infrequently he wears his hand knit socks, I know he enjoys the socks. Wish I could say the same about my children. DS1 will wear his hand knit socks that match mine, only if I wear the same pair. DS2 refuses to wear his hand knit socks ever. Oddly enough, DS2 will wear my socks and Daddy's socks. Kids, who understands them?

Since it's a new year, I must have a case of startitus. As previously stated, I cast on a new pair of socks for myself. My pretty purple socks will be a pair of toe up to go as far as the yarn will take me. I only hope that I will not become bored or upset with these socks before I run out of yarn. No promises. I typically flake on grand plans like really tall socks. I've also cast on for the Downton Abbey Mystery Knit-A-Long with Jimmy BeansWool. The Mystery KAL requires DK weight yarn on size 7 needles. The only DK in my stash is earmarked for a future sweater. Instead, I'm going to use some mystery acrylic that is worsted or aran weight. Odds are the mystery acrylic isRed Heart or Caron and I will be using size 8 needles instead. Although the drape will be different (denser than stated) something tells me I'm going to love the length of my new shawl.  At least, that's what I'll be telling myself.

I've also discovered The Lost Geek is hosting a Library-A-Long. The purpose is to knit patterns collected in your library prior to 1/4/14. In my library there are more than a few that I could use for the LAL but I think I'll wait until I finish either the socks or the shawl. Then again, there are a few sweater patterns I could use.  DS1 has outgrown the sweater I knit him. The sweater Mamaw knit him still has growth room. Such is life.

Exciting times at my house lately; by typical standards nothing major is happening or planned. The latest excitement we've had is when DH has a day off during the weekend. Last weekend DH had Saturday off and while I know he most likely wanted to stay home a chill with the Things and me, we needed to go somewhere. We had to do SOMETHING, anything not home. It's not often I have these urges so when I do; nothing short of an army will change my mind. Poor DH ended up driving 2 hours each way with a car load of grumpy people. We left before breakfast but later than he had planned (my fault but he didn't tell me what the plan was for breakfast). One of the places we miss eating at is Shoney's but the nearest one is roughly half-way between home and the Montgomery, AL zoo. Leaving home there was a pair of HUNGRY toddlers in the backseat. After walking the almost dead zoo (very few visitors) for several hours and indulging in hot chocolate we left for home. Mommy was grumpy by that time. When we made it home, we laid the boys down for a nap that they didn't take but I sure took a good nap!  In fact, tonight, an early bedtime sounds good.