Summer Knitting

I am a knitter who knits all year long, though I must admit that it is more difficult for me to find the "appropriate" time to knit during the summer.  The warmer weather makes it a little harder for me to knit as much as I'd like.

I like to do smaller projects during the summertime to combat the warmer weather, and my affinity for knitting with wool.  Socks are the perfect project for summer for me, but I had lost my desire to knit socks, possibly because I just couldn't reconcile how beautiful the multicolored yarns looked in skeins with how they knit up into socks.  I'm not a big fan of flashing or yarn pooling, which seemed to happen a lot for me with variegated yarns I had previously purchased and knit.

But I found some great needles - some 9" circular needles to just simply knit in the round for the leg and foot of the sock (the biggest portions).  This makes knitting vanilla socks even more simple than my preferred method for knitting socks - magic loop....
I do however, still knit the heel and toe on magic loop needles.

To recover my sock mojo, I started by knitting my Nana a pair of socks for winter.  She loved them!  I knit her plain vanilla socks, and since then am on my third pair this year.  This is about a pair every other month, which is pretty good for me with our busy schedule, and way better than not knitting socks at all.

Here's the current pair on my needles:
Vanilla Socks:
Yarn - Into the Whirled (75% merino wool/25% nylon) - LOVE this base.
Color way - Abercrombie
Needles - US #1 (2.25 mm) for the leg and foot, US #0 for the heel and toe.

There is a little pooling happening here, but not so much that I can't tolerate it.  As of tonight, I am almost done with the toe.  And I'm the kind of knitter who immediately casts on for the second sock, which is an unusual trait in sock knitters.

Here's hoping you enjoy the week ahead, and that the weather allows for some knitting time in the outdoors!

Knitting Update

There's knitting happening here.

That's Spighe di Grano.   It's a small shawl that had been waiting awhile to be blocked.  I decided to try and do just that last week, and I succeeded.  It's a simple knit in gorgeous colors -  Skein yarns BFL sock, in her famous "Static" colorway.
My Ravelry project page has details to help your sort through my personal modifications to the pattern. Follow the link above.....

I've also acquired a new little project bag.  How could I pass up this bag with knitting sheep on the fabric?  Too funny and whimsical.  It came from a new, small, local yarn store in our area.
The bag is made by a local Pennsylvania artist, so bonus all around in supporting local companies.

And I'm on the verge of finishing another small shawl - details in upcoming posts!  It's knit with a beautiful merino/nylon/cashmere blend from Three Irish Girls yarn.  YUM!

Here's hoping everyone is enjoying summer.  We look forward to warm weather this week in PA.  That means the last softball game, swimming, and knitting at night.  I might even get in some knitting and spinning on my front porch.  Bring it on, I say!  Happy knitting to you and yours!

Around here.....

A year full of pictures. Around here.....

Training

Tomorrow the Summer Olympics begin in London! I've always been an Olympic "junkie" - staying up late to watch the competitions, walking around with red eyes for two weeks, sleep deprived, but totally hooked on the stories that accompany the games.

Simultaneously during the Olympics, members of the Ravelry community partcipate in their own competitions during this two week period - they sign up for knitting, crocheting, spinning, and weaving events that are named after Olympic competitions, but pertain to fiber. Ravelers form teams that resemble Olympic teams for competition in each event. Medals are awarded at the end of the time frame too.
Honestly, it's not meant to make fun or in any way mock the true Olympics, but rather helps to celebrate this time period of unity among the nations.


This year, I've done it. I've gone a little overboard with my project. I've gone and ordered my first spinning wheel (sure to be a distraction), and I've committed to knitting a small blanket for the competition on Ravelry. The blanket will be knit in yarn by The Plucky Knitter. It's her awesome Primo worsted weight yarn - a luscious blend of Superwash Merino Wool and Cashmere - stunning and soft as butter running through my hands. I wound it into center pull balls tonight on the ball winder.
Not one skein gave me fits - they wound up nicely onto the winder. FUN!

You can see the lovely colors and skeins of yarn for my blanket below.

Wish me luck! It will take all my effort to knit this in two weeks! I'm knitting blocks of solid colors (but in different knitting patterns to keep things interesting).
I'm so excited to start - unfortunately, I won't be home exactly at 4:00 for opening ceremonies tomorrow (which is when you are allowed to officially start your project), but I'll be home as soon as I can, and my needles will be clicking!

PS - GO TEAM PLUCKY!
PS - GO TEAM USA!

Waiting......

It's on its way! Can you guess what it might be?
Here's a hint.......

Searching....

I find myself searching a lot these days.

Searching for inspiration, meaning, joy, laughter, purpose.
The weather is beautfiul, but my mind certainly is not keeping up with it.
I went on a walk tonight, and honestly it does help me feel better, clears my head, and is generally a good thing.
Sometimes, my husband and I walk together, just the two of us, and I look forward to that time.

I know I'm in a different phase of my life now. I suppose some would call it a mid-life crisis. Others would call it a crisis of faith (I'm really struggling in that department, so I might have to agree with them). Really, I'm thinking it's more of a, "Let's take stock and reassess," period of time.
No matter what you label it, I'm hopeful that it is just what it seems to be, a crossroads. As I journey through it, I hope that I'll find a little bit of this:

Hats Off to a New Year

Slightly late, but better late than never....

Hats off to a New Year.


Rosebud




Rikke


Project details on Ravelry.

When You're Not Looking

Life happens whether you're looking or not.....
This late summer we enjoyed some grapes at a local winery....the girls just wouldn't stomp them though, no matter how much we encouraged them to do so....
They did settle for posing for this picture with me (they still like me enough to do that, thankfully).


We had some unexpected things happen.....Some pleasant and beautiful.


Some, while not unexpected, brought complications that were. Thankfully, we're closing the whole premature birth chapter in our lives, with this closure of the feeding tube fistula, post-operative infection, and fainting episodes when little girls are cleared too early for regular activities.....


I've had time to knit, and it has been a simple pleasure that's provided much comfort during these crazy and uncertain times.
Summer Wind

Guernsey Wrap

All the Water

Turn A Square

Yarntini Hat

Sugared Violets



All project details can be found here.




No matter the journey, it's always evolving, changing. Sometimes so quickly, we can't keep pace.
It's then that we need to slow our hearts and minds, take a deep breath, and close our eyes.
It's all under control. Even when we're not looking......

For the Love of the Game

For the Love of the Game
Pattern: Dream Stripes, Raveled.
Needles - US #8
Yarn - Madelinetosh DK in Tern and Tart

It's a lovely knit, and I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

Photos courtesy of my loving husband, who has amazing talent.

Striping It

It's all shawls here, all the time. The latest one on the needles:
For the Love of the Game, so named because I started it at my daughter's softball game this weekend.
It's a simple striped shawl with a lace border - go ahead. Click on the link. I'll wait.......and the bonus - it's a free pattern!
It has nice design features, with my favorite center increase - the M1R and M1L surrounding the center stitch. I only like this increase when there is a purl back row, as in the photo below. Beautiful.

The yarn is the exquisite Madelinetosh DK, so it's thicker than the previous shawls I've been knitting (not that you've seen them). The colors are Tart (Red) and Tern (gray). The amazing amount of depth in the dyeing process never ceases to amaze me, and this shawl pattern showcases this yarn feature well.
I also broke out the new signature needles in size US #8 - circular. I really didn't think signature could improve on their older versions (three of which I purchased last year at Maryland Sheep and Wool festival), but they did - this cable is amazing. So flexible, and well, those stiletto points are amazing.
So, I'm off to continue working on this shawl. It's been a bit addicting, and yet, relaxing as well......and my porch is calling me too!

It's an emotional week, with my oldest graduating from high school. To add to all of that emotion and work, I decided to knit a baby gift instead of buy one for a baby shower at work this week. I felt like I had a homework assignment, albeit a good one. I'm not sure why I impose these kinds of deadlines on myself.
So without further ado, and very quickly, I might add, PRESENTING:
Sophisticated Baby (Baby Sophisticate....Raveled).
Yarn: By some strange chance of luck I found an acrylic (oh my goodness, my hands twinge at that word) yarn at Michael's. I'm not sure what I'm doing in the yarn section at Michael's, but that's another story for another day. When gifting my knitting, I'm also never sure whether the parent would appreciate a wool sweater that wasn't knit with superwash wool, so I knit this in, wait....I can hardly wait to tell you. I hate this advertising scheme....but it was.....Vanna's Choice - in the Harbor Mist color. It ALMOST resembles hand-dyed yarn, and it's super soft, without the wacky, scratchy feel of Red Heart. I used less than 2 skeins for the larger size, and the only modifications I made were to change the method of the raglan increases. I used a knit-into-the-front-and-the-back of the stitch instead of the backwards loop cast on. Much nicer and easier to complete the yoke.
The buttons were a great find at.....Walmart. $1.50 - amazing!

Needles: US #8 Addi Turbos. Love them!
The other beauty - I knit this sweater, wove in ends, sewed the buttons, in... three nights, with some nights not really knitting that much at all. So it's quick, and I'm a slow knitter.....you figure it out. Most people knit this little beauty in two nights.
There are complaints on Ravelry that the finished object runs a tad small, and I tend to agree. The larger size yielded me a sweater I'd consider to be about 3-6 months, maybe a little larger. I didn't do gauge, as it's a baby sweater, and well....I am nothing if not lazy at times with my knitting.
So, as I send MY baby off into the big wide world, it's bitter sweet for me to knit a baby sweater for an expecting Mom who is just beginning her journey.

Kickin' Cancer to the Curb

You've heard me talk about my friend (my age, which you all know now is 40 years old, although I think she may still be 39), who is battling breast cancer. She has completed her treatments and is now on her way to a brand new life. A life, I might add, that she is not taking for granted, and one that she lives to the fullest.
Last night she had a fund raiser event for the Avon Breast Walk, in hopes of someday finding a cure for this horrible disease.
Breast cancer affects approximately 1 in 8 women in their lifetimes. My grandmother is a breast cancer survivor.
Part of my right to passage when I turned 40 years old, was to get my first mammogram. It was a bit scary, and a bit complicated, but I'm here to say that it's SO important to have it done yearly. Don't neglect your mammogram because you are scared (even if you have a valid concern, like a lump). There's always someone who will go with you to get your mammogram done. Don't neglect your mammogram due to cost. There's lots of free clinics out there that provide mammograms at no cost to women. And remember to check your breasts monthly. Know your own body! Let's kick breast cancer to the curb, not only for our generation, but for the next to come!
FIGHT LIKE A GIRL!

Stats - Hooter Hat (knit with the owl cable as the focal point).
Size 8 bamboo and addi turbo needles.
Yarn: Debbie Stoller's Bamboo Ewe - in Pink of course!
Pattern: Heavily modified form of a combination of hat patterns. Contact me if you want the exact formula I used.

Milestones

Milestones....I've reached a few in the past months while I've been away from the blog.
I've turned 40 years old. Just typing that number makes me cringe a bit. Saying that you are 30-something never bothered me in the least, but 40? It bothers me a bit. People start saying things to me, like, "Well you don't look like you're 40!" What exactly do they mean? People whose children play sports or sing in concerts with my children haven't turned 30 yet. This is amazing to me. It's not as if I feel any older with turning 40. For Pete's sake, it's only a couple of days over 39. But the mental stigma of turning 40 is throwing me for a loop, and I find myself questioning myself and my life more and more.
But then we move onto the next milestone that has me feeling older than....well....39 years old.
My oldest daughter is graduating from high school. This year, my "I'm not wearing a dress, or anything that doesn't involve pants and a t-shirt-type of gal, surprised the socks off of me (unfortunately, they weren't wool socks), and went not only to the homecoming dance (in a dress, no less), but also took a date, who was a friend of hers, to the Senior prom. Shocking. To celebrate this most momentous occasion....I thought she needed a knitted accessory. Now, in case you haven't been reading this blog long at all, you may realize that I'm not good at knitting deadlines. Work deadlines- no problem. Knitting ones....yikes. I'm almost always knitting something last minute on Christmas Eve. Well, this was different. My baby was going to the prom, she had a thin-strapped gown that though she loved, I could tell made her a little bit uncomfortable.

SO....after she decided that she wanted to participate in the prom, we went dress shopping. True to her form, she chose the first dress she had tried on. I should just listen to her when she says, "This is the one, Mom." Instead, we searched for a couple of hours,sighed way too much, and grouched a bit throughout the mall hallways. It all ended with, "I told you that was the one, Mom." So, we got the dress. I came home and dug through my pink yarn for the precious knitted accessory I was dreaming about. Now, lest you think I'm an organized knitter, and stash all of my pink yarn in one place.....I shall put you at ease. There's pink yarn (and yarn of any color) stored just about everywhere in my house. But fear, not! I suddenly remembered that I had bought some sale yarn (who doesn't love sale yarn) at a shop in Tennessee years ago (probably about 4 years ago), and decided it might be a perfect fit. It even had some silver in it (There was also silver in my daughter's dress - go ahead. Click on the photos, I'll wait - find the little circles of silver in the material?). It was not the softest yarn I've ever knit with, but by gosh and by golly, it did match her dress pretty well, and to its credit, it did soften just a smidge with washing.
Then came the horrible decision of what design to knit for my jeans-wearing, t-shirt-loving gal.....I searched my patterns....now again, lest you think all of my patterns are in one place, rest assured, they are not. I searched and found this pretty butterfly tattoo shawl that I posed (graceful way of stating that I showed it to her without getting my hopes in an uproar) to her. She loved it.
So I gregariously began knitting her shawl. I finished it way before the prom, but neglected (as per my usual) to block it until the week of the prom. The night before the prom, it still felt damp on the blocking boards. I guess this isn't the time to tell you about the three shawls just waiting to be blocked in my living room closet? Nope, I didn't think so either.
Back to the prom....she wore the shawl (It had dried nicely on its own), as evidenced by the photos in this post, and I couldn't be more proud of my daughter, who has grown from a t-shirt-loving, jeans-wearing, black-sneakers-only, please, little girl, into a sweet young woman.
I'm totally smitten with her, as any mother would be. Even a 40 year old one!