No Lie

Whoever named this baby sweater pattern "Quickie" wasn't fooling around. It's also called the "5 Hour Baby Sweater" which I think is a bit of an exageration, but I cast this on (a few times) Friday night, worked on it quite a bit on Saturday, and finished it early Sunday afternoon. Next I'll make booties and a hat to match and I'll be ready for the baby shower. Oh, and decide whether I'll make a ribbon tie or put buttons on it. I'm leaning toward little pearl buttons.

Progress Report--week #26

Okay, this is it, the middle of the year. 2009 is half over. Don't fall down in amazement, I'm not making this up. Since there are 52 weeks in a year, 26 must be the middle; it's a mathematical fact. So I must have half of the things I had OTN at the beginning of this quest finished, right? Maaaybeee. Let's run the list... Accidental socks? Check. The Converts mittens? Check. Silk Road Purse? Check. Socks X2? Check. Fish Afghan? Check. Sudoku Afghan? No, but work on it every time I'm at work. Cardigan for Durwood? Haven't gotten that into the queue yet, but I haven't forgotten it.

Those are all the projects I had started when 2009 rolled around. I've started and finished a bunch of other ones in between (see list at left side of blog), and I'm still determined to finish any thing that was started on New Year's Day by New Year's Eve. Okay, right away I'm going to hedge that statement and give myself a pass on having the Sudoku Afghan all done by then, but if I get everything, but that, finished in 2009 I will consider myself a success. Imagine, I will have actually made a resolution and kept it. Amazing.

Now. Here's what I worked on this week. 1 1/2 Sudoku squares got made at work. I intend to finish the half this weekend so I can start Monday with a new color.





I logged a few rows on the Khaki cardi; it keeps getting bigger. I still love it. Purling still makes my left thumb ache.




Finished the first Mardi Gras Ankle Sock and knit the cuff on sock #2.






Crocheted a few rows on the Ripple Shawl. I can tell I've been a crocheter longer than a knitter. I can really zone out when I'm hooking along.





And, finally, because a week can't pass without me casting on something new. I got an invite to DD's high school friend Kelly's baby shower next month, so I found a pattern for a Quickie (5 hour) Baby Sweater and some pretty variegated Encore Colorspun in Color 7065 (they need better color names) to make it and dove right in. I'll admit right up front that I cast on and knit a couple rows more than once, so many times that I checked to see if just the cast on was supposed to take 5 hours. Sometimes things that are supposed to be easy are hard.

One Sock & Shawlishness

Last night I finished the first of the Mardi Gras Ankle Sox. I like it. Haven't worn it in a shoe yet, but I like the way it feels on my foot.

My crochet hook is busy making stitches and adding rows to the Ripple Shawl. This is the first time I've used Lion Microspun. I like it, it's silky and easy to work with. I also like the rich contrast between the Ebony and the Sterling colors, and the way the fabric drapes. I'm going to love this shawl.






I've decided that I don't know my own psychic strength. Last week I was complaining (on the writing group blog) that summer was too long in coming, that it was too rainy and dreary and chilly to be summer, and that we needed a little heat and sunshine to get the garden growing. Well, I evidently was wishing too hard for warmer weather, because this week it's sunny, 90, and humid. In short, unbearable. I'm going to have to be more careful about how I wield this until now unrealized power.

I Can't Leave Well Enough Alone

You'd think I would learn. I had gotten down to 3 active projects OnTheNeedles--the Sudoku squares knitted at work between customers, the Mardi Gras Ankle Sox that I work on at Patti's Yarn Shop on Thursday nights, and the Khaki Cardi that I cast on last weekend and can't put down. It seemed like barely anything going on, almost as if I had large gaps in my knitting time. I realize that I am making great strides in the cardi, I mean I'm almost through the first 240 yd. skein and I'm 32 rows from putting the sleeve stitches on waste yarn and moving down the body of the sweater.

And yet I couldn't keep from casting around for yet another something to knit or crochet, for one more project to fill those empty nanoseconds. There I was in JoAnn's yesterday afternoon, the needles I wanted were already on sale so my 2-50% off coupons wouldn't work on those. I spotted 4 skeins of Lion Microspun in Sterling on sale for only $1.97 each so the coupons wouldn't work on those either. Then I looked at the pretty ripple shawl on the label and thought I might like to crochet it, but it called for 6 skeins and there were only 4 on sale. Aha! I could buy 1 skein of Ebony Microspun for either end of the stole/shawl; it wasn't on sale so the coupons would work on it, one for each. Huzzah! Naturally, I couldn't resist digging out a crochet hook and starting it last night. *sigh*

Ooh, Nice

I had promised myself that I wouldn't cast on a cardigan I had the yarn and needles all organized for until I had finished the Poetry Camp sock and the Thuja socks. I had both finished by Friday night, so yesterday afternoon when it was raining and I couldn't sit outside I cast on the sweater and it was very hard to stop knitting. I love the way it looks and feels. It's the Neck Down V Neck Cardigan from Knitting Pure & Simple. It's my first worsted sweater and the first I'm knitting in one piece from the top. I'm only 13 rows into it and already I love it even though it's stockinette and I'm not a huge fan of purling.

We decided that the wren house was too bland painted all one color so we went back and got some barn red and I repainted the roof and perch. Now it has pizzazz, to quote DS.

Progress Report--Week #24

Before I get to the yarn-y stuff I want to show you the latest garden photos. Durwood took a picture of his lush raspberry bushes and sends a heartfelt "thank you" to DS for bequeathing them to him. Durwood and I collaborated on a wren house; he built it, I painted it. While we're waiting for someone to move in, I'm encouraging him to build more houses to brighten up that gray fence. The poppies in the corner of the garden are opening. I thought all poppies were the same but an ex-hippie customer of the dive shop said the red-orange ones aren't the "interesting" ones, so we won't be starting a side business this year.

Last night Telaine and I took a walk through Goodwill during Friday Night Knitting and hit the jackpot. They had a stack of these but only one of these. She's a loom knitter so she let me have the sole copy. Wasn't that nice of her? Can you believe there's a pattern for a knitted bikini in there?!? Holy cats.

I also found this when we trolled back through Domestics. It's 20 oz. of laceweight in whoknowswhat fiber in a soft silvery gray. I thought that for $.99 (that's ninety-nine cents, folks) I could give lace knitting a try.

I finished 2 socks this week: the single Poetry Camp Sock was done early in the week (see previous post) and I finished the second Thuja last night after FNKC. I decided not to Kitchener the toe in the poor lighting and lively conversation there.

I knitted 2 1/2 Sudoku squares at work while watching documentaries on Netflix. One of these days we have to start getting more customers. I feel a little bad for having nothing to do there. A little.

Not being able to resist casting on new things for long, I started a Fixation Ankle Sock in green, purple, and yellow. They remind me of Mardi Gras so that's what I'm calling them. The jury is still out on the Fixation yarn.

Poetry Camp Sock Done!

Ta-da! I got the Poetry Camp Sock done this evening.

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See how cool it looks with one of the Accidental socks?





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I tried to get it done this afternoon but a nap overtook me and I was helpless. I am grateful to Durwood that he didn't take this head-on so everyone could see me in all my slack-jawed glory.

Progress Report--Week #23

With all the camp-going and coming home from, my progress reports have been absent, but here I am back in the saddle, turning over a new leaf...you get the picture. This was a sock week. I've got 2 OTN and I alternated between them because I was at the same place on both, turning the heel and knitting the gusset. On the pink and purple Poetry Camp sock, things will be more mindless for a few inches as it's a plain old sock with nothing interesting going on but the dyed in stripes and dots. On Thuja the wide rib pattern continues down the top of the foot so I still need to keep track of which row's odd (k3, p1) and which is even (k).







At work I made Sudoku afghan squares in maize.









My DD sent my Mother's Day package and--Look!--a beautiful hankie with a crocheted edge. I love it. Isn't it pretty? There's a thread of sparkly in the white edging. Thanks, honey, it's so pretty. Your note made me tear up. I love you too.

The little plush bug is a travel bug she found while geocaching, so I need to buy or borrow a GPS to find a cache around here to put it in.




Will it ever be summer? Or even spring? It's back down in the 40s right now and supposed to rocket to the mid-50s today. Maybe late next week the temps will creep up to 70 for a day, maybe two, but maybe not. I love my sweaters but I'm getting tired of wearing them to work, and my hoodies are getting a real workout around the house. I'm not asking for it to be 80 every day, I like it in the 70s with some sunshine and puffy clouds. Really, that's not asking too much, is it?

Flowers & Yarn

Durwood decided that the bouquet of lilies of the valley I picked this morning needed to have its portrait taken this evening and he asked me to post them for DD "because she loves them." I think if he could, he'd deliver the bouquet to her. So here you are, honey, Dad's sent you flowers.

I've been knitting on each sock in turn after supper while listening to a book on cd. Have you read/listened to any of James Patterson's Women's Murder Club series? I'm liking them, they're entertaining with interesting characters and situations. I'm also finding that I have to concentrate when working on the Evenstar Gloves. Lots of cabling and counting but, look, pretty. I'm halfway through the heel flap of the purple and pink striped Poetry Camp sock and not quite to the flap on Thuja, but I'm chugging along.