Score!

I went to Arti Gras this afternoon. It's a mid-winter art fair, indoors of course, where potters and painters, photographers and all sorts of artists sell their art. Musicians and dancers perform, potters spin clay and spinners turn fleece into yarn. I went to find a button to complete my Neck Cozy and I found one, a lime green one that looks great on the dark peacock blue of the scarf/cozy. Naturally I found other things, not too many and they weren't real expensive, but I had fun. I treated myself (and Durwood once I got home) to the smallest cone of candied cashews and resisted all other fair food.

My favorite potter was there from down around Milwaukee. She makes the most durable, usable bowls etc. The bigger ones are berry bowl size and the smaller ones are great for dip or mise en place when you're making a recipe. Unfortunately she does not have a website.

The potter who made my bread stone was there and I told her that it had cracked in half. She was horrified especially when I told her that it had not happened in the oven and offered to replace it. I thought that was very nice of her and will be contacting her in a couple weeks.

The three little rounds with glass in them are "Lucky Stones." The potter who made them said that he based them on the concept of worry stones but didn't like the negative connotations so he renamed them "lucky." The colored glass is smooth and concave, the little pottery piece fits perfectly in your hand and your thumb is comfortable rubbing the glass.

I finished the Neck Cozy tonight. Now all I have to do is find a shank button to attach to the back of the big ceramic one so I can use it like a shawl pin and push the smaller shank button between stitches to hold the scarf in place.



I unpinned the Mermaid's Tale bookmark. I'm still not sure I like it but I do like the colors, especially now that it's not on that garish blue foam blocking tile thingy.

Set A Timer

Last night at the Bay Lakes Knitting Guild meeting we had a Physical Therapist speak to us about keeping ahead of muscle aches and strains when we're knitting. He talked about sitting up straight and putting a pillow on our laps so that our arms are supported and our neck isn't so strained from looking down. He showed us, and had us stand up and do, some stretches, very basic but they felt great. He also said to get up for 10 minutes every hour to change our position, get a drink, and generally give our hands, arms and shoulders a break, and to set a timer if we forget, it's that important. It was an excellent program and a lot of people came. Thanks, BLKG and Sean French, P.T.!

Longtime readers know how I love knitting with big needles and bulky yarn to get a finished item faster. Well, I'm zooming along on the Neck Cozy. I've got about a quarter of the bulky yarn to do and then I'll need to find a big flashy button to put on it. Hey, maybe I'll find one at Arti Gras this weekend. See? An excuse to go. Excellent.



I ordered some more 29" Susan Bates Velocity circular needles from YarnSupply.com last week and they came on Wednesday so I frogged back the garter stitch of the Ogre Baby hat to the ribbing and am taking another run at it in stockinette. Doing the purl rows was hurting my hands so I decided that a baby hat wasn't worth injuring myself. Pretty mature thinking, eh? As an added bonus I like the way it looks better now anyway.

I can't say enough good things about the Velocity needles. They're sharp and slick and the cable is thin and flexible--and they're very reasonably priced at yarnsupply.com, even with paying the shipping they're less expensive than at JoAnn's.



Lookie! Lookie! Lookie! I noticed these when I came home from work the other day when Snowstorm Ethan's dump began to melt away. The green nubbins in the snow are daffodils that I planted more than 30 years ago. The others are hyacinths and daffodils that nestle in the corner where the porch meets the house and get the first warmth of the year. It's very heartening in this long month at the end of winter.

Knitting Like a Mad Fool

I can't quit. I love this stuff. I'm crazed with the tiny preemie hats in bright yarns. This yarn color's called Parrot. Thanks, too, to Zoe for teaching me the Magic Loop method of knitting. I bought a 29" circ for the baby hats and it's working like a dream. I love DPNs but they're hard to knit tiny things on, there's too much needle hanging out to tangle with the yarn and rest of the needles.



The Neck Cozy yarns are so soft and luscious that I hate to put them down. I started knitting with just the peacock Misti Alpaca but you couldn't see the slipped stitches (they're the slanted ones) very well, so I dug around downstairs and came up with a skein of Red Heart Heart & Sole in Mellow Stripe that I'm carrying along. It's making all the difference in the world.





I'm waiting until the size 3-29" circular needle I ordered comes to finish the baby ogre hat, or maybe I'll pick it up after supper to see if I can finish it for the Knitting Guild meeting on Thursday night.

Oh, speaking of Bay Lakes Knitting Guild, Dusty and I went to Monterey Yarns after her eye doctor appointment and the president of the guild was there. She came up and asked me to be the "member-at-large" on the board. I said "sure" but I had my teeth gritted and I'm sure she could tell I was just too polite to say no. Now I have to be at the meetings at 5:30 instead of 7:00; I don't really mind that part but I swore (to myself) that I wasn't going to get involved with running the Guild. I tend to open my yap and have opinions and people ask me to do stuff and I'm not smart enough or have enough backbone to decline. Damn it.

Dusty and I found a geocache on the way back to her house. (We tried to find it earlier this winter but were led astray by her GPS.) She was looking behind a traffic barrier while I checked around a fire hydrant. The neighbor was pulling out of his driveway by her and told her where to look. It wasn't exactly where he said it was but we found it! Woohoo! We forgot to take a picture too, dang it.

Irresistible

Okay, okay, I admit it, I don't have much resolve when it comes to casting on knitting, and if the object of my fancy is small or cute, I have even less, so when I saw this pattern on Ravelry when I was looking for preemie hats I knew I was a goner. It's a baby ogre hat! Don't you think every baby should have one?



This is as far as I've gotten so far.

Finishing!

Hooray! Because of spring or just because I'm motivated to cast on a zillion new things, six or twelve anyway, but I'm determined to finish some things too, so I did. I put aside the next Too Early Birthday Preemie hat and work on my entrelac learning scarf, any number of sock projects or... Well, you get the picture.

The second preemie hat was made Thursday night. Isn't it cute? I love the colors.












Yesterday and this morning I finished up the second Fjord Mitt. This yarn is soft and great to knit with and the mitts really hug my hands. This is a pattern that will get made over and over. It looks like a raggedy tube with a thumb until you put it on.






This morning I finished up the Mermaid's Tale bookmark, pinning out the edges so I could attach the braided yarn and beads to the bottom. Then I gave it a bath in wool wash and pinned it out to dry. It might be a bit long and kind of floppy but I think it's pretty.





Now I get to cast on another preemie hat and maybe a neck cozy pattern and yarn I bought in Door Co. week before last. Teehee. (After I put fresh sheets on the bed and fresh towels in the bath and kitchen, of course, and put the soiled ones in the washer.)

A Hat So Small...

... that even I can make it in one night. It's the Too Early Birthday Hat from the 20 Hats Project. I was going to stop making preemie hats. Really I was. But I was tidying up my knitting area (living room) and ran across this pattern that I had printed out. It was too cute to not try. Then I thought I'd need another color of Premier self-patterning yarn, so I stopped at JoAnn on my way home from work--and bought 3 new colors. Well, it was on sale 2/$5 and I found two, but then there was this other one that looked so bright and cheery and kid-friendly, not all somber and dreary so I bought them all. I had coupons. They didn't work on sale merchandise, but I had them just in case--and for justification. So while supper was cooking I cast on. Only 42 sts. Then you knit five rounds and purl the sixth, 4 times, then decrease the crown and that's only seven rounds. By 10:30, I was done. Presto! What's not to love? By 11:00 I had the second one cast on. What? I can't imagine a baby this small but if there are some they need hats too. And cute ones. (I took its picture with the last tiny one I made just to show you how much smaller it is.)

Coochie-coochie-coo

I got Tiny Hat #5 done last night. It desperately needed a pompom.


Oh, these are so cute. So cute I'm tempted to keep knitting them. But I won't. I will take a different project to work with me today, maybe the Fjord Mitts and finish those. Yeah, that's what I'll do. And I'll finish the Mermaid's Tale Bookmark too. Cross my heart.





Here's the manly Chemo Beanies too. The guild meeting is a week from Thursday so, look at me!, I'm done with what I said I'd make early. E. A. R. L. Y. Not a word that's frequently applied to my endeavors. I'm more of a frantic-on-the-way kind of a girl.



I do confess I'm thinking of swinging by JoAnn (I have coupons in my purse) and picking up one more skein (or maybe two, they have lots of colors, I love colors) of that self-patterning Premier yarn to try out another preemie hat pattern I ran across last night, but that can be the start of next month's hats. Yeah, that's a good idea. Next month. Hey, wait a minute, it is next month. Today. Oh well, I'll figure it out.