ANOTHER yarn crawl!!!

More of the ladies in the Tuesday knitting group planned an outing to Champaign to visit . We departed Jeremiah Joes coffee shop at 8:30 a.m. following Marge's directions we made our way to Champaign. Marge's daugter, Becky hosted us for coffee at her home. Becky and evidently Marge are incredibly talented artists. Becky exhibits at Parkland College and she had 2 of Marge's watercolors hanging in her stairway. Becky laid a luscious fuit and coffee cake snack out for us, we toured her garden. I want THIS... After touring the garden and Becky's award winning dollhouses,we proceeded to Needleworks. WOW! It takes us 2.5 hours get there, but it is definitely a destination yarn shop. They carry needlepoint, some cross stitch and yarn, yarn, yarn..nice yarn and a good amount of it. I bought 3 skeins of the Cotton Noro, 5 skeins of another Noro for a secret project and 3 skeins of a cotton Araucana yarn for yet another Cl*p for me, me, me...We had lunch at the Courier Cafe for lunch. I recommend the milkshakes (I had chocolate)and the sweet potato chips. The turkey club was enormous, more than enough for even a big eater. I had the Rueben, loved it. Yummy. Then off we went to Prairie Gardens garden center for a tiptoe through the tulips. I bought 4 cactus for my summer cactus garden. I don't even know the common names for these cacti, so I won't embarass myself, but when I get it planted, I will post a picture. We arrived home about 6:30, it was a long day, but we had many laughs and it was great fun!

A good time was had by all

I am so thankful, I spent last weekend with the most wonderful group of women. Most are/were quilt shop owners and they have been getting together for about 6 years. We sewed and watched movies and talked and laughed and poked fun at each other. It was a weekend to refill my well and that I did. Thank you so much Janettie for inviting me, thank you Maureen for your wonderful hospitality. I hope I behaved well enough to be invited back. My goal was to make the top for DS#1's graduation quilt and I accomplished that "barely", I spent most of the weekend with my arse parked on the couch in front of the tv knitting away on my Clapotis. I brought all the yarn for that and also for my Mr. Greenjeans. I thought I'd finish the Cl*p and get a good start on the Mr. Greenjeans and make the quilt top. I finished another ball on the Cla*p and the top, that was it. Before you accuse me of goofing off the whole day, it is true that on Saturday I ventured into Galena with some of the girls, but I found a pattern and yarn for the shrug that I want to make for DD#1's 1st Communion which should be sometime in May. My knitting que keeps re-arranging itself. I'm going to try and finish the Cla*p and then hit the shrug hard, hoping to finish that when I go to Paducah with Janette, along with the back of the graduation quilt. Turkey totem, don't fail me now....

Yarn Crawl - Chicago

On March 25, Knitting Homie, Cindi and I embarked on a Chi-town yarn crawl. We took the 9:20am train from Aurora, got off of the train in Downers Grove and walked to Knitche . Really nice shop, well worth the stop. The folks there were friendly and quirky and offered to wind our yarn, really nice yarn, some purchases were made, then back onto the train we hopped arriving at Union Station about 11:45. Next we hopped a cab and headed to Arcadia , In case we do it again, for future reference it was a $21 cab ride (it is WAY up North). We entered Arcadia at 12:05 (it had opened at noon). The lady (who I think was the owner/manager)greeted us. Her manner was bruske and Cindi and I both thought she was going to tell us that the store was closed or she was going to throw us out, but we were later to discover that this was simply her manner, she was helpful and friendly in a "city" kind of way. Some yarn was acquired, I bought Big Girl Knits at 40% and enough yarn to make a sweater for me. The owner/manager then helpfully gave us assistance in heading back downtown to The Melting Pot A $1.00 fare on the #22 Clark Street Bus transported us through several interesting ethnic neighborhoods and past the front of Wrigley Field and landed us within a block and a half of The Melting Pot where we proceeded to indulge in a lovely 4 course meal, Cheese fondue, salad, meat and of course DARK CHOCOLATE! I have to admit that until I tasted this chocolate fondue, I hadn't been too impressed with Dark Chocolate, but I am now a Dark Convert - Yummm, Lunch took 3 hours, it was heavenly. Next we caught a cab down to Knitwerks . It was my first experience of being "buzzed" into a store. It was a very nice shop, not huge, but the proprietress was friendly and helpful. They had a nice selection of really nice quality yarns and accessories. Despite my personal policy of usually purchasing something at every stop, I didn't see anything (despite the fact that ALL of the yarn in there was lovely)that desperately needed to go home with me, so I refrained. However, if I am again in the area, I will definitely stop, lovely yarns, really nice folks. We again asked for directions back to Loopy . Again we walked across the street and caught the #29 bus North ($2 fare this time) and got off at Balbo which was almost directly in front of Loopy. This is where the wheels fell off of my bus. I had been a super organizational freak, (yes, you who know me know how unusual this is for me) and I had made notecards with the names, addresses, phone numbers and business hours on index cards and then on the back of the card, wrote what I wanted to look for at each store. I was looking for 6 skeins of Dream in Color Classy for the Dream in Color KAL sponsored by The Loopy Ewe and I wanted to feel up the new Manos silk for a Clapotis 6 Skeins of Dream in Color was nowhere to be found, but at least I got to fondle it. I found the Manos Silk at Loopy, toyed with knitting it in Lorna's laces Black Pearl, but they only had 2 skeins and I would have rather had 3, and based on the staff recommendation, I purchased 4 skeins of Manos Silk in the Wildflowers Colorway I also purchased 4 skeins of a luscious black alpaca silk in ww for my BIL a lovely Koolhaas and a skein of something Noro for another hat. I passed up the brown and cream ribbon yarn that was 60% off, it was lovely, but I wasn't excited about knitting or wearing a brown/cream sweater. I loved the staff at Loopy, they were sassy and quirky and fun. I would go back to any of the shops again in a Chicago minute. We were lucky, we didn't have to walk too far before finding a taxi when we wanted one and we didn't have to wait too long for busses or trains, along with having good karma that day, we also had good CARma as on the way home we met a deer crossing the road up close and personal (i.e. we could see the whites of her eyes), but didn't hit it.

It will take my "mad money" a while to recover, but I am looking forward to another yarn crawl!

I'm going to knit warshcloths

About 3 weeks ago, I started a top down raglan from the Barbara Walker book, Knitting from the Top Down, I wanted to make it a University of Illinois (Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in U of I blue and orange) color theme putting a ... sequence in orange (because I couldn't get enough of the blue yarn)Anyway, I practiced jogless jogs and of course got a funny spot in the boobular area where I changed skeins of the blue yarn. Ignoring the funny disappearing orange stitch directly over my left breasticle, I bravely knit on. I knit an entire sleeve, diligently marking the rows in a little orange book that I kept in my knitting bag, circling the row when I decreased so that the sleeves will turn out to be the same. I got to where I thought the bottom of the 1st sleeve should be and I had a bit of yarn left, rather than finish the sleeve, I transferred the stitches to a holder to await final adjustments when #2 sleeve was complete. I joined a new ball and carefully mirroring the 1st sleeve, I knit about 1/2 of the 2nd sleeve and decided to admire my handiwork. I looked at the front and there was only 1 set of increases, that is odd, there should be one on either side of the straight part....upon further examination, you all know what I did, I made the sleeves on the stitches that I was supposed to use for the FRONT AND BACK of the sweater!!!! Grrrr, not being a small girl, this involves a fair amount of knitting. My mother bless her soul said that she would chop it into tiny pieces and throw it away. She thinks that I have the patience to re-knit the sleeves. I don't know. The sweater is in time-out for a while. I did rip sleeve #2, but don't know if I have the heart to rip sleeve #1, quite yet. I suppose I would feel better if I picked up the proper sleeve and knit it for a while before I rip #1, I don't know. I'm going to knit warshcloths for a while...

Knitting Camp 2008

I'M IN! Meg Swanson's Knitting Camp 2008, Marshfield, WI, July 17-21! Hurray!!! I attended back in 2003 and I was so out of my league. Thos, folks KNIT! I am still out of my league, but the other campers were so very kind and welcoming, it was a really nice experience. I wonder if I can even finish my Baby Russian Prime which I began in July 2003, pictured above.

Hello to Sally Bridgewater, she was at the 2003 camp and is in my camp again this year, HI Sally! Looking forward to seeing you again!

What Year am I?

You Belong in 1975

Bold and brash, you take life by the horns. Whether you're partying or protesting, you give it your all!

What Year Do You Belong In?

I seem to remember 1975...I would have been 11. Oh, the good old days.

Michael's Blanket

It started out as a vague idea, make a giant basic washcloth. Purchased 10 skeins of Tatami Tweed (Ginger) from The Yarn Exchange in DeKalb and start knitting, make the triange, make a straight, center section and then the decrease triangle. The little voices in my head started to go off when I reached the "straight" section, but I ignored (never ignore your little voice). Well much to DS17's delight, I have knitted DS2.5 a blanket in the shape of a stop sign-sort of. Oh, well, it was good mindless knitting, DS2.5 won't know the difference and it gives DS17 something else to laugh at me about. It will keep him warm and that's all I care about.
Specs: Knitpicks Options #11
Yarn: Tatami Tweed (doubled) 10 skeins (Ginger Colorway)
Started: 2/9/08
Finished: 2/20/08
Mods: Well, I think a square would have been sufficient. I knitted 4 skeins in the increase triangle, 2 skeins in the "straight" section and the remaining 4 skeins in the decreased triangle. Either make it more narrow or buy a LOT more yarn for the straight section. There is a LOT of knitting in a blanket. If I doubled a WW yarn again, I would prefer a larger needle, I was going for the thermal blanket look and I know this blanket will work well, the yarn would have gone much further if I had used at #15 or #17, but I didn't have one in the house when I started. I have a picture to post, but it is a horrible picture. Just imagine a giant orange washcloth. I enjoyed knitting it and it was a quick knit, about a week and a half.

Now back to Foliage hats, my dear, dear friend, Janette's daughter has asked for a hat like her moms only blue....Her wish is my command especially when she asked so nicely. I purchased a skein of Brown Sheep Worsted in the blue variegated colorway (I am such a sucker for variegated colorway)

I also got sidetracked with another attempt at a super quick beret AND mittens. I finished the beret and then started the mittens only to discover that I think I need 24 stitches for the ribbing instead of 28. I returned to a project at least 2 years old, Marguerite's Cozy in Cables Big Kids sweater. I had been supposed to be a test knitter so long ago and went great gangbusters on the body and stalled at the sleeves. I want to keep at it. It won't take long and I'd like to get it off of my UFO list.

What do I need to finish

CIC sweater
Foliage hat for Beth
Mittens to match my hat
I Love Gansey Socks
WW socks

What I want to start

University of Illinois Sweater for ME, ME, ME
WW Chevron Scarf from Boomerang
Poppy from Yarnplay

I need to knit more.....and perhaps faster...

Babette is finished!

I love it! Of course MBM christened it with a cut of the scissors, I think it is only in the outermost row of the border, I think I have a little more yarn that I can use and patch in a hole. The little monkey. I will have to keep a closer watch on him. I have started his blanket. It is orange I bought the yarn on Saturday at the yarn shop in DeKalb. I'm doubling it an using #11's, I wish I had a larger needle, but I don't so that is that. Had a delightful visit from my friend Janette. She was in WI and stopped by on her way home. I am thankful that she feels comfortable calling and dropping in/staying over with me with my messy house and chaotic children. We had a nice, nice visit. A couple items of note, she helped me finish most of my quilting UFO's and had expressed interest in one of them. I had that one quilted first with the intention of finishing it and sending it to her for Christmas and her Birthday (12/23-she and Jesus are close). Of course, I didn't finish it and it has sat partially bound since November. She arrived and picked it up and proceeded to work on the binding. I suspected that she would and on Sunday she finished the binding. She said, "Hey, look, the binding is done on this quilt." I said, "Good, because it is yours, Happy Birthday". Much hugging, and "you're the greatest-ing" commenced (from both sides). I don't have a pic of the finished quilt, but I do have a pick of my Janettie working on the binding of her own quilt. Hee, hee, I am so sneaky!.

Its been a long, long time...

I miss blogging, a number of reasons have prevented me from blogging, but I'm back and I'll try and catch y'all up.

I have been most prolifically (for me anyway) knitting away, several pairs of socks since I last typed and a couple of Folliage's, a Koolhaas, 2 more Chev's (Yes, I know, it is an obsession), 2 pretty neat scarves for my DD7 one of which is too "itchy" (Lambs Pride worsted) and the other that is just right (Joann's Sensational-yes, I KNOW, but it was close and soft enough), 3 pairs of gloves for DD7, a hat for DS2.5 and ....let me think, but anyway, you can tell it has been a while.



I have been thoroughly enjoying getting 1 day per week off from work, it is usualy Tuesdays and I have been taking it as a ME day, I send DS2.5 to the sitter and spend it doing things for me. Shopping, working out, massage, ear candling, but really the most fun is KNITTING! There is a local group that meets on Tues am (they also meet on Saturday afternoon) and I have been able to drop in with them I think 3 times now, a finer group of ladies I have yet to meet. A diverse background of strong, intelligent, talented women who welcome me warmly. So nice, such a treat for me.

I am trying to make 2008 the Year of Me. I need to recognize that the most important thing I can do for my family is take care of myself. I need to fill up my "Well", work out regularly, drink more water, get my chakra's aligned, whatever it takes. I'll post the progress.

Its not easy being Green

Your Brain is Green

Of all the brain types, yours has the most balance.You are able to see all sides to most problems and are a good problem solver.You need time to work out your thoughts, but you don't get stuck in bad thinking patterns. You tend to spend a lot of time thinking about the future, philosophy, and relationships (both personal and intellectual).

What'>http://www.blogthings.com/whatcolorisyourbrainquiz/">What Color Is Your Brain?

Avatar

I've been wanting a cool picture for myself when I comment online and today I finally figured out how to do that. I have to post it here first....

Where did the summer go?

We are almost upon the Labor Day holidays. Wow, it seems just yesterday it was May and from my posts, it was just about the last post I have made. I made it onto http://www.ravelry.com/, my name is Angie, how original, I'm just not cleaver enough for anything more exciting. I have posted my finished Chevron Scarf and my in Progress Babette from Interweave Crochet, I am currently DCing around the edges of the blanket in an effort to use up the remainder of the yarn. Michael loves the blanket so it will become his, like the wand, the blanket chooses the baby. It made a good "on the go" project this summer and I am pleased with myself for keeping at it, I am traditionally not good at finishing. BTW, what is it about these magazines and their sizing issues? The Babette is pictured draped aluringly around a girl, making it appear as an ample blanket, but when I look at the pattern, it calls for Koigu (who wants to make a $300 blanket). At a fingering weight, it calls for a finished blanket that I would consider baby blanket sized. When I look again at the photo, the girl in the pic appears about 7 years old. Not fair, not fair! I am glad that I used WW yarn, it is large enough to cover my lap and that works for me. I love the Cotton fleece, I think I'd like a Wallaby from it, but would like to buy it a little cheaper than $8 a skein for a sweater my size. Knitting isn't a cheap hobby, is it? Or crochet either for that matter. More time, I simply need more time...

7 Things about me

This meme has been going around for a while. I haven't posted in a while and thought I should post on it even if no one reads my blog. So here we go, 7 unusual things about me.



1. I NEVER leave my house until my bed is made. I actually prefer the dishes done as well, but don't always get that. I do the dishes immediately after I finish eating.



2. I have food mixing issues. I would like one of those divided dishes as I don't like my food to touch. I generally eat one thing at a time and then go on to the next item. Some foods are ok to mix, potatoes and gravy for instance, but never potatoes, gravy and peas (YUCK). Biscuits, yes, biscuits and gravy, no way, you get the idea.



3. While I was born in IL and have lived here all of my life, I consider myself a dis-placed Southerner. I feel Southern in that I love Southern food (think Okra, fried chicken, collards) always like to make sure my guests are well fed and taken care of which I feel is the ultimate in southern, BUT unlike 99.9% of Southern women, I will constantly leave the house without makeup/lipstick/beautiful clothes. For some reason, I can't get the personal appearance part of the Southern-thing down. Paula Dean is my hero and I have eaten at The Lady and Sons twice. I loved Savanah and would go back in a heartbeat.



4. I am not very political. I am a registered Democrat married to a Republican. I find myself disillusioned by the Democrat's "leanings" and find myself siding more and more with the Republicans. I am not against Gays, but I am against abortion, I don't really care if the Dem's or Republicans are in power, but I wish that they would come out and fix things the way that each side always swears that they will when we elect them.



5. When I dream, I see myself thin. Why can I see myself thin, but can't make myself thin?



6. I have sewn and tailored my own clothes, I quilt, I knit, I crochet (basically I craft), but no one else in my family does. My grandmother wired my grandfathers shirt buttons on with left-over bread ties. I don't know if that had so much to do with her dislike of sewing as perhaps her dislike of Grandpa, but it is interesting. They don't understand my need to make things and also can't understand when I start projects and never finish them. It makes me feel wasteful.



7. I am the first one in my family to finish college. Blue collar family. It was their goal for me to go to college, but now that I have done it, I feel like an outcast of sorts, like they feel I'm smarter or better than them. Having a college education simply means, I spent the requisite hours in a classroom and earned a degree, not a huge accomplishment in my book, but an accomplishment none-the-less.

There are probably a lot more than 7 wierd things about me, but here they are.

An Ode to My Chair

Dave http://cabincove.com/, is shopping for a new chair for his new diggs. I was inspired to post about my knitting chair. Here it is in it's glory. http://www.flickr.com/photos/88424487@N00/503194810/in/photostream/
I love the fabric, it has fern leaves in relief on the fabric, not as good as the dotty chair http://www.masondixonknitting.com/archives/2007_05.html#002023 but it is my chair and I lurve it. It sleeps pretty good, too. :)

KIP - 4/21/07

We wanted to get to the BodyWorld2 exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industrywww.msi.org and we consulted the calendar, today was the day. I let DS#1 drive all the way to Navy Pier and then we cabbed from there to Fogo De Chao for lunch, excellent and then walked back to Navy Pier, drove to the museum. I couldn't resist a KIP pic with the bronzes outside of Navy Pier. It was a good day and I needed it. Got a lot of knitting done in the car on the way up, in between driving instructions (he's 16-you know)

I love Socks!

I've been away from socks for a while, probably 6-9 months or so. I have cast on for the STR club sock and am working away on that. I learned about http://www.aswellyarnshop.com/cart/home.php, I already own the alien colorway and I had ordered the Exclamation colorway. It arrived on Friday and so Friday night, I wound it and cast on. I was having trouble with a stockinette toe, so I used the garter toe from the STR club sock and away I go. I am almost done with the 2 feet of the socks. Yea!

I kicked the Provisional Cast-On's *SS!

I have been afraid to start the STR club sock because I have never done a provisional cast on of any sort. I hemmed and hawed and hemmed and hawed. Tried to think of how to do the same sock differently. Who am I kidding, I'm not that experienced a knitter. This morning, I got up at 5am, the house was quiet, all the kiddies were sleeping peacefully and I grabbed my trusty crochet hook and as Nike says, "Just Did It"-well, you know what I mean. I started with some WW yarn and I thought that would make the stitches too big when I unzipped the provisional, so I got some sock yarn, but it was too similar to the club yarn and I accidentally started to unzip it before its time. I got some scrap STR in a very contrasty yarn, chained 38 instead of 34 like the pattern says (just for some un-zippage insurance) and away I went.

WHO was afraid of the Provisional cast-on? It was so easy-peasy, I can't believe I have procrastinated on this for so long!

Not exactly to plan

I had planned to see the Harlot in OakBrook, but Michael had a fever and I did what all mom's do, I stayed home to take care of my baby bird. Not a lot of knitting accomplished, but I did on Sunday night finish CHEVRON! I love it, and it fits beautifully. It was a mindless knit, but it seemed to go on forever and ever, now that it is done, it wasn't so bad, I'd like to make another in the heavyweight yarn. We'll see.

Status

Status on the current projects.

Cozy in Cables larger kid sweater for CIC knitting in Chocolate brown, body = done, 1 sleeve started (abt. 2")

Chevron Scarf = About 2" done, love it, but HATE, HATE, HATE all the purling, using STR Fairgrounds and Fire on the Mountain - Mediumweight

More Stripes Vest (Newest Knitty) = Swatched for (yes, it is a first for me), in Silk Garden 226 (my favorite colorway of SG), patiently waiting to be cast on. I plan to steek the armholes on this as well as the neck and I need to order the gansey DVD from Schoolhouse press http://www.schoolhousepress.com/videos.htm so that I have a handy tutorial for this. I've never knit a garment for myself and I have discovered the extent of my hatred/dislike for the dreaded purl stitch, so I'm going to attempt to do it in the round, what the heck? the pattern is written that way for the neckline, why not do the sleeves.

STR Club Sock - yarn wound into ball, patiently waiting for a quiet moment to interpret the directions for the club sock. I've never knit toe up.

Cabin Cove fingering weight in a purple/green/cream colorway that is desitned to become a forest path shawl. It is loverly as is all of Dave's yarn...

I have an acrylic hat in the wings needing just the decreases at the top and it is done.

I think Birch in KSH is dead, done, never to be resurrected. I have an error somewhere and I can't rip it back, I think it is destined for the burn pile, it was an interesting experiment, I don't think I"m ready for laceweight yet.

I have startitis. I'm hanging on bravely trying to finish the Chevron scarf before I start another project. I desperately need to finish the Cozy in Cables sweater, there are cold kids in Russia, you know...Will I triumph over Statitus? Stay tuned...

Wasted day

I've needed a win for several weeks. I'm working on a WW silk scarf that just doesn't want to be a scarf, I should have frogged it a long time ago, but what can 1 skein of WW silk become if not a scarf? I screwed up the simple Feather and Fan pattern, while knitting at my moms, I have to rip it back again! I have so many things on my plate that I want/need to make. DS#2 has had Rotavirus since Tuesday, thankfully it is mainly diarreah and only vomiting 1 night, but so I've gotten little sleep, although, DH has been taking the day shift while I work. My quilter called and it's my turn, I have about 5 quilts that need to be quilted, so on Sunday, like a good girl, I set to piecing backs for said quilts and etc. I found a quilt I thought I was done and spent about 3 hours trying to jerry-rig it to be done, nothing worked, the back that I pieced will be too short, I have enough fabric, but I just lacked the engineering ability to clearly see the solution. So I spent 3 hours doing something I didn't want to do - and then suddenly, I had a pitty attack. I seem to always be stuck doing the things I don't want to do, in fact, I spend so much time doing what needs to be done that I don't think I even know what I WANT to do anymore, I just keep swimming, doing what everyone expects me to do. I had a worrysome visit to the Dr. last week and need to go back for a follow-up and I am freaked about it, although I know in my head that it MAY be nothing, I'm just tired, and scared, this too, shall pass, right? Am I doing something wrong? Am I doing anything right? A Pitty party, that is what I need....and some sleep.