In the pink

Last night I finished the giftknit for my brother. I was so jazzed. I portioned out the knitting on it all day long so I would have just the right amount in the evening. Then, believe it or not, I wove in my ends inmediatamente. Took pictures (still in the camera). Posted on the GeekKnits group in Ravelry.

Today when it was time to take the kids upstairs to the Toy Room for knitting time free play, I took the pink thrift store acrylic and a set of bamboo DPNs to play around with a gauge swatch for mittens. And I found something that works better for me. I usually dread (and put off) casting on for those DPN projects because of the join on the first round of the ribbing, when the stitches aren’t part of a fabric yet. When I’m trying to work out that part, I’m concentrating like it’s brain surgery, and snapping at everybody.

This time I tried the cast-on-in-ribbing trick from the Lily Chin episode of Knitting Gritty, and it was fun and easy. Then I worked back and forth on the DPNs doing 1×1 rib for about an inch, just as if they were single points. When it was time to switch to stockinette, I set up for working in the round, slid one stitch over, knit two together, and away I went (I had mindlessly cast on 17 stitches, so it worked out really well). It produced a split cuff, which, if I can keep this at all, I don’t mind seaming up. It is really just for gauge, so it will most likely be frogged though.

But next time……I might just do this for anything knit in the round with a ribbed edge. It would be a neat trick for gauntlet style gloves, too, and it would mean you could use a pattern that would be tricky to work in the round but easy to knit flat. Linen stitch for example.

Anyway, it’s back to the queue. Puppy Tstocking, Red Scarf, IHS (haven’t managed my repeat schedule lately, so I need to catch up), Tyrone, and whatever else needs to be knitted for Christmas. So naturally my mind is working out which pattern I should follow or modify to make footies from the Waikiki I bought after the horrible trip to the pediatrician.

If you’re wondering what I got done from my big fantasy list yesterday, the answer is….

Uh….nothing, really. Why do you ask?

While the big dog is away

Mr. Beth is on a business trip all week long in Las Vegas, and I have Big Plans. In fact, every time he has a long trip like this one, I’m almost as bad as on New Year’s with the Impossible Resolutions.

Allow me to do a little brainstorming about what I consider to be on my plate:

Fix the dining room table.
Clear out the remaining packing boxes.
Dye many many skeins of yarn.
Finish at least two knitting projects.
Practice at the spindle(s) and/or wheel until I can make glorious yarn.
Put a quilt in the frame and get it tied and bound.
Make the house clean enough to be proud to show it to my visiting parents, who arrive Saturday.
Keep the laundry moving.
Keep the kitchen neat and clean.
Get all the clothes put away.
Work on quilts I want to finish by Christmas.
Get box springs for the two twin beds upstairs.
Get the insurance claim started on the ruined roof (now fixed).
Pay the bills.
Optimize my blog photos.
Upload pre-Ravelry pictures to Flickr.
Document my current projects.
Cast on for Yet Another Secret Project.
Toilet train the three-year-old (”The Defiant One”).
Dehair the rest of the llama fiber.
Work on the book I’m planning to self-publish next year.

If I keep this up, I’ll barely have time to replace the CV joint in the minivan, pick up all the maple leaves by hand, and trim the lawn with the nail clippers. Oh yes, keep in mind I have maybe three hours all to myself to work on these things, IF the kids go to sleep as planned.

Does anybody else do this? I am so hoping everyone else does this.

Excuse me, it’s time for a beer.

(Oh yeah, the fast-track project is so close to done I made myself stop knitting on it to prolong it for one more day, and I did more on Red Scarf. Even if Cathy-Cate couldn’t come by to see what I did with her old yarn. So there.)

Spam of the Day

I haven’t done this in a while, but this one made me laugh out loud when I saw it at the top of the Spam Bucket. Carefully edited to (hopefully) avoid attracting more of the same.

hi!
Free @n@l se% with sp@nking story!

Fast tracked knitting

Boy, I wouldn’t have believed this, but my new project came out of nowhere and is zooming past everything else on the needles in its urge to be done first. I don’t mind because it’s my brother’s Christmas present and it’s a really fun knit. In fact, it’s just about halfway done and I only started a couple of days ago. A new Knit Speed Record for me!

I’m even keeping on task with my IHS repeats, then switching to giftknit mode and blazing away. Of course I also knit on it during the day when the kids are playing in the Toy Room, and I took it with me last night to have something to do before the first of two parent-teacher conferences.

AND I got a box full of yarn to make something for my mother. I sent her a clipping of yarn I bought at the thrift store, and she took it from one craft store to another until she figured out what it was, and bought three more skeins. Good job Mom! Your detective work will be repaid with handknitting.

The yarn arrived yesterday, along with replacement clamps my dad made for my quilt frame. Yes, it’s time to resume my double-threat status. I have four quilts that come to mind right away as needing to be finished as soon as humanly possible. Of course, none of them will get to stay in this house after they’re done — they are all gifts. But after they get done I can start working on ones that will.

So far, so good, plus I might get a visit from Hither and Yarn author Cathy-Cate in the next couple of days. We’ll just keep our needles crossed, shall we? Maybe I should have her photograph and post all my projects on her blog. Naah, that would be cheating. But it sure would be nice to see another knitter instead of (still) my kids. Remind me again why they don’t have any school today or tomorrow?

We have a winner!

All hail blogless Elaine, who tells the tale of a UFO that’s celebrating its silver anniversary! Pictures and words are coming to me soon of her sweater-in-pieces. For her quarter century of angst she wins a Wisconsin yarny prize package and the chance to hijack this blog and tell her story at a date in the near future. Congratulations Elaine!

Thanks to everyone who owned up about their UFOs! (Some of you made mine feel very young… on the other hand, I haven’t been knitting much more than two years, and did you notice my oldest UFO was about a year and a half? Shhh!)

Ah…..it was a pretty good weekend for knitting. Mr. Beth sent me off to Knit Night at the Sow’s Ear, where Dale-Harriet and I once again nearly had to be kicked out of the place. She thinks we may have been neighbors in 1780, and I suspect she’s right. There’s no other way to account for it. I met up briefly with cowgirlpurl and got friended by lotuscat as soon as I ordered my sandwich. (Ain’t Ravelry grand when it intersects with Real Life?)

I got to chug away on Luke’s stocking and found out I really love two-color Fair Isle. I have since finished the heel flap on that one. In other knitting work, I’ve done my nightly repeats on the Irish Hiking Scarf and have now finished 39 repeats. That second skein is going down quickly. Now Mr. Beth wants a matching sweater!

What else have I been working on? Oh yes, the Secret Knitting Project for which I will need to dye some yarn this week. And I just got to 51% of the Red Scarf, so I’ll have to update its progress in my Ravelry notebook. I set up a quilt frame (all the parts I still have, anyway, thank you Jack) so I can finish up some of those UFOs. But that’s a whole freaking different post.

And yes, yes, I will have to do something about the picture situation on this blog. I totally agree with you.

Bring out your undead: A UFO Contest

Today’s the day, Post #200, and the kickoff of the Chocolate Sheep Oldest UFO contest.

Allow me to begin with a confession. I took the Knitting Daily UFO survey the other day. My answer was “5.” As soon as I left the survey I thought of one more project I should have included. Okay, 6. Not so bad. But last night…. I made an Actual Written List and found the answer was really NINE. How bad that is depends on whether you’re thinking “original answer plus four” or “almost double the original answer.”

Anyway. Here are my UFOs. After you read about mine, tell me about yours, along to a link to a blog post about your oldest UFO. Only link to your oldest, not to each/all, or I can guarantee you will be getting a trip to the Spam Bucket. (See this post for more on the Spam Wars.)

Number Nine: Packer Hat, still a twinkle in my eye
This is a commissioned item that is in the test phase. After I produce one Packer hat in the goof yarn, I need to make the real thing in wool. I already have the wool, and another current project’s success convinced me this one will be easier than I thought.

Number Eight: Luke’s Christmas Present, conceived 10/14/07
I decided to make the Christmas stocking. I cast on 72 stitches so my circ would be full. It’s going to be wicked huge but it’s so much fun. Right now I’m just playing with two-color Fair Isle until I get to the heel flap.

Number Seven: Secret Knitting Project, conceived 10/11/07
Easy knit, just taking a while and I will have to get more yarn.

Number Six: Red Scarf, conceived 9/19/07
Okay, so I’m slow. I’m almost halfway through and I missed the deadline for the Red Scarf Project, so it will go to someone who isn’t an orphan. Or perhaps I’ll wrap it up nicely until the 2008 deadline.

Number Five: Baby Surprise Jacket, reconceived 8/20/07
For the date on this I’m using the most recent time I cast on. I think I will find myself in good company with this one. I had meant to make two, for twins. Well, those babies have been born already so the urgency is passed. It’s sheer stubbornness (and not knowing what to do with yarn that is, well, so magenta) that keeps this sitting on the needles. With no actual knitting, just 160 cast-on stitches.

Number Four: Tyrone sweater, conceived 8/15/07
I got Tyrone up to where the sleeves are attached and the raglan decreases are starting. It needs some think time, as it’s tough to get the needle tips in the right position to knit. More experienced knitters assure me it’s just an awkward phase.

Number Three: Salt & Pepper Sock, conceived 6/19/07
I’m dating this one from the day its mate was cast off. At this point I’m scared to look in the project bag and find out I took the dpns out… because if I truly liberated the needles I might not be able to figure out which size I used. Uh-oh.

Number Two: Irish Hiking Scarf, conceived 3/6/07
I’m still working on this one, I swear! About a repeat every other night. And I like the pattern enough that I’ll probably start another one as soon as this one is done.

And the Number One oldest UFO at my house is….

Elizabeth Zimmermann Moccasin Socks from Knitting Around.
Conceived probably in 2006 but I can’t find an exact date. I got to the heel flap work, couldn’t figure out what the hell she meant, and set them aside. They aren’t even in the Active Knitting basket any more, so became Forgotten About.

That’s it for me, what about you? I will take comment-entries all weekend and announce a winner on Monday. Happy Knitting and shoot down those UFOs!

Post 199

Okay, folks, time draws near…. time to haul out your UFO’s and see whose is the oldest. I think I have listed my little rules a couple of times already, so just search the last few posts if you don’t remember.

On post 200 I will list my own UFOs and their likely birthdays. I will do my best to be honest!

Today’s knitting has so far only consisted of the Secret Knitting Project, so I can’t say much. But I did do one repeat of the IHS last night, and even two episodes of Remington Steele didn’t screw me up.

Off to the airport to pick up Mr. Beth….. hmm, what shall I knit in the car on the way back?

Heaven and Hell

It was the best of trips, it was the worst of trips…. and as the cartoon caption says, “Come now, Mr. Dickens, it could hardly have been both.”

Yesterday “we” (he was driving, I was knitting on Red Scarf) got Mr. Beth to the airport in the nick of time to catch a westward flight, then I took off (with three little ones) in search of the elusive but talked-up Susan’s Fiber Shop. The short version is that I found it. The slightly longer version was that this shop is one of those that is so packed with every kind of fiber goodness that as soon as you step inside and see some of it, you’re attacked by wool-induced amnesia and you have no idea what you came in for. (I have had this happen in bead, scrapbooking, rubber stamp, and quilt shops, too…. as well as the grocery store and the thrift store…. hmm, maybe I should look into that fish oil thing. Maybe it’s just me.)

Anyway, it was wonderful. Wheels, books, yarn, sock yarn, needles, beads, videos, bags of fiber, braids of roving, back issues of magazines, kits, niddy noddies, dyes…. There were whole yarn sections I didn’t even get a chance to look at. I got my hackle, some colorful BFL to spin up, a new spindle, and a pair of knitting needles with little brown sheep on the ends. Susan herself wasn’t there (she had to pick up a ram) but she’s been e-mailing me since the visit. (Thanks Donna for all your help!)

After I got home, James the Eldest helped me make chocolate chip cookies so we could take snack to the Scout meeting. I dropped him off and bought backing fabric from the local quilt store, for a T-shirt quilt I really super super need to finish (i.e. for someone else). Then I went back to the meeting and took the other kids in with me, at which point I started having a killer migraine. The medicine was at home, of course. Somehow I made it home and got my meds in, but it was about an hour before they even seemed to start to kick in. I felt really sick to my stomach, so I took my nausea med too (warning: may cause upset stomach WTF???).

The kids helped by putting themselves to bed. The pain was horrible. I couldn’t even bear to think about knitting even though it usually calms me down. So I took out the new hackle and a gallon-bag of llama fiber and started dehairing. I got almost the whole bag done before Tom woke up and needed a goodnight snack.

It turned out to be the perfect thing to do during a migraine. I wasn’t sure I was doing it right, but this is very simple technology — basically, pulling chunks of fur through two rows of nails — so there weren’t very many ways I could botch it up. Eventually two piles started forming: soft fiber I could pull through over and over, and shorter, coarser fiber that didn’t want to do it.

The next step will be carding, after I’ve dehaired all that I have. And I’m thinking that that I will probably card the coarser fibers too, after I’m done with the fine ones. Practice is practice, and we can’t all be Mohair. (It’s especially hard when you’re a llama.)

Anyway, today I’m feeling a little better. My mouth feels like I chewed on cotton all night, and I could use some more sleep, but couldn’t we all. Maybe I’ll be able to knit today.

A couple of advantages

…to not being able to post new pictures yet….

It sure is easy to work on Secret Projects! And about that We Shall Speak No More.

It forces me to concentrate on my writing and my word choice.

It makes me wait for Something Worth Writing About to happen before I post.

Usually. Right now I’m just trying to move forward to post 199. This happens to be post 197. So peek into your knitting basket and figure out the birthdays of your UFOs. On post 200, as I mentioned before, comment with a link to your oldest UFO. Oldest project wins some Wisconsin swag — local yarn or a made-by-me knitting bag. Plus a couple of the usual-type goodies I like to throw in.

So, what am I up to? A Secret Knitting Project, the Red Scarf, and measuring for mittens. It’s getting cold up here, folks — a few days ago we went from a high of 86 to a high of 49 with a 40 percent chance of rain. I do have the scarves I knitted last/previous year for the kids to wear, but they need mittens, too. And it seems a shame to be sitting on Yarn Mountain, in the middle of Needle Forest, and have kids waiting for the bus with cold hands. Yesterday I took hand measurements for the Wonder Twins and myself. Still have to swatch in the round to see what gauge I’m getting with my thrift store yarn.

And here’s a question…what would you knit for a growing puppy for Christmas? My brother and his [knitting] girlfriend have adopted a Bernese Mountain Dog puppy. I haven’t seen him, but my mother reports that he’s the size of a small bear. I want to knit something cute for him (NOT a felted bed!) but I’m not sure what. Actually, I do have an idea, but I don’t think it’s as good as yours. So, what would you knit for the big lug?

fee fi FO fum

Finally, a finished object! (Pretend you can see it right here. Isn’t it lovely?)

I still have to weave in the ends, but last night I bound off the Wonder Skein Bias Scarf. And although the handspun I was working with had a bouclé element, and ran from thick and fuzzy to thin and almost wiry, I enjoyed every stitch of it.

For just 178 yards. Sigh. Remind me, if/when I am spinning my own yarn, to make sure I put a little more than that in a finished skein. (Especially if I have the cojones to charge someone nearly $50 for it.) My scarf, which I love dearly, is 3.5 inches (9cm) wide and 52 inches (132cm) long.

So, that brings the current project list to:

• Tyrone. Still stalled, but I took it to Knit Night and dragged it out, and was reassured by much more experienced knitters that bottom-up raglan sweaters just look like that for a bit, and get easier to knit after the first couple of rows following the attaching of the sleeves.
• Red Scarf. Which won’t possibly get done in time for the Red Scarf Project deadline of October 15, so it has probably turned into a Christmas present. (Hooray! I’m ahead of schedule!)
• Irish Hiking Scarf.  Time to resume my one-repeat-per-evening schedule.
• Salt and Pepper Sock. Still haven’t cast on for the mate. Ha, as if that’s going to happen anytime soon.
• Packer hat. While I was at The Sow’s Ear I found washable wool in Packer colors. So I need to work my Intarsia chart on my practice yarn and work out the details of the practice hat.

That reminds me, if you were watching the Packers-Bears game this Sunday, did you see the fellow wearing the green and gold crocheted bucket hat with the stitches worked around panels cut from aluminum beer cans? Very classy. I think the cans were actually from Pabst Blue Ribbon cans, which makes no sense at all.

In family news, Tom’s test came back negative for Celiac disease. Which is a relief of course, but we’re still trying to find the puzzle piece to explain which he’s such a little mite and doesn’t absorb enough iron. If you have any suggestions, drop me an e-mail.

Still reeling

Knit Night was awesome. (Gee, can you tell I was an English major?) The Sow’s Ear was packed and rockin’ when I got there. There were even knitters on the porch!

It was all pretty overwhelming, and when you go into a busy packed place like that when they’re celebrating, you always feel like an outsider, a party crasher, an interloper. The kind of feeling that makes you retreat to the yarn wall and pretend to browse, all the time wondering, where the heck is the wine, anyway?

Lucky for me Molly Bee tracked me down and I scored a chair in what turned out to me Knitblogger’s Row. Between Molly and S.A.B.L.E. and Dale-Harriet and her daughter the Lovely Mary, I was in heaven and gradually I got brave enough to go up and get a piece of cake. (Still didn’t see the wine, though everyone else seemed to have some.)

I can’t even begin to describe the evening. It was loud with talk at first, then later in the evening as the younger/louder knitters left, the conversation was punctuated with the distinct sound that wooden sock needles make when they strike a well-polished wooden floor. The colors of the yarns and FO’s on the wall as a customer art show were intoxicating.

Some of you know I taught myself to knit from a book, and have rarely seen real live people actually knit. Everyone here was knitting. Everyone. At the same time. While talking and eating and drinking and laughing and…. I thought my head would explode.

I stayed in my chair and nibbled at my veggies-and-dip, and cranked out inches and inches of my Wonder Skein Bias Scarf, feeding off everyone else’s conversational energy. Had a little root bear, hoarded a piece of chocolate chunk biscotti, knit a little more. Listening and listening.

Molly Bee had to leave just a few minutes after I got there, but she did introduce me to Dale-Harriet. I think it was love at first sight and we are already trying to work out future meetups. I would adopt her but I think both my mother and Lovely Mary would think that was kind of unnecessary.

One of the best parts of the evening came after the young-un’s took off (pikers!) and the knitting conversation regularly included “Elizabeth,” she-who-should-need-no-introduction. It was wonderful and I was so glad I already “knew” Elizabeth. Whether the knitter liked or disliked a particular pattern of hers, “Elizabeth” was always spoken of with reverence — not as a god or goddess, but the way you would refer to a beloved, wise friend. Which, of course, is what she is.

Otherwise over the weekend:

• Celebrated my BIL’s birthday (my son informed said BIL that he is “catching up” to me. Thanks honey)
• Received a handknit sweater (a regift, and it’s not knit by anyone we know, but still, it fits perfectly and somebody handknit it)
• Got more boxes stored in the basement
• Reorganized some rooms
• Watched the Packers game (and of this We Shall Speak No More)
• Knit enough of the Wonder Skein Bias Scarf that I can feel the end in sight
• Got our tickets for They Might Be Giants’ Milwaukee show (!!!!!!!!!)

I’m still enjoying playing on Ravelry. If you’re not addicted enough, try this: Click on Forums, then on the Radar tab. And don’t blame me!