14 Weeks til NYC-Rhinebeck Trip

What have I accomplished in the past two weeks toward my festival wear you ask? Well...Plenty! End of Week 16 found Ursa's backside off the needles and the two fronts half done. I'm doing the fronts at the same time so that they'll be the same size. (Uniformity is the ticket!) This pattern is fast, fast, fast, and super duper easy. 'Cept of course when you get to the instructions that tell you to reverse the shaping of the Left Front to make the Right Front. Clear as a mudslide, I tell ya. After some visualizing and decision making on how I want to even do the decreases (as that is also totally up to you, the knitter), I was good to go. Love the fabric the yarn is making. Soft, drapey, but with just enough body to hold its shape. Yum-my! Oh, and a shout out goes to The Yarn and Fiber Co for having 4 skeins of my last year's dyelot in stock for the Berroco UltraAlpaca Light. I won't have to do any creative matching of the yarns.Who-hoo!

End of Week 15 found two wips in my basket pulled out, cast-off, and ends woven. I have a large basket filled with "So freakin' close to FO" wips that I felt guilty. Guilt, as well as needing the size 6 needles for a New Project, is a wonderful motivator. Now I just need to find a motivator to block all those new FO's accumulating in another basket. Sigh.

I was "Sleepless in Surfside" yesterday at 5am and not in the mood to knit on Ursa. STR's Deck the Halls (possibly misnamed, unless they weren't thinking of Christmas, but some other decorated halls) was lying in wait to grab me, already balled and on the coffee table. Who could resist the bright magenta/orange/purples??? I cast on for my New Project, Rockin' Bandit, otherwise known as Springtime Bandit. I blew through the entire Set-Up chart, found a pattern errata (details on my Raverly page - you'd only find it if you're into counting your end stitches each row - not a crucial problem), notified the designer, and kept on knitting. I've finished all the Body Chart, discovered that I seem to still have a lot of yarn, and decided to knit at least one more repeat set of 12 rows. I want to use as much of the yarn as I can, while still being able to finish the Edging Chart. I've never knit with Blue Moon's Socks That Rock until now. It's a sproingy yarn that showcases the stitches in their very best light. Thanks Misa for this gift from NYSW '08! You'll see it on me at Rhinebeck.

I've been drudging along on a pair of plain vanilla toe-up socks for the last couple months. I finished sock #1 three weeks ago, but only got motivated last week to start sock #2. I'm half done on it. It was supposed to be done for July 4th, so I could take a picture of me in them for you all to chuckle at. (They are Fortissima Color 1776 Stars & Stripes and practically knee highs. This yarn is like the Energizer Bunny. 450yds makes a big a** sock!) You'll have to wait a bit longer for the hilarity of wool socks with shorts at the beach in summer.

I was mojo-less all spring on the knitting front, but with the plans gelling on the NYC trip, I found the mojo lying in wait all along. I'm still mojo-less for camera shots. Look for photos on Ravelry later.

16 weeks til NYC-Rhinebeck Trip

Yup. I am officially counting down the weeks until my plane takes off for NYC. This morning I sat down with my caffiene, aka coffee, & started making lists. I've already booked my fight, the hotel for Rhinebeck, & gave Deb my itinerary. She proceeded to secure Ms. Shameka for a commrade in arms (driver/ hotel/ shopping buddy) for the festival. I got great rates as my hubby works for the Marriott & we could use our corporate rate for the room. We are excited and all working on our funding/budgets. We have room for one more & I can book another room cheap (practically free people!) if more of you out there want to hang with us for the weekend.

I dug around the blackhole of my closet to find my CPH that was almost finished for last year's trip. It needs seaming & a zipper to be complete. That's the first sweater. For the second, I pulled out my Berrocco booklet #279, the yarn from my stash, and made a gauge swatch for the Ursa jacket. I'm usuing Ultra Alpaca Light in the Fern colorway. Here's the thing. I bought this on sale at Christmas time with Deb. We both looked at the pattern & thought I had purchased the correct yarn. Turns out that it called for Ultra Alpaca, not the Light. I guess I had had a brain glitch then. I did get gauge on smaller needles than the pattern calls for so I'm going for it (3" on back done as we type.) Only thing is, the pattern called for 7 hanks of the thicker yarn, I bought 7 hanks of the thinner thinking I had the right yarn, & just realized that the yardage is way different. I'll need 3 to 4 more hanks. I had purchased the last supply from my lys in December so I'll have to order it online. Web's has my color, but I'll have to be careful where I use it so the dyelot difference won't be noticeable.

I'm planning on making a Foliage hat, a cowl, & the SpringtimeBandit scarf, all out of my stash. This gal is NOT going to be cold. I am preparing for the worst. I hates me some cold air, lol!

That's where I'm at for now. Taking my dd to her university orientation tomorrow thru Friday. And this Sunday will be a big Block Party for me. I've got two shawls, a scarf, & a Debbie Bliss cardigan to block. Photos & dets forthcoming.

Only Daughter's Graduation Day

Tori graduated from high school on Thursday, June 4th as a Highly Distinguished Graduate. She was in the top 6% of her class (#13), played sports, volunteered in our community, & had an awesome HS career. We are so proud. You can go to my Flickr page to see more photos from the occasion, if interested.

Pygmalion FO

This was finished back in February, but I was just so finished with it that the photos ended up on Flickr but no blog post came forth. Here is my lys owner happily wearing the finished Pygmalion. It took me five months of working on it (to the exclusion of all else) to finish this. I learned a lot of interesting techniques, but it was pretty much the bane of my existence in many ways. I'm very glad it turned out to fit perfectly and looked so awesome on Phyllis.

Berries & Caramel Wisp

I originally started out making a pair of plain vanilla socks, but the sock was looking more like vomitted vanilla & strawberry icecream cones. The cream was very predominant & the pretty pinks & caramels only showed up in brief blips. Hence I reballed the Fanny's Fingering yarn to have a timeout while I found another way to use it.




A few weeks later (on Feb.28th) I accidentally came across Wisp on Ravelry that was done up in Koigu and there was a lightbulb moment for me. I grabbed my yarn, cast a few stitches on to sample the lace pattern & saw that it would do. I fell in love. The cream strings seem to almost disappear as the yarn overs & k2togs lie upon one another. Amazing how a colorway can look like puke in one stitch pattern, but really be a diamond in the rough until a different pattern unburies it! Very happy. I bought some ruby red shiny shell buttons for the one end. I'm actually over halfway done since I took this photo. I was informed by a friend that this scarf style is very European & in vogue there.

10 hr. Cropped Top FO

I started this little jacket yesterday at 1pm. & finished it at 11pm. (just in time for bed!) How fun & satisfying it is to wip out some bulky stash yarn & chunky needles & have a FO by bed time. I took my camera & tripod out for a photo shoot, but the shots are blurry. You still get the gist of what I created just not in all its glorious crispness.

Pattern: VK Winter 06/07 #03Cropped Raglan Top

Yarn: >4 balls (260yds. total) of Cascade Tuscany Grande in a natural/black blend color #40322

Needles: Size 11- 16" & 24"(ribbing) & 15 -24"

Started & Finished: Wed., March 4, 2009

The pattern has you do a random lace after there are enough stitches on the needle. You have to use a thick/thin yarn because you do a *yo, k2tog* (RS) or *yo, p2tog* (WS) whenever a thin spot approaches the needle. It was fun to see the lace appear. If I'd used a handspun or Manos it truly would have been random as the Cascade is a wee bit too engineered. (For the thin spots appeared relatively regular.) This puppy is soooo warm & I am looking to wear it with my tank tops, sundresses, & shorter sleeved tops through spring's cool days.

Starry Night is an FO

My lys buddy, Sheree (aka marillagrl on Ravelry), was making this same wrap as me. Only she started hers in January. She was putting the last rows on it Saturday at our lys. Since I started mine first, that was a direct challenge to go home & get mine the heck done! I worked at it this afternoon and "Wah la! It is finished." Simply Scrumptious in Malabrigo. I want to pet it and cuddle in it. You know exactly what that's like. You addict you.

Pattern: 3-Button Wrap

Yarn: 3 Skeins of Malabrigo Worsted in Lime Blue

Accessories: 2 Lime green square buttons (3 was Overkill!)

Needle: 10.5 knitpicks needle

Dates: 11/08/08 to 03/01/09 (Sat in hibernation for a few months while I made Pygmalion.)