Knitting for Sanity

Tour de Fleece update

2008-07-27T17:53:00.000-07:00

The Tour de Fleece 2008 is complete. My goal to finish spinning, plying, and washing this roving purchased at OFFF 2007 has been obtained. The colors are stunning and the final yarn is in stash awaiting the perfect project.

Feeling crabby

2008-07-17T20:37:00.000-07:00

Half a monkey

2008-07-17T20:34:00.000-07:00

Dead Monkey

2008-07-17T20:32:00.000-07:00

Sometimes love doesn't last....

Big Socks

2008-07-17T20:28:00.000-07:00

Finally, a photo of the huge socks I knit for DH who gets cold feet when he goes scuba diving during the winter in Puget Sound. Yarn - STR Heavyweight, one of the Raven colorways.

Blooming washcloths

2008-07-17T20:16:00.000-07:00

Look what's growing in my garden:

Head on:

Pattern: Knitted Lacy Round Dishcloth (ravelry link)

Tour de Fleece and Shout Out

2008-07-10T11:25:00.001-07:00

There's a new button over in the sidebar, yep, I signed up for the Tour de Fleece. This is my first year entering the race, and I am off to a late start. However I feel confident in my ability to earn The Maillot Jaune (Yellow Jersey). My goal is to ply the red/gold wool silk I purchased at OFFF last year, and was just re-inspired to spin up at BSG. This is an attainable goal if I set the proper amount of time aside. Priorities!

I'd like to make a shout out to my friend Kerry, who when properly motivated by promises of chocolate, STR, and cashmere, has finished her koigu sweater over the 4th of July weekend. Doesn't it look great? Well done, Kerry!

Tag, you're it!

2008-07-05T14:13:00.000-07:00

Annie, who was kind enough to leave a little yarn and fiber for me at Black Sheep, tagged me.

The rules: Are posted at the beginning. At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer. Play nice, children.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
I was counting down the days to the birth of my first child, and working for a large disk manufacturing company in Minnesota.

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list today- not in any particular order?
Play with my kids, do some gardening, start the laundry, go flower shopping and knit!

3. Snacks I enjoy.
chocolate chip cookies, raspberries

4. Places I’ve lived-
Gambrills, MD; Berlin, Germany; Odenton, MD; Columbia, MD; Eagan, MN; Minneapolis, MN; Hopkinton, MA; Bellevue, WA; Woodinville, WA

5. Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
It would be my civic duty to open the west coast's best yarn and fiber haven.

6. What are some jobs you’ve had:
project manager, product manager, who wants to talk about work anyway?

People I'm going to Tag are:
Barb
Tina
Sam
Anyone else who has not posted this meme yet!

Tres Amigas

2008-06-27T22:46:00.001-07:00

Is my Spanish right?

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Black Sheep Gathering 2008

2008-06-27T22:22:00.000-07:00

Every one has already posted their photos, I am always the last to share. Friday afternoon Barb and I headed down to the rim of Drain for what has become an annual pilgrimage to artist heaven. At least what I envision artist heaven to look like. It is a place to relax and unwind...

to commune with nature...

to find hidden inspiration...

to see the beauty in the every day...

to leave it with the goddess to handle...

There was spinning...

from OFFF 2007, merino silk, dyepots

BSG 2008, merino silk

MSW 2008, merino silk

I really enjoyed the spinning time, even if I am slouching.

Barb made a feeble attempt at entering the ugly sock contest, but Autumn declared that nothing ugly would ever grace her head.

Someone had to work...

Thank you Sheila and Michael for a wonderful, rejuvenating weekend! See you next year?

Lucy socks

2008-06-18T21:53:00.000-07:00

Well, really, socks for DS#1 in Socks That Rock Lightweight, colorway Lucy. Saving for holiday gift.

Girl Scout Bridging, a medal worthy event

2008-06-16T21:16:00.000-07:00

June has been a busy month both at work and at home with the kids. DD bridged into brownies at a bridging ceremony. I was so proud of her speaking up so everyone could hear her name before she walked across the bridge.

The guest speaker at the event is a life long Girl Scout, local athlete, and Olympian! Lynn Colella spoke about her Olympic experience, what it was like to compete in a male dominated sport, and how growing up in the 70's was different than today. The best message she shared was one of independence, determination, and perserverance. She really demonstrated that if you want something enough, you can do anything.

Lynn was also gracious enough to pass around her medal. Her Olympic medal. Her silver Olympic medal. The one she won in 1972 in Munich. I have never seen an Olympic medal in real life, let alone held it. It was inspiring in and of itself.

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But does she knit?

2008-06-13T20:21:00.000-07:00

That's the real question, isn't it? Does she ever knit?

This is what my desk currently looks like:

On the left, a blue surpise. On the right, a pair of socks for DS#1, destined to be hidden away until Christmas.

And my bag:

Jules, by Kate Blackburn. Yarn from Posh Yarn, because everyone needs a little posh in their life.

The answer evidently is:

ONLY WITH DOUBLE POINTS

I do have one FO to report. It is well received, even if it has no eyes and the ears are on backwards. Any guesses?

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It is well loved.

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And gives kisses.

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On the canine front, look who I caught sleeping on the newly re-upholstered chair in the dining room.

I guess everyone needs a place to hide sometimes.

The Last One

2008-06-05T18:14:00.000-07:00

We are no longer a pre-school family. Sob. Sniff.

Clickety click to see the big boy.

Dye Day

2008-06-01T18:00:00.000-07:00

Sam, Kim and I have been planning a dye day for some time now. There was a brief spot of limited precipitation, so although it was about 40* out, we dyed.

Sam had some shetland that she has been itching to color. In it goes, into a warm brown dye bath from Judith McJenzie McCuin's Miracle Dyes.

And here it is coming out of the pot.

It was then layered with a beautiful mahogony cushings dye. Click the picture to see the final product.

Sam's contemplating knitting Harriet from One Fine Fleece after seeing how gorgeous Kim's Harriet was progressing.

Kim has a gazillion pounds of alpaca locks. I didn't get photos of each of her marvelous creations, but doesn't this one just make you want to say, "MINE"?!!

I skeined and dyed a bunch of pale pink commercial yarn into more vivid colors using Cushings dyes. Not sure what they will become yet.

Button Selection

2008-05-31T12:00:00.000-07:00

DD chose the bottom button to go on her sweater. Sheila is right, the sweater will probably fit her for 3 years, so she will have time to switch out the buttons.

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Button Stash

2008-05-30T17:24:00.000-07:00

First Emmy gets a yarn stash, and now Maggie has a button stash!

Sheila came through with a gorgeous selection of buttons which she made special for Maggie's sweater. Thanks Sheila!

The sweater is a little roomy and Sheila knew that Maggie will be wearing it for years, so she sent an assortment. Maggie can switch them out over time as her mood suits.

This one is my favorite, and the first one that will be sewn on, tonight, I promise!

A heartfelt thank you, dearest friend, for the beautiful buttons made full of love!

ps - see you in 20 days!

Knitting Pictures

2008-05-24T19:59:00.000-07:00

The sun is out so I did a photo shoot of the dog with my sock in progress. His winker was in all of the pictures. Don't you hate those male dogs? (not really, he can't help it, that's what I get for telling him to SIT!) This is the only one I could crop for this family friendly blog.

I have also cast on for a new project - the Victorian Shoulderette by Sivia Harding. I have knit this shawl before in handspun, this time I am using Brooks Farm Four Play, a wonderful silk/merino blend which is one of my all time favorite yarns.

I also took the opportunity to snap a shoot of DD in her new cardigan. DD is always up for a good photo shoot, and this time the theme was "where's my button?"

No pressure :-)

Blink and you'll miss it

2008-05-23T10:05:00.001-07:00

We had about 3 days of warm weather last week, enough to be inspired to go down to the local farmer's market. My kid came back looking like this:

He's ready for the sun to come back out! (Aren't we all?)

I've been knitting on a sweater for my daughter, it's a Sirdar pattern and I used the recommended yarn. Of course I could not follow the pattern as written, because it is a raglan design knit in pieces. I modified the pattern to be knit back and forth in one piece, from the bottom up. I knit the body to the armholes, knit the sleeves from the bottom up, and joined the sleeves and decreased along the raglan lines. This approach reminded me of a lopi sweater I knit many years ago, with the exception that lopi sweaters decrease evenly around the yoke and this one decreased along the raglan. I have a green sweater that I have been knitting for myself with a modified pattern, which I think I will now rip back and attach the raglan sleeves in the same manner that this purple sweater was knit.

I'm still looking for the perfect button for this sweater, a dear friend is on a quest to make one for me, and Maggie is thrilled to have a custom made button! Stay tuned for a button report.

Sock Shelter

2008-05-18T13:40:00.000-07:00

OK, not really shelter for socks, but you know, pictures about socks and shelter.

Here's a photo of how I spent the gray, rainy winter of 2008:

The blue socks (Fleece Artist Merino) and blue and gold socks (Blue Moon STR lightweight) are for DS1 who has feet as long as mine.
The orange ones (Blue Moon STR lightweight color Cockarel) are for DS#2 who still has much smaller feet, thank goodness! This winter he was called "the good son" bccause of that.
The brown socks are my Monkey socks knit from Shibui yarn in the Bark colorway purchased at vyt. That Cookie A sure knows how to design a fun sock pattern!

Yesterday Teddy had a cub scout camp out, and they learned how to build shelters. This is Teddy's version that he built in our backyard.

The green stuff will help keep the water out, you know.

Bagel's checking it out for dog bone hiding potential.

Radio Silence Broken

2008-05-16T15:39:00.000-07:00

Well hello, and welcome back to the Knitting for Sanity blog. I can't believe that this is the first post of 2008. I mean, it is May already! Where did the time go? It seems that radio silence has struck many knit bloggers; I don't know if we have all been wrapped up in Ravelry, or just busy with every day living or maybe even actually knitting. I, for one, know that the tv writer's strike put a huge damper on my knitting time. I took up reading for a few months instead.

There is lots to catch up on now that I know better how to operate my camera and get the pictures off of the card. I'll start with the most recent and maybe work my way back, in my spare time.

The first weekend in May is always the annual Maryland sheep and wool festival. I was fortunate enough to be able to go again this year, sans kids, and spent a lovely whirlwind weekend at the show visiting with Mom and good friends Sheila and Michael. They had a booth across from the souvenir sales again ... it looked fabulous!

I really enjoyed spending the weekend with Mom, it was truely a girlfriends' kind of weekend! Here's Mom just warming up at the Brooks Farm booth

And here she is getting high on wool fumes at Tess's Designer Yarns:

It was a real treat not only to see Mom, Sheila and Michael, but also to visit with my best friend and her adorable little niece:

I also had a few minutes to hug and chat with Caroline and her adorable daughter:

Caroline, Sheila and I all met on an on-line chat group called FiberTraditions. We see each other a couple of times a year at best, but email helps us stay in close contact. Caroline entered several items in the competition, her bee fields shawl won a blue ribbon! Hooray for Caroline!

There were many amazing things to see at the show, I took a picture of this felted dinosaur head to show my kids:

This is the most amazing shawl, spindle spun to a cobweb weight:
I wish I had asked the woman if she has a blog so I could link to her, the shawl was stunning.

In the evenings we got to relax, veg, and knit in a local hotel room. Sheila had left her knitting in the van back in Oregon, so Mom set her up with an emergency knitting kit. One of my secret pals some years back sent me a bag with a red cross and emergency sock knitting supplies inside. I gifted it with new supplies to Mom when she was moving and now it was her turn to pay it forward. Sheila is a magic loop kind of girl, so here she is trying hard to work with dpns. I call this shot, "Sheila on double points". Original, 'eh?

I have lots of photos to share of Mom's new house, but will save those for another post. This one has already taken me all day to write. Here's one final shot of my stash from MSW.

Good-bye 2007

2007-12-31T17:00:00.000-08:00

The holidays are almost over, and a new year is about to begin. The family had great fun at Christmas time, Santa did find our stockings, and the kids are still playing with all of their new toys.

I received a lovely surprise from my friends Sheila and Michael: look at this lovely ornament that they made and how great it looks in our tree:

I will be a little sad to take down the tree this year, but I am looking forward to a fantastic new year 2008! Happy New Year to all!

The stockings are hung

2007-12-24T18:49:00.001-08:00

The stockings are hung, the reindeer treats are scattered in the yard, will HE make a stop tonight?

Must be Santa...

2007-12-10T20:36:00.000-08:00

Did you make your request?

Holiday Knitting

2007-12-10T20:17:00.000-08:00

It's done!

Short Row Rib from Magknits, 3 years in the making. Gift for our first au pair who now lives in Sweden. Yarn - Kipparoo Farms Lustre Spun, 2 skeins variegated for the scarf, one skein solid for hat.

Prime Rib (Mistake Rib over a prime number of stitches); Knitty's Calorimetry. Gift for MIL. Yarn - 2 skeins Malibrigo Worsted in Crished Grapes.

Cable hat and fingerless mitts for DD. One skein of superwash from Brooks Farm, purchased at Stitches West. (Yarn was in stash for less than a year - this must be a new record!)

Cable hat for DS's Teacher. One skein of superwash from Brooks Farm, purchased at Stitches West. Same stash record as above.