Tour Cardi

This is the finished cardi from my Tour de Fleece knitting. I had a bit of a problem with the Verena pattern - the waist yoke wasn't looking like the picture so I emailed for assistance and haven't heard back. I'm pleased with this new cardi. It's the Spring Fling pattern from knitty. I used Cotton Fleece and really like this yarn. It's a bit splitty but it's so soft. It only took two weeks to knit up, too, and I worked on other things at the same time. Oh, and Coggie talked about it on her High Fiber Diet podcast! Isn't that cool?
Speaking of Coggie, she's asked for people to knit hats for the soldiers who are serving with her husband. The details are on her show notes page, so check it out if you're interested. I've stash-dived to find brown yarns to make a couple of hats. Since I've been out of the Random Acts of Kindness group I haven't had an outlet for my need to give so I'm adding this to the kidney cozies and animal shelter blankets that I'm working on this fall.
I'm not trying to make anyone think I'm trying to make myself sound all big and wonderful. I have a big yarn stash and really need to do something with it - and although I love to crochet afghans we have quite enough blankets around the house.
In other news, I have a Kindle! It's so cool. I've read two books on it so far and have put about twenty on it - some free ones and some that I bought. I also put several patterns on it, both to keep them safe if our computer dies and to knit from when they come up on my personal to-knit list. It's a gift from my family, a very early Christmas and birthday gift. I really enjoy it. Mom had me order one for her, too. I put about ten books on hers. She likes mysteries and thrillers, so our Kindles have very different content. I'd like to learn how to put some audio on it, too, but I'd hate for my ipod, Pinky, to get jealous.
It's been a great summer for the pool. I'm in it several times each week. When the water got warm it stayed that way and I'm loving it. The kids don't get in it much. I'm not sure why, though. Perfect water, sunshine, floating noodles, and music sound like a perfect to me!
Well, there's a project calling my name, so I'll be going for now. See ya later!

I'm A Winner...Most of the Time

In my last post I talked about my water bottle cozies. Well, I entered them in the repurpose-along on the Spin Control podcast and won - okay, it was a random drawing but I still won. You can't imagine how tickled I was to hear my name! I got a handmade shopping bag and a copy of Knitting Green. I love both. The book has several nice patterns and articles about natural and sustainable fibers.
I've also finished my OWL sweater. It looks great. My cables are even and it's all seamed together nicely.
I'll bet you're wondering - where are the pictures? Well, apparently I've broken the ability to get pictures from the camera to the computer. I'm not sure exactly what happened. Maybe if I'm pathetic enough Jenny will come help me - she's smart with stuff like that. If only I had smarticles instead of great hair...

Sometimes Gluing Helps

This past month has been a bit moody for me. Some days I'm great and happy and then the next day I'm sad. Last week I was having a particularly down day and I decided to make something to cheer myself up a bit. In the corner of my eye I saw our stainless water bottles sitting naked on the counter and thought that cozies would be great. I gathered up some batting (the kind for hot pads and lunch sacks), a pair of Eric's old jeans, some glue, needle and thread, and assorted decorations. A couple of hours later I had these:

Kerry's isn't in the picture because he was personalizing his with a Pokemon battle scene. I kind of made it up as I went - cut, sew, glue, cut some more, and so on. I was in a better mood when I got done, too - and I had a great cozy for my beverage while I'm in the pool. It works really well, too. I'm thinking of adding glitter.

I'm really eager to start the Tour de Fleece. I've been swatching yesterday and today - good thing I did, too. I need to go up a couple of needle sizes. Reading the Verena pattern is alot easier than I thought it would be. It looked intimidating but I figured it out in no time. I've heard that Drops patterns are hard to read, so I guess I'll have to try one of theirs, too.

Until next time, my friends!

In Honor of Grandmas

I fell in love with the vintage sweater patterns in the spring issue of Verena. They're glamorous and stylish and cool. As I browsed through the pictures again I realized that two of the sweaters reminded me of my grandmas, so I'm going to knit them the colors that were their favorites and wear them with style. This cardigan is called Stanwick. It's shape and style remind me of my Grandma Bette. I have the perfect yarn for it in my stash - Knit Pick's CotLin in Moroccan Red - a rich winey red that will be gorgeous with the stitch pattern. Grandma Bette loved red. She had pale skin and silvery white hair and red looked so nice on her. I can see her in this sweater with white slacks and a polka-dot blouse under it. I'll be wearing jeans and a tee, most likely, but she'll be with me in my mind.
This one is called Rodgers. To me it's the kind of casual dressy that Grandma D would wear to church or bingo. I'm on the lookout for the perfect yarn for it. It must be blue - something in the sapphire to midnight range, maybe with a shine. It will be great for days when I'm called to work with a skirt and plain shirt under it.

I've started listening to The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. I chose it because it's read by Brenda Dayne of Cast On. I love her voice. The podcast is good but I have to fast-forward through the songs. I really like the story so far. The book is in my library but hasn't been opened - when I'm in the mood to read I tend to go toward young adult fantasy-type books like Harry Potter or Percy Jackson - things that are easy to read and take me to a different world. I'm glad that librivox exists so that I can get to enjoy the classics while knitting.

Dress Quest

There's a new book out called Sweater Quest that several podcasters have talked about. It's written by a women who documents her year long knitting of an intricate colorwork sweater. I don't have a knitting quest like that. For years now I have been desiring a vintage '70's Diane von Furstenburg wrap dress. I must have seen it as a child because I really don't remember a time when I didn't want one. The problem is that they go for a ton of money when they're for sale. She began selling new ones a few years ago but I haven't had much luck with those, either. In fact, even the patterns are hot and hard to get. They're great dresses. I suppose that I should be stashing appropriate fabrics - just in case the stars align and I manage to become the sqeeing, jumping-up-and-down owner of a pattern. If I ever manage to get a dress, well, I'd probably pass out.
Last year I considered the idea of joining the Tour de Fleece. It starts up again in July and the Knitmores are doing training in the new podcasts - but the idea of even touching fiber in gross, muggy July is icky. Gigi, however, has started a Tour for handcyclists - knitting. I found a great pattern in the summer issue of Verena - it's a little top called Amaryllis. After diving deep in the stash I found enough sport weight to make it, but there's a small problem. The top says "hot, seductive, able to make men wilt with a glance"while the yarn is "I'm a good girl" shade of pale lavender. I did a bit of browsing on the Webs site and found a few yarns that would work. If any of you have used one or more of these yarns please let me know what you thought of them - Tahki Cotton Classic Lite, Kollage Corntastic, Rowan Lenpur Linen, Dale of Norway Svale, or Berroco Comfort DK. Don't get me wrong, the lavender cotton will be nice but it will change the effect of the top completely.
If I get the top done before the Tour is done I plan to start working on Spring Fling from Knitty. It didn't appeal to me until I saw some finished ones on ravelry. I have some Cotton Fleece for that - enough to make it a bit longer. It looks like a pretty simple knit - if I concentrate on it alone it will probably only take a few days to make.
There's another pattern that didn't appeal to me when it came out but now it's calling to me. Citron on Knitty didn't even get a second glance - but ravelry has so many pretty ones that I just must make one. I recently experimented with dyeing up some self-striping yarn and I think it will work great. It's going to have to wait for a bit, though. Right now I'm knitting a kidney kozy - the first of what I hope will be many to send to Holly.

Some Memories of Grandma

Yesterday morning, very early, my grandma passed away. She'd been in the hospital for almost a week and was starting to get better - she even had gotten some coffee. I didn't go up to visit, though, because she was in intensive care and kids aren't allowed - not me as a kid, but my kids. she's been on my mind alot this past week, of course, and I'd like to talk about her for awhile. Grandma was in her 90's. She played bingo almost every week with my parents and my other relatives. She liked chocolate and told me once that if she was thin she'd look old since the fat on her face filled out the wrinkles. My grandma was divorced and Catholic - not normally two things that go together. In fact, she was a single mom in the 50's with three boys and a girl. She had a good job in the office at Caterpillar and did work in the house at night to keep everyone fed and such - of course my grandpa didn't pay child support since it wasn't invented and he had another wife and kids. (He's a whole other story, I tell ya.) I can't imagine raising my dad and his brothers - they're rowdy now and they're old. It's amazing that Grandma didn't drink. That's probably part of why she lived so long. I have five great-aunts (correct me if I'm wrong and forgot someone, mom) and Grandma told me that when they were little they used to play "Movie Star". Grandma pretended to be Jean Harlow. I still am surprised at that - I love Harlow and long for an occasion to wear a slinky bias-cut gown and be sassy and gorgeous. I should have talked about her with Grandma to see movies and stars from her point of view - actually watching classics when they were new and current. Grandma was a Cubs fan - baseball is a line in the family, Cubs or Cardinals, no other team exists. (I'm a Yankees fan, so I keep out of the conversations.) We used to have holidays at her house but the family has exploded into more people than I can remember sometimes - since she lived so long there are four generations under her. I don't think there's a wide-angle lens big enough to fit all of us in one shot. I didn't spend as much time with her as I could have - I live an hour away and have mentioned that I hate driving - but she did come here once to see my home and meet all of Eric's kids. I'm really glad that my kids knew her. They're both very upset right now, of course, but they'll have memories of spending time talking with her. I know there's more but it's escaping me right now. (My trip to Wal-Mart and usual bad experience there has damaged my thought process this afternoon.)
As I leave, please remember to call your grandma if she's still around. Be safe this weekend.

Images of My Week