Cattywampus

Day 2

We toured the battlefield on Thursday, listening to an audioguide it took us about 4 and a half hours.  It was amazing, devastating, tragic, overpowering, and at the same time magnificent to be in the middle of such an historic event for our nation.

Along the battle path there are monuments as far as the eye can see any either direction.  At each point the narrator would tell us who was controlling the regiments, what they did, how they proceeded and then how the other side reacted.  It really helped to understand how things 'went down' and why it ended up the way it did.

There are monuments for each state, each regiment, each general...it's a bit overwhelming.

We saw redwing blackbirds all over the place, they look so pretty with that red popping out on their shoulders.

We went out and had a nice dinner that night, and got our picture taken together to prove we were both there.

All in all it was a lovely trip, a mini getaway, a fun time together.

Also, we stopped at the mannings on the way back.  *ahem*  That was the originally intended yarn stop. I picked up a few things.  More on that later.

Day 1

Wednesday we jaunted off to Gettysburg on a minibreak for our anniversary.  We stopped in Lancaster for lunch because we weren't in any hurry at all and look where we parked!

DH couldn't have planned it more perfectly.  (for me anyway)  On the way back from lunch we went in because it has become a tradition that every year we go for a trip on our anniversary and I buy anniversary yarn and make each of us a pair of socks.

This year I picked up some Whorled Peace merino sock, Shibui Knits sock and Whorled Peace lace.  

The whorled peace are both the colorway 'fog', which I didn't notice until later, but the lace doesn't have any blue in it.  That is 2500 yards of lace weight - whew!  OH THE THINGS I could make with that!  I will have to look through my books and pick out the perfect thing.  It is predominantly grey with some lavender in it.  I don't think the color changes are strong enough to be jarring in lace.

Coincidentally enough my anniversary socks from last year are almost the same colors.

Go figure.  

Oh and as I was checking out DH handed over his credit card, part of my anniversary present, he said.  Just the sweetest ever.  I do consider myself to be a lucky woman.

We arrived at our B&B to find it just brimming over with rose bushes.

So pretty!

Too bad it rained so much while we were there that we couldn't enjoy any of the outside seating here in any way other than a 'passing through' kind of way.  Sigh.  

Oh and there was this - does anyone know what this is - jasmine perhaps?

 

Whatever it is it smelled like heaven.

Trip to be continued.

Back in the saddle

Of quilting that is.

I finished this quilt top last August and even though I had the walking foot to get things underway and I had the quilt all pinned up and ready to go it was still sitting in a pile near the sewing table creating a mental and physical block of my sewing energy.

I finally felt brave enough or more accurately felt determined enough to give it a shot.  Determined in a kind of 'this quilt WILL get to this child this summer and no lack of knowledge or instruction will stop me!' way.  No one ever claimed determination was always a good thing.

I know there's the traditional 'stitch in the ditch' method of machine quilting for novices, but I didn't iron all my seams in the right way to make that happen, so I settled on outline quilting instead.  With the cream thread this made for some odd lines in a few places, but like I said, I don't know what I'm doing, so I just went with it.

In case you are wondering I have ordered a book from amazon so I'm not so utterly ignorant the next time.

You can see the pattern on the back and I have to admit I'm generally pleased with the outcome.  There are things I'd do differently next time and there's no fancy stitching anywhere.  In fact I never intend to do fancy stitching...the short turning window in a regular sewing machine inhibits most fancy stitching b/c the maneuvering of the quilt is too difficult.  

On the front it looks 'eh', but the same as with knitting, the people it is going to - especially the adorable little boy who will be a year old in August - will neither care a whit nor will they notice if my stitching has gone astray here & there.  Along the same lines, (haha - lines) I decided to machine stitch down the binding (it's a big no-no, just in case you aren't a quilter and don't know these things).  

I agree that it doesn't look as nice, and you can see the stitching from the front, and due to the nature of binding it's not exactly an even stitch line, but if you get thread that blends in well with the binding & border - who the heck cares?  If it were a throw or a bed quilt I would be more particular about it, but again, it's a baby quilt and will presumably get fairly hard use and frequent washes, secure is more important than pretty for the edging.  

(see that line of cream thread looks funny, cuz it blends everywhere else, but I didn't know what else to do there)

Anyway, I ran out of thread and so only got 1/4 of the way around the quilt.  Figures, something that's been languishing for 9 months and I run out of thread 15 minutes from being done.  Soon tho, soon.  

Having cleared that out of the way, I leapt immediately into another baby quilt - I am 3 behind, so I need to catch up.  As long as I stick with at least one a year (hopefully more) I will catch up eventually, my friends can't keep going at this rate indefinitely!  I am working on the top for the next one, hopefully I will have pics of that to post this coming weekend.

a quickie

I made another one of Keykalou's bags this weekend.  This one is called 'lots of pockets'.

The only alteration I made on this was to make the handles a bit wider.  I think it's super cute and the pockets on the front are very handy.

Pixie got another brushing in the park today while Duke lounged.

Can you believe that this little dog used to look like this?

Talk about a transformation!  She looks like she lost about 10 lbs.  I keep looking at her and doing a double take b/c she looks so funny.  And even funnier to think that we won't even notice as it grows back over the next 6 months until she's a big fuzzball again.

I am taking my first venture into machine quilting with a walking foot this weekend.  I am finally finishing off our godson's baby quilt, I'm hoping to actually give it to him for his first birthday in August...just a little late.  Oops. 

I have been fairly intimidated by the whole idea before even though I've had the walking foot for quite some time.  So far, so good, hopefully I'll be able to show it off by the end of the weekend!

New things are afoot (at the circle K)

Here's the first new thing.

This is the most excting new thing by far, my Goddaughter's baby brother, 4 weeks old as of this picture.  DH and I drove up to meet him this weekend, cute little bug isn't he?  I'm looking forward to the next time we see him in two months - how he will have changed!

My shelridge farm yarn came, I think it's perfect.

 

This is for my EZ yoke sweater, the blue, which is really more like teal, as the main color with the other four as my fair isle colors.  I am thinking maybe I'll do some small patterns on the bottom of the sweater and the cuff of the sleeves as well, since I have so freaking much of the other colors, but we'll see how ambitious I am when I start it.

And their dk weight wool/cotton blend.  

I don't have a pattern lined up for this one yet, but I'm sure one will pop up sooner or later, this is a really soft yarn, I'm looking forward to something fallish in this.

And THAT is the end of my MDSW shopping.

I hopped on a bandwagon and started Buttercup last week.  It is appearing on everyone's rav queues, and for good reason, it's adorable!

I have already made some alterations - I made the neckline higher and did more feather & fan repeats.  It was looking a little low on some of the FOs and I wanted to make sure this was work appropriate, the last thing I need is a summer top I have to wear something under!  

So far, so good, now I just have miles of stockinette before I have an FO, but luckily we are going on a mini-break next week and I will have another 5-6 hour stretch in the car to knit in circles to my heart's content.

BTW anybody know any yarn shops in the Gettysburg/Lancaster area?  I do love my souvenier yarn.

Last week I had a conundrum.  I work at a university, that's pretty clear by now, I think.  Universities have campuses that are quite large, as my current one is, and I am always running off to meetings here, there and everywhere in buildings far afield from the one I work in.  In the winter I stick my various necessities in my jacket pockets, phone, pen, ID, keys, gum, burt's bees, etc, but in the summer, what's a girl *ahem* professional woman to do?  

So I made this cute little wallet-y thing last night.  I love Keykalou's patterns, they are easy to understand, very detailed, and I think my FOs come out looking very professional and not the bad kind of homemade. (which has been my experience with some other bag patterns I've tried in the past)  

Shown with the quarter for size.  I added the wrist strap using another one of her patterns that I bought last summer.

I love contrasting linings.

I haven't sewn much lately, but I've got a bee in my bonnet about it and today I bought a few more patterns from her and ordered some fabric and I hope to have some additional adorable bags in a few weeks.  I mentioned to a friend recently that since I started using these pattern to make bags whenever I started feeling 'ugh' about my current bag selection I have spent WAY less money on random purses.  I can have a new bag for $8-$10 and 3-4 hours of my time.  And because I spend so much time selecting the PERFECT fabric, it ends up NOT being an impulse purchase and I don't get bored with it after a few weeks.  

Win-win, I think.

Sunday evening already?

How DO weekends go by so fast?

I don't have much to show you this weekend, unfortunately.  Last week it was all I could do to make it through, I was still pretty worn out from the surgery and I didn't work one full day the entire week, I did manage to increase my hours through the week though, so I think I'll be okay this week.  

I know I'm still healing, but that doesn't stop me from being amazed at how tired I am two weeks after 'minor' outpatient surgery.  I still do not feel entirely like myself and I still am not sleeping well.  The latter is very frustrating because I continually feel that if could only get a good night's sleep I would feel fine!

I do have the swatch for the cabled sweater I am making to show you.

I am a four inches or so into the sweater, so there's not much to see yet.  This sweater isn't going as fast as it seems like something in a worsted to bulky weight would b/c my hands get sore from working on it fairly quickly.  How funny that I am now so used to working with smaller gauge yarns that something at 4st/in feels ungainly and incredibly bulky.

I was feeling sort of non-directional today, so I went back through all my WIPs to get things straight.  I cast on for the second sock of both Anne's Hoarfrost sock and the Spotcheck sock.  I had finished the first of each pair and then the sweater just brought everything to a screeching halt.  I reacquainted myself with the sock weight lace shawl I'm working on, and got my Stora Dinum shawl worked to a place so I can bring it with me on the car trips we will be taking over the next few weeks.  Sorry, no pics of anything.  I've been rather poor at documenting today.

I got my Briar Rose yarn that I ordered last week.  It's just gorgeous.

It's 1300 yards of Legend, a weight between dk & sport.  Of course this picture does not capture the richness of the reds, that really just goes without saying at this point. 

Chris is such a sweetheart, she also threw in this mystery yarn

She says it's something new she's trying, it's very squishable sport weight.  400 yards, I don't know what to do with it, I could make socks, but it won't use it all up, I'm not sure what to do with 400 yards of sport weight in colors this lovely.  Any suggestions?

This morning we took the pups to the park for a little spring brushing.  THe first place place we picked turned out to be too close to a homeless man (you can see him in the left of this picture) who went on to verbally accost us until we reolcated.  sheesh.  Sunday morning, sunny, 65 degrees, lovely breeze, all the world seems like a happy place and next thing you know you have some dude screaming obsenities at you because you had the nerve to sit on the grass within 100 feet of his bench.

Anyway.

Duke got brushed too, but he really doesn't shed that much.  Pixie sheds in the spring every year and it is some serious shedding.

Duke did amuse himself while Pixie was being brushed.

I know he could find something totally gross to roll in, but he is just so HAPPY when he rolls in the grass, somehow a dog rolling in the grass practically embodies the whole idea of summer for me.

Awww, poor Pixie.  Duke will stand on guard for you!

As she was being brushed and crazy amounts of her fluff accumulated in the grass around them birds started to circle and hop nearer and nearer.  As soon as dh & pixie vacated they came in to collect her hair for their nests.

You could see them trying to get their little beaks around as much as they could before they flew away with it.

Isn't that just great?  After they collected enough they were flying up to the eaves where their nests presumably are.  I just love that Pixie's discarded winter coat will line little birds' nests for the summer.

Happy Mother's Day!

Shifting

I am trying to make two shifts in my knitting world.

First:

1. Buy less crazy (but gorgeous) yarn that will make me unhappy with final results.

I have accomplished this by a. getting rid of A LOT of my sock yarn and some of my multicolored sweater yarn and b. being very, very good when buying things about asking myself what, really, I think I'm going to do with that yarn.

2. Buy less yarn that I can get whenever I want it.  Granted, I just broke that rule by buying mission falls last weekend, but this is a process, it's not perfect.

So this means that if I see yarn that I may not ever see again, I can buy it, no guilt.  It also means that if I am thinking about making something (for example, the hoodies I want to make for my Goddaughter & her brother) in easy to find yarn, in cascade or knitpicks or whatever, I cannot buy the yarn until I am actually ready to knit it.

In theory, this means that I will end up with my stash filled with 'one of a kinds' like Briar Rose yarns, or Lisa Souza, or something else fabulous and random that I don't think I will ever see again.  Again, theoretically, these yarns are in amounts that I can do something with, either socks or shawls or sweaters or whatever - no single skein purchases of worsted weight, etc.  

Second:  I am not (and you can quote me on this), am NOT falling into the short sleeved/tank top trap this year.  

Last year I did, I made a handful of summer tops in cotton & cotton blends.  Some of them were even really cute.  Could I wear them?  Would I wear them?  Not for a whole bag of cashmere laceweight would I wear a dk weight cotton top out in this stinking city (I mean that literally, not figuratively - cities smell BAD in the summer) in the dead of summer.  It's hot wearing those absurdly thin t-shirts that are so in right now, wearing something that is as heavy as knitted cotton or even bamboo is just plain silly.

Consequently, I am going to spend the summer knitting what I always knit; shawls, socks & sweaters.  

Just to give myself a specific goal for the time period I am going to knit a large shawl, possibly something gigantic and gorgeous like icarus, tho honestly I have NO idea when I might wear such a thing.  Or possibly something a little more involved like print o' the wave...I'm just not sure.  I'm kind of digging the triangular shawls right now.  But before I do either of those I would like to finish this Spring Thing Shawl of which I have about 2" done right now.

I also want to tackle a full-on aran sweater like this or this. 

Oddly enough, I know what yarn I will use for both of these projects even if I don't know which pattern.

For the lace shawl I will use this gorgeous Sundara lace weight.

And for the aran sweater, this pear tree yarn

Both of these are yarns I have been 'saving' for that perfect project and by golly I'm going to take some time this summer and find that perfect project and make it happen!

Cuteness! (Godson)

Some shopping

Even though the doctor cleared me to go, I ended up staying home from MDSW.  It was supposed to rain and I thought that on top of being not at full speed that was too much for even my ability to ignore my own well being in search of yarn.

Instead, Jennygirl and I decided to trek to a fabled yarn in the 'burbs to see what we could find.  (Seriously, what a friend - gave up MDSW to hang with me!)  I'm not going to tell you the name of the fabled yarn store because it turned out to be a big let down, but I did pick up a two sock yarns while I was there.  Some Tofutsies, which I have never tried,

and some Claudia Handpaint in an incredibly pink color that I just couldn't put down.

I also picked up some cute little buttons for the hoodies I plan on making my Goddaughter & her brand new baby brother for this fall.

So, we took the train back into the city and despite my already flagging energy I wanted to go to Loop, b/c I had yarn money in my pocket and I wanted to spend it!

I got this incredibly squishy 2-ply yarn from a farm in Oregon, I already started a sweater in it!  It simply screamed comfy cabled v-neck to me, so that's what I'm doing.  No pattern, just gauge and a vision - we'll see.  I'm thinking drop shoulders, b/c that is the epitome of big & comfy, but maybe saddle shoulders...I'm not sure yet.

I also got some Mission Falls 136 to make (theoretically) the Minimalist Cardigan.

And two skeins of this gorgeous Colorful Yarn in fingering weight.  I am drawn to these every time I walk in that store.  This is a local dyer and that  makes it even better.  

Also in the coming week  you will see some Shelridge Farm that I ordered b/c I really had my heart set on getting some to make an EZ fair isle yoke at MDSW, a set of signature needles, and some Briar Rose.  All of my yarn money - poof - gone, just like Keyser Soze.  The only thing I didn't order that I would have bought at MDSW is some Brooks Farm.  I do miss that, they have SUCH scrumptious things in person and such a small selection online.  It makes me sad...but there's always Rhinebeck, and if not Rhinebeck, next year at MDSW.  I don't think I'll run out of yarn by then.  Pretty positive, in fact.

The Highlander

*please say with Scottish accent, it's more fun that way*

This is 18 ounces of glorious sweater.  By Anne, of course.  In  Briar Rose Fibers Glory Days, a gorgeous BFL DK weight yarn.  Speaking of, I have 14 ounces, approx 850 yards, leftover if anybody is interested in making the vest version of this sweater that would be perfect, I'm happy to sell my leftovers.

Buttons hand made by Joan Miller of ButtonBliss on Etsy.  These buttons are a bit darker than they look on the screen, they have lovely highlights of blue & purple and bring that out in the yarn, I think.  

Okay, I know, you want to know what it looks like on, right?

Some of these are a bit blurry, sorry about that, but DH was gone by the time I realized it and I don't want to wait to post.

The only changes I made to this pattern was to knit it a little longer in the sleeves and body to make up for my long waist, and I knit the collar about an inch shorter than it was written because my neck and wool are not fast friends.

I know they're dark and it's hard to see some of the details, but the yarn is dark and it's raining outside, I did the best I could to lighten them up without washing them out.

This is my first ever grown up sweater with pieced sleeves, so I spent some time last night on the web googling the best way to do all of that, and I think I did just fine.  (if I do say so myself)  I am, however, still highly suspicious of pieced sweaters b/c really - 4 hours of seaming AFTER the sweater is done???  That is WAY too much work before you know if it actually fits!!!!  

I think 'pleased with the outcome' would be an understatement.  This sweater took me 5 weeks, if I weren't test knitting it the knitting time would have been much longer, I really pushed through it.  And now I have a gorgeous, rich, incredibly warm sweater that I can't wear until October.  Sigh.  I am perhaps now I am the only person hoping for a day in the 40s in May.

A note on the complexity...the pattern itself isn't complex, but keeping track of the seed stitch pattern alternating with the stockinette squares really made this pattern something I couldn't knit & watch tv while doing.  Normally I go for patterns that are not this complicated, things I can knit a bunch of stockinette on and then just have some detail in it for interest.  

I am not saying that doing this test knit will change the things I knit completely, but it will make me take a second look at patterns I would have deemed 'too much trouble' before now.  Yeah, I had to concentrate, and yeah, it was hard work - but holy cow isn't it just GORGEOUS???????

Oh, and my favorite part by far?  The little cables along the edges and on the sides, it's these details that I love so much about Anne's patterns.