Well, I Never ~ A Leap of Faith

I never thought I'd EVER knit socks. Why knit socks when you can buy them almost anywhere in a plethora of colors and patterns. So what if they're always too big for my size 5½ foot and unless I'm careful, the heel of the sock is always outside my shoe. And they're socks fer cryin' out loud. Not important knitting like a sweater — or an afghan or a even hat. Who cares about socks?

Then for some reason I decided I wanted to knit a pair of socks. I thought I'd try this socknitting thing — see what all the fuss is about. I'd already fought through the porcupine dpn thing in the round by knitting a couple of watch caps in the round on size 4 mm and 5½ mm needles. And so on April 10, 2004 I bought three hanks of handpainted green Koigu and a set of Brittney five US 3 dpns at my LYS. The skinny needles and thin yarn were a challenge. I fiddled with the yarn and the needles for several weeks. I finally got a cast on and join I was pleased with almost a month after I bought the yarn and needles, on 5/7/04.

These first socks are stockinette. One of top socks was the first sock and of course, it was way too big. By then it was too late. I was hooked. I cast on less stitches for the second sock and it fit. And so I cast on for a third sock to match the second one so I'd have a matching pair. A few months later my SIL visited and I dragged out the HUGE first sock. She tried it on and it fit so I knit her the mate. Those first socks were so poorly knit that they didn't last very long.

I knit all kinds of socks in all kinds of yarn and patterns — except for lace. Who'd want socks with holes. How could THAT be warm.

I NEVER thought I'd knit LACE. I was always buying sock books so it's not surprising, I guess, that I'd get Lucy Neatby's book Cool Socks Warm Feet. I had a lot of sock books that I'd never knit from and this one was no exception. When I was ready to knit the next pair, I'd drag out all the sock books and page through them. I'd look through all the patterns I'd downloaded and copied into a word processor and thumb through my magazines.

The Mermaid socks attracted me from the first. It wasn't the lace I liked it was the short row heel. The lace was just something I had to get through with until I could get to the heel. I was in love that that heel. In the end it was the LACE that captured me. Very simple lace it is, too. The same six stitch pattern over and over, round after round. One yo and one k2tog with a couple of k2's.

Oh, I struggled with The Lace. I struggled with every bit of that sock. So simple and I just could not figure it out — until finally about a quarter of the way through the foot on the first sock I GOT it. And then by the end, I was Hooked. Again. This time with lace. These socks are my favorites.

I NEVER thought I'd knit a lace shawl. I mean, who wears shawls? I don't attend fancy do's or wear clothing that you could wear a nice lace shawl with. If I'm cold I should put on a fleece jacket.

Then one of SIL's BFF's daughter was having her first girl and the daughter wanted a delicate pink blanket with holes that the tot could hook her fingers through. She wanted my SIL to knit it but my SIL hasn't knit for decades. She does fabulous needlepoint so I volunteered to knit it. I got some frosty pink yarn I figured I could stand and found a delicate lace pattern and knit the Frosty Pink Baby blanket.

About halfway through the blanket I could see where maybe a shawl to sort of throw around your shoulders as one sat on the couch knitting or reading might not be a bad thing. I already had the laceweight yarn, although I'd purchased it with the idea of making socks.

So now I'm knitting a lace shawl. Well, more of a stole, really, but I'm calling it a shawl. And I'm looking forward to knitting the next one. It's all I want to knit on. This delicate lace. I have lace socks and a lace afghan I can knit on but I want to knit on the lace shawl.

Now on this fiber journey I never say never. I just figure that if I don't want to knit it NOW I'm just not ready to knit it, or spin it or weave it or dye it NOW. It's not so much as "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear" as when the student is ready, the fiber, tools, project and desire will come together.

blogging to: Pandora Radio seeded with David Arkenstone

reading: Unfit to Practice by Perri O'Shaughnessy

Parting Shot: "Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November,
February has twenty-eight alone,
All the rest have thirty-one;
Excepting leap year, that's the time
When February's days are twenty-nine." ~ unknown

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I Never Promised You a Rose Garden But I Knit it Anyway

Things are progressing. I should probably stop right here but often I'm either not very smart or very stubborn aka bull-headed. Besides, as a famous knitter once wrote, "It's only knitting."

I'm caught up to where I was on the Paws to Remember shawl and a bit beyond. As I seem to have a lot more of the Strickwear Merging Colors yarn than I thought I did I'm determining when the color changes and not when I run outta yarn. Otherwise, this shawl might only be in the ONE color. I did the 3" (about) border and the first center repeat in colorway #1. For the first row of the second repeat I started with one strand of color #1 and one strand of color #2. I'll knit with these until I'm halfway through this repeat then I'll switch to both strands of color #2.

Sometime before I finish the third repeat (the pattern calls for 27 repeats) I'll sit down with a spreadsheet and figure out how often to change the colors so they end up being spread fairly even. I have a total of 8 colors in the Rose Garden colorway.

But before I did all that I had to wind them all. These aren't full size skeins but about half-size. The first one I split into two as I'm holding the yarn double. All the rest have two hanks. The last one I didn't, mostly because I forgot and by the time I got to it I was tired of crankin' the ball winder.

Oh and when I finished the first repeat of the center section I used the unwaxed dental floss as a lifeline. Much easier to manipulate putting it in. It's so slippery that it's easy to slide from to side and take up slack. And instead of a big 'ol bent tapestry needle I used a larger sewing needle. Again, much easier to get through the small places between the yarn and the needle.

The White Caps afghan is moving more slowly. Could be because I haven't knit on it as much and it's 350 stitches wide!

When I get all the crinkly frogged stuff knit on the afghan and the new color well established on the shawl, I'll take some photos.

blogging to: a quiet house

reading: Black Skyy by Janet Stevens Cook

Parting Shot: "Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one." ~ Dr. Seuss

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BUSTED!!

There are some things you should NEVER post about. One is about how well things are going. Another thing you shouldn't do, especially with lace — if it's not THAT broke or another person probably wouldn't notice even it you pointed it out — LET IT BE! I think it was less than an hour after I published the last post that I broke the last rule, twice; (sigh) on the White caps afghan and on the Paws to Remember shawl.

I ended up frogging the shawl back to the lifeline at the beginning of the center pattern. It's all back on the needles properly and I'm about one third of the way back.

The afghan only needed to be ripped about about 5 rows. But I went back to the row before the white. I did the white row same as I did the blues rows, in the lace pattern. In the "real" pattern, the blue row before the white is plain knitting, the purled return row is white, then the white is knit all the way across and then the blue is purled back. With these four knit rows in the midst of the lace makes the white knit row stronger. Without the four knit rows, the white row didn't look as effective. I like the way this looks better. Anyway, I'm only about a quarter of the way back on this one.

The afghan was way easier to come back from even though I had 350 stitches to put back on the needles. The loops cotton yarn just sat there waiting to be put back on the needles. I put one of the smaller needles on the end of my Denise Interchangable needles and it made putting the stitches back easy. Although the shawl had only 89 stitches to put back on they were a pain in the neck to pick them up off the yarn I'd used for a lifeline. When I get all the way though the first pattern repeat of the center, I'm going to put in an unwaxed dental floss one.

blogging to: The Cranberries

reading: Black Skyy by Janet Stevens Cook

Parting Shot: "Patience is something you admire in the driver behind you and scorn in the one ahead." ~ Mac McCleary

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Bust a Move

It DOES feel good to have all my projects on the front burners. None "resting" or sitting in hibernation or in the time out corner. I can pick up any of my projects, briefly consult my notes and knit (or purl) away.

Stop! Hammer Time!
Can't touch this
Can't touch this
Can't touch this
Break it down.

• The White Caps lace afghan is still small enough to move about at will. It resides either in the library (where the TV is) or the office where I knit while I blog surfing (currently it's in the library). I'm about half done with the second pattern repeat.

• The Paws to Remember lace shawl sits in the living room where I knit on the couch — good lighting and a mug of hot tea close at hand. Only two rows to go on the first repeat of the center pattern

• The Child's First Sock in Shell Pattern, a lace sock and the Rock Chalk Jayhawk sock, a rib, travel about where they need to. Currently the Child's First Sock in Shell Pattern is close at hand in the office. I'm on row 30 of the leg, almost done with the third pattern repeat. The Rock Chalk Jayhawk socks, presently the most neglected of the lot is in the living room on a side table by a window. The first sock only on row 17.
  

• The Nautical Striped sweater, all in stockinette, has a split personality. The front and back of the sweater reside in my largest basket in the living room and the partially finished sleeve currently resides in the library (where the TV is). It can also travel into the office if need be.

• The Simple Sock, as always, lives in my knitting bag ready to go at a moments notice. This ribbed sock gets knit on at stoplights, waiting in line and in the car when Sweetie's driving. I'm done with the gusset decreases (still on the first sock). I'm on round 16 of the foot. Also residing in my knitting bag is Knitter's Review owner Clara Parkes book, The Knitter's Book of Yarn. You never know when it's easier to read about knitting than to actually knit.

One of the handiest tools I've found for lace knitting is this wicked looking dental pic / crochet hook that I got from Patternworks. I can stick the pic into the tiniest bit of a loop and get it before it goes under.

On a related topic, a few weeks ago, I got one of the most EVIL catalogs I've EVER received. It's Woodland Woolworks. The front of the catalog says it's the "Spinners & Weavers Catalog and Idea Book". I subscribed to Interweave Press' Spin-Off magazine some time ago (Shut up!) and that's probably why I got this EVIL catalog. All kinds and types of wheels and spindles, and all the fun evil tools that go with them. They also have all kinds of looms. And fiber. Spinning and weaving and fiber, oh my. And it's in my travel knitting bag. Just in case.

blogging to: Pandora Radio seeded with Acoustic Alchemy

reading: Bleeding Hearts by Ian Rankin

Parting Shot: "I like making a piece of string into something I can wear." ~ Unknown

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Do the Swim - Dive Right In!

This evening I'm blogging on a laptop from the living room couch in front of the fireplace. We had a fire in the fireplace all day Saturday and all day today, Sunday. This is the first fire we've had all winter. We spend a lot of time in our home office where our computers are. I guess that's why.

Yesterday, for some reason we decided to live in the living room so we started a fire. Sometime last winter we bought a 25 lb box of cedar chunks and two bags of pinion wood chunks. We still had quite a lot of it. I've been carrying around several split fireplace sized logs in the back of Mathilda most of the winter - not for weight in the snow - so they'd be dry when we wanted a fire! And they all came together. The house and the air outside is so fragrant with the smell of woodsmoke.

Living in the living room also gave me the several hours of quite time I needed to get the Paws to Remember shawl going again. I looked at where I'd been and frankly, it was easier to rip than to figure out what the heck was going on there. And so I did.

I also re-did how I was dealing with the yarn. Since this is a looonnnggg term project I put the yarn into a plastic bag and fed the ends out two small holes cut in the bottom. That would have been fine, except I hadn't been doing that and I was using the yarn doubled from two small hanks I'd wound. Somehow, I got the knitting frogged, the two yarns separated without much trouble and fed into the top of plastic bag and out the bottom a little at a time. I separated and fed the yarns out through the holes as I knit it. And it actually worked out.

I cast on again for this shawl with renewed desire. I'd frogged this thing so many times and each time I was SURE I had the method that would keep me error free. Maybe it WAS all the success I had with the lace socks and the afghan, I don't know but this time I have the lace mojo for this project. I'm using place markers and counting obsessively and it's working.

I'm through the 28 row border - the shawl's only 89 stitches wide - and am three rows shy of completing the first pattern repeat of the center section. I even put in a life line on the last row of the border. Note to self: put unwaxed dental floss on the grocery list. I used the thinnest yarn I could find, the two ply cashmere from Sweetie's Broken Rib Cashmere watch cap. The dental floss will be nice because it has no wool, is very thin and won't tend to hold onto the yarn in the shawl. It could be minty dental floss and the shawl would be minty fresh . . . or even cinnamon-y. I wonder would which would win over the eucalyptus in the Eucalan wool wash. Might not be such a hot idea.

I took photos today and I'll upload them when I get back to the desk in the office. Right now I'm too comfortable to get up and find the camera and make the move into the office. Next post, promise.

I'm so pleased about the progress I've made on this shawl. Maybe I really HAVE turned the corner on lace. The bones on this pattern are difficult to find until you get to the center part. I'm have such success with the place makers and counting that I think I'll keep on that way. It's not broke so I'm not fixin' it.

I also think I have way too much yarn for this thing. I may be a second square shawl out of it. I'd link to a photo but I don't have my html cheat sheet on this computer. If I continue to do this living room thing, I guess I'll have to fix that, huh. I'll post that in the next post, too.

I'll update the links below like the quote source later.

blogging to: the sound of the fire in a quiet room

reading: Bleeding Hearts by Iran Rankin

Parting Shot: "Motivation will almost always beat mere talent." -Norman R. Augustine
quote source: http://www.secretsofsuccess.com/article/quotes_success.html

Jeepers Creepers

A new look. Same stuff, mostly. There are still a few tweaks I want to make but I like it. A bit more nautical. And some new stuff; there's a label list now ~ Past Imperfect ~ that you can search on. It's above the FOs list, which is above the archives ~ A Day in the Life ~ which are on bottom. I started using thelabels at the start of this year. I don't know if I'll go back and do the older posts, but I may . . . later.

I switched to Bloggers new Layouts. It's easier to make sidebar changes. Be sure and save your template to a word processor before you switch. You lose everything extra you put in, like all your links. I DID save and so it was no problem just a bit of a hassle putting everything back.

I need to figure out how to fix the fonts and colors on all the old posts. That part's not addressed (that I can find) but it's probably there somewhere.

blogging to: a quiet house

reading: Bleeding Hearts by Ian Rankin

Parting Shot: "Everything was so different before it changed." ~ unknown

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Per Aspera ad Astra*

Now that's what I'm talkin' about. Isn't this better than yesterday's photos? I really like the detail on the knit side. And honestly, this is going pretty quickly for 350 stitches — reading and knitting or listening to a podcast and knitting or watching TV and knitting suddenly you realize that you've only one more stitch repeat on the non-working needle. And the purl side just flows.

Thar's 16 rows in that thar photograph. The white row is stockinette — all the rest are pattern stitches. And the yarn is soft. It feels good as it works through my fingers.

All this recent lace success (this afghan and the Child's First Sock in Shell Pattern) may be going to my head. I'm seriously thinking about picking up the Paws To Remember shawl and seeing what's up. I haven't touched it in months when I discovered the last error. I think I'll hold off until tomorrow or Sunday when it's daylight — maybe if Sweetie takes a nap and I don't. Even though I have a perfectly good Ott light situated right where I knit at my computer (I often knit while reading blogs or forums) I want to devote some quiet time to the shawl when I pick it up again. Get centered in it. Scry out the bones of the shawl, then the error; fix it or frog it and move on with it already.

* "Through hardships to the stars"

blogging to: Pandora Radio seeded with David Arkenstone

reading: The Elvenbane by Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey

Parting Shot: "Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp drizzly November in my soul... Whenever I find myself involuntarily passing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand on me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off -- then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can." ~ Herman Melville from Moby Dick

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Right and Wrong

It is as I have begun to suspect. Margene, whom I've never met and only recently began reading confirmed it yesterday in this post. It's in the middle there, the indented paragrah above the large photo of the beautiful lace. The part about reading the lace. I'm finding it's really true. There should be choirs and angles singing. At the very least, there should be — a moment.

There's not. Just a realization.

I began the White Caps lace afghan for the second time the other day. Once you figure out where the bones of the lace are, IF YOU PAY ATTENTION! you'll never mess up lace. If the bones line up, so does the rest of the pattern. On the third row I'd already figured out where the foundation bones from the first row were and that if I matched up that one row every ten stitches I'd be OK. Going back on the purl row I found bones to match up, too. This pattern's a fairly easy one to do that with. This cotton yarn is forgiving and doesn't easily split. If it does it's easy to see where the rest of the stitch is. It's difficult, even for me, to knit one of these. It's not difficult to forget to do the psso and end up with an extra stitch next time around and end up one stitch off (which is probably what happened the first time more that once).


Now comes my next . . . well not conundrum since I've already decided what I want to do. These two photos are of one pattern repeat of the White Caps afghan are as the pattern says. The top photo is the Right Side (the "knit" side) with several rows of reverse stockinette as the "white cap" and the bottom photo is the Wrong Side (the purl side) with the "white caps" in the knit stitch along with one row on each side of the white also in the knit stitch. To me the blue stitches are attractive either way. Kudos to the designer. However, I prefer the blue knitted side over the purled side. I like the complex detail on the knit side. But I like the knitted white rather than the rows of reverse stockinette.

My spidey senses were telling me to do the knit instead instead of the reverse stockinette but I kind of wanted to see what it would look like. I think if it were all the same color it would be OK but with the white, knit stitch white caps on the knit stitch Right Side will look better. When I peered closely at the photo in the book with the green and cream afghan it IS the purled side they are showing.

So I'm going to frog those reverse stockinette rows and knit them. Actually I'm going to tink the reverse stockinette all at once, one stitch at a time so I hopefully don't screw up the lace.

I'm liking the way it looks, too. Kind of a tree of life thing going on.


We got about three inches of what I'm calling Sugar Snow today. It was probably sleet but it shoveled like sugar. Granular instead of flakey. And very dry. Click for big on the photo below and you can see it's more like tiny hailstones. Very Cool.

blogging to: a Linux podcast

reading: The Elvenbane by Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey

Parting Shot: "I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework." ~ Lily Tomlin as "Edith Ann"

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. . . So Long as I Get Somewhere *

Things are moving. Things are a happenin'. I finally! picked up the Nautical Striped sweater this morning and contemplated the shoulder seams and where the sleeve attaches to the sweater. No doubt. The sleeves are about an inch too long and I can't see how in Tartarus the sleeve cap on the sleeve is going to fit into the armhole on the sweater. The sleeve cap looks too small but I guess ya gotta have faith . . . and the ability and willingness to frog if things don't work out.

After that I blithely ripped out the top of the sleeve, re-wound the yarn, stuck the whole thing back on needles and back in its basket to rest and meditate.

But before that I delicately frogged the bind off on each of the four shoulders. I reknit the stitches and put what would have been bound off stitches on large safety pins, each stair step in the bind off got it's own safety pin stitch holder. Then I kitchnered those suckers together and it looks fabulous. Like the stitches flow from one side to the other.

Then I got cocky and decided that I could also knit the neckband. I WAS going to do it in the round until halfway through picking up the stitches in red that I realized the neckband is in garter stitch. Ya can't do garter stitch in the round, can you? No problem. The neckband consists only of the picked up stitches, two rows of knitting and the bind off row — the equivalent of four rows. I can deal with that since I didn't have to also deal with the shoulder seam which was already fabulously done! I picked up all the stitches (I know enough [thank goodness] to pick up stitches so that the neckline looks right, not just what the pattern says) and was about halfway around the neck when I decided I didn't like how the picked up row looked so I frogged. That was easy. I had 2 little places where I had five live stitches. I slowed down when I got to those two places, so I could put the stitches back on the pins otherwise it was pull, pull, pull. So refreshing.

I'll try the neck again, maybe tomorrow since I know what I'm facing. It's all back in the basket with the sleeve. Even though the neckband didn't work out on the first try I'm still very pleased with what I did accomplish.

I even managed to squeeze in some knitting on the White Caps afghan. I'm almost done with row two (the purl row) and being very careful to keep everything where it's supposed to be so things don't go wandering off track.

Sweeties knee is better but I'm making him stay off of it and wear the brace if he needs to stroll around (much to his chagrin). He had a service call this afternoon and a lot of it involved him standing round watching the machine do whatever it does and the brace helped. The swelling is almost gone. As long as he doesn't re-injure it, I think it'll be hunky dory.

The Cream Cheese Pound cake is very good. Very dense. Rich and creamy. Not dry and not sweet. If you're looking for a sweet cake this is not it, despite 3 cups of sugar. It's great for breakfast or a snack with a mug of hot coffee or tea or hotted up in the microwave for several seconds with a tall glass of ice cold milk. Thank you Joe, for sharing the recipe. If anyone wants it, e-mail me.

According to Weather.com we can except more lovely weather (sarcasm) on Thursday. That would be a good day for beef stew.

* from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

blogging to: the sound of the dryer

reading: The Elvenbane by Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey

Parting Shot: "I have my own little world, but it's okay — they know me here." ~ Unknown

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Res Gestae*

What a relaxing few days it's been. The weather here's been bi-polar. Saturday night we got misty, drizzly rain which sometime before dawn Sunday morning changed to a wet and windy snowstorm. When it stopped around mid-day we again! had several inches of snow; this time the very wet and heavy kind. Then the sun came out and it proceeded to get over 40°F / 4½°C and it began to melt. I slogged out to shovel the driveway and sidewalk. As much snow as we had, 4+" / 10½ cm, I knew it wouldn't all melt before it began to freeze again.

The most fun part was the end of the driveway in the snow melt river flowing down the street. The only time we get that much water flowing down the gutters is during a downpour. Thank goodness Sweetie has some steel toed rubber boots. Not that I needed the steel toes but the non-leaking part was nice. I broke up the snow / slush / ice dam that had formed at the end of our driveway and scooped it all out into the street which by the time I'd got that far was pretty much snow & slush free. It was kind of fun sloshing around in water over my ankles and having warm dry feet and ankles.

I'm glad I did take all the time with the driveway because it froze Sunday night and didn't get above freezing today. Where our driveway meets the street it was clean of snow, slush and burgie bits and would have been easy to get in and out of, if we'd had the inclination, which we didn't. Other folks who didn't do anything had vast frozen lakes at the end of their driveway and hard crunchy ice ruts in the driveway.

Normally Sweetie would have helped but he slipped on the wet snow Sunday morning going out with the bird feeders and twisted his knee. It's much better this evening. Cold packs and staying off of it kept the swelling down Sunday. Today, heat seems to help the most. We've got a good knee brace from when I twisted my knee several years ago and he's been wearing that when he feels he must move from one room or chair to another.

Other than a dry driveway I rewarded myself Sunday between bouts with the wet snow and shovel with some knitting on the White Caps afghan / blanket. What's the difference? What makes a piece of knitting a blanket or an afghan? An afghan has a ripple pattern and a blanket does not? If that's the criteria I'm knitting an afghan. What do you think makes one or the other?

I got almost through one pattern repeat. It finally got long enough so that I could see the pattern emerging. Every time I think I have a fool proof way of knitting I get caught out. Many of the motifs were fine but many were not. Now that I see the error of my ways, or rather how they were made I know what to watch out for. So, yes, I did frog it and rewound the yarn. The good part about this was that before I frogged it into the ground I laid it out and measured how wide it's going to be. A cast on of 350 stitches with 4 mm needles and the Reynolds Saucy yielded a 60" wide afghan.

We have what we call The Indian Blanket. It's a geometric pattern in dark browns and golds and there's really nothing "Native American" about it other than the colors and their arrangement vaguely suggests a Navajo pattern. Anyway, we use this blanket a lot and it's 60" wide so I'm happy with the width of the White Caps afghan.

This evening I'm baking the Cream Cheese Pound cake I got from Joe at Queer Joe's Knitting Blog. You can read about it on his blog here and here. The cake's in the oven and if the raw batter's any indication (Hello!? Quality control.) this is going to be a seriously good cake. In keeping with the spirit of how I got the recipe, I'm not going to post it but if you want it, e-mail me and I'll send it to you.

* Latin for Things done

blogging to Pandora Radio seeded with Acoustic Alchemy

reading: The Elvenbane by Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey

Parting Shot: "In the spirit of science, there really is no such thing as a 'failed experiment.' Any test that yields valid data is a valid test." ~ Adam Savage from Mythbusters

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Because I Can!

Still on a bit of a hiatus from the Nautical Striped sweater. Sometimes it's good to get away from a project even if that project's going well. The next bit on the sweater's going to be tedious (seaming and picking up stitches). This break will give me the necessary distance to start fresh.

As I mentioned in the last post, I've been working a bit on the Child's First Sock in Shell Pattern. I've fallen in love with the yarn and the pattern, again. It's not a mindless knit but I don't have to concentrate on every single stitch. And working with such soft wool is a nice change from the cotton.


In other news, I've cast on for the cotton afghan with the Reynolds Saucy. This one was going to be the green Plymouth Encore afghan. Now it's going to be a slate blue and white cotton afghan. The "official" pattern names are Snuggle Blanket and Puff [Daddy] Lace. They're from the book 200 Ripple Stitches by Jan Eaton.

The green in the pattern photo is going to be slate blue and the cream will be the bright white. MY name for the pattern is White Caps — as in white caps on a body of water.

I'm going to forgo swatching. According to About.com the standard size for a double bed blanket is 80" X 90". The standard size for a twin bed blanket is 66" x 90". Somewhere between that would be OK — say 70" x 90". Using the gauge for the pattern (22 stitches over 28 rows = 4") 70" divided by 4" would be 17½ 22 stitch repeats. 17½ x 22 = 385 stitches to cast on. So, I've arbitrarily decided to cast on 350 stitches using the cable cast on and the 4mm long circular rosewood needles. The pattern is 10 +1 stitches wide and 14 rows deep.

I decided to go ahead and cast on now even if I'm not ready to do the afghan. I'll never knit on it if it's not there to knit on. I've cast on all the stitches and have about 30 stitches done on the first row. This will be long, long term project. At some point it will be too unwieldy to drag around and will become ensconced in the library and doomed to TV knitting or some such.

blogging to:The Retro Cocktail Hour

reading: Mad Mouse by Chris Grabenstein

Parting Shot: "Where does the white go when the snow melts?" ~ Unknown

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Corners of My Mind

First off, thank you for all the kind comments about the Nautical Striped sweater. I'm excited to be this far along with it and have every confidence that (in the end) it will be a great fitting sweater. One I will be proud to wear and to say, I. Knit. This.


The OTHER sleeve is done but I fear it may be a bit too long. I did all the decreases properly so the sleeve cap would turn out fine and would match the armhole bind offs on the front and back. I just shortened the rows I knit between the decreases and I think it's going to be too long. I haven’t cut the yarn binding the sleeve to the skeins yet because I'm pretty sure I'll be froggin' the top of the sleeve.

However, now that I know what the top of the sleeve looks like I can go ahead and seam both shoulders, pick up the stitches around the neck and do the red garter stitch neckband. I'll seam one of the sides (as per the directions), baste the sleeve seam and baste in the one sleeve. Then I can seam the other side seam and try it on.

All this is fiddly work (blech!) so I may do it in stages. I gotta be in the mood to do that sorta thing. Meanwhile, I could cast on for the remaining sleeve. I’ve got at least 15” to knit before I even begin the sleeve head shaping.


But I did NOT cast on for the sleeve. Instead I picked up the Child's First Sock in Shell Pattern. It's a Nancy Bush sock (Duh!! ~ Do I seem to knit any OTHER kind anymore?) from her book Knitting Vintage Socks. The yarn is Schaeffer ~ Anne and the colorway is Silver Sage. This is what it looked like the last time I spent any time with it. This lace seems so easy. It just flows. Eight stitches in the pattern and it's so easy. Why isn't the Evelyn Clark shawl Paws To Remember that easy? Well, maybe now it could be. I don't remember the socks being this easy. They were a bit of a struggle. Anyway, I did almost a whole pattern repeat. The sock leg doesn't LOOK any longer to me but there are 8 more rounds marked down.

edited to add: I was posting an update on these socks on Ravelry and the last time I knit on these was Nov 26, 2007. Almost THREE months ago! WoW!

And since we're strolling down memory lane here, it's been a while since I posted info about the Nautical Striped sweater pattern. It's from Louisa Harding's book Modern Classics. This is the sweater that made me want to buy the book. The yarn I'm using is Reynolds Saucy in a bright white, slate blue and red.

This afternoon while Sweetie was napping, I downloaded some more podcasts. That Brenda Dayne that has the Cast On podcast has the most calming voice. That's what I was knitting the sock to. Maybe that's why it was going so well.

blogging to: Pandora Radio seeded with David Arkenstone

reading: Mad Mouse by Chris Grabenstein

Parting Shot: "I am a part of all that I have met." ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

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What Know You of Ready?

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Notes to self:

1. STOP CHECKING SPINNING BOOKS OUT OF THE LIBRARY!!! (Make it stop!)
Because when I do I read about spinning it ups that spinning urge just a little. Not enough to actually want to sit and down work with my spindle but each time I pick one up it ratchets up one more notch. If I sat down and READ the spinning book instead of skimming through it and reading bits here and there I probably would break out the spindle. The one I got today was Spin To Knit by Shannon Okey.

2. STOP LISTENING TO LIME & VIOLET (not really)
When I listen to one of their podcasts, (actually episode 52 was Carin & Violet) makes me want to buy yarn and/or spin. They talked a lot about spinning in that episode. I think that's what made me get the spinning book from the library. Well, at least I didn't go on-line and buy yarn!!! Also, I tend to live with Miss Violet in my head for the next several hours.


I've been going gangbusters (or so it seems to me) on the OTHER sleeve to the Nautical Striped sweater. It's now about 15½" inches long and I am so done with the increasing. About 2½" more inches to go and I start decreasing for the sleeve head. Doesn't seem right. Work my derrière off to get all the increases in and done right and I only knit even for three lousy inches before I begin decreasing. Oh. Well.


Running all kinds of errands this afternoon I stopped off at the post office to get more stamps. I can't get the the pretty stamps at the grocery store. Along with the last of the Vintage Mahogany Speedboat stamps — some Yoda stamps, I got. Yes, hmmm.*

* see the Yoda-Speak Generator in the side bar under Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

blogging to: Pandora seeded with Lionel Hampton

reading: Mad Mouse by Chris Grabenstein

Parting Shot: “The Force will be with you, always.” ~ Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi

Captured Images

Yes, I finally have some updated photos of the Nautical Striped sweater. With the proper shaping it could be a nice tank, if I wore those, which I don't. The astute will notice the safety pin on the left side of the front about halfway up the front armhole. That IS a dropped stitch which will be dealt with during the seaming.

Blogger is a bit messed up this evening. My font formatting is not available and it's not auto or manual saving. We'll see how this goes when I actually Publish.

I'm still just knitting on the OTHER sleeve. In the photo I'm at 11" but now I have 13" and 71 stitches on the needles. The immediate goal is 75 stitches and 18" then I can start the sleeve head shaping. That also takes several rows but they get progressively shorter as I bind off and decrease. That should go fairly quickly.

I've also been giving some thought to making the cotton afghan out of this leftover yarn. Well, NOW, I'm thinking about making the blue & red Regatta sweater (scroll down) with this yarn. One of the decisions will be will it be a WHITE and blue sweater or a BLUE and white sweater. Whether or not it'll be long or short sleeved also remains to be seen.

I've saved the HTML code to a word processor in case this bombs so here goes.

blogging to: a Linux podcast

reading: Murder Needs Imagination by Roderic Jefferies

Parting Shot: "There are more of them than us." ~ Herb Caen

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Détente

The OTHER sleeve, the NEW red yarn and I finally getting along. I've even remembered to do the blue stripes AND the regular decreases at the proper times. The entire sleeve is just under seven inches long now and looks quite nice. I've got eleven more inches to go before I can begin to shape the sleevehead. I've even started the fourth skein of white. This will probably take me through both sleeves and then some.

Now that all the drama is sorted I haven't knit a stitch on it today. I've got it sitting right here just waiting. Reading knit blogs always inspires me pick up the needles if I don't particularly have the urge.

One of these days I'll put the sleeves down for a couple of minutes and pick-up something else to knit on. But nothing's calling to me like the Nautical Striped sweater. I think that for the most part (ignoring the sleeve debacle), it's because it's an easy no-brainer stockinette stitch knit. Back and forth. Knit one row and purl back.

Since yesterday's post when I realized that I'll have nine balls of white yarn left I've been seriously thinking about using this leftover yarn for the cotton blanket. We already like the colors. And the white and slate blue will work for either one. Now I'll mull a bit on which one and if I really want to do it with the white and slate.

blogging to: Pandora seeded with Acoustic Alchemy

reading: Blown by Francine Mathews

Parting Shot: "Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die." ~ Carrie Fisher

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And the Knit Goes On

Does cotton yarn shrink WHILE you're knitting? The first 47 times I reknit the red garter stitch cuff I had enough yarn. The last two times I reknit it I didn't have enough. It seems that no matter now short I made the cast on end I either did not have enough or just barely enough (with only an inch or two) left over. Crazy talk, I know.

I finally yielded to the inevitable, put aside the last flawed reknit and cast on with new red yarn. And everything worked, except that I apparently have lost the ability to count to ten. I'm ready to do the second blue stripe and I'm three rows past where it should be. On the first blue stripe I was only one row. So I'm frogging. Again.

Soon, however, in less than ten rows, I'll be knitting even except for the occasional (every ten rows at this point) increase at each edge.

One thing that I really like about this yarn is when you have to frog or tink the loops stand right up ready for whatever. And believe me I KNOW.

From the amount of knitting I have left (two sleeves, the neckband and seaming) and the amount of yarn remaining, I'll have a GREAT start on the cotton blanket, as long as I was planning to use white (9 balls), slate (2 balls) and red (most of 1 ball). I bought it the last of November, first of December so I suppose I could take what's left back. I'll have to think about that.
Sweetie discovered a new free music streaming audio service via Linux Questions called Pandora.* You start by typing in a favorite song or artist and Pandora matches the type and style of you selection and plays other selections based on what you entered. After a certain number of songs you need to register and it's free. You can, of course, upgrade but I like the free so far. Since it IS streaming audio, it will probably play havoc with dial-up. I'm so glad we were able to get DSL.

*NAYY ~ There are many of these type of sites. This is just the one we happened onto first.

blogging to: streaming audio on Pandora seeded with Acoustic Alchemy

reading: Blown by Francine Mathews

Parting Shot: "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." ~ Albert Einstein

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When in Doubt, Mumble

OK. I'm officially making the OTHER sleeve. I'm not making the sleeve I WAS because it refuses to be made so I'm making the OTHER sleeve. And although I'm using the same yarn (AGAIN!) it's for the OTHER sleeve. How many times can you re-use Reynolds Saucy, anyway?

My tale of woe: After all the problems I had I'd finally, I thought, gotten a good start. I had the red garter stitch cuff done and was just past the second blue stripe, all the increases in and life was good. Until I decided to see how the cuff would fit. You'd think I'd try it before I got to row 29, huh. Well, it fit, but it was almost too small. GAAA! And so I frogged it and rewound all the yarn. Not that much but it would make starting AGAIN!! a bit easier.

I've long since cut the red yarn from the skein on the first cast on and so there is a finite amount I keep knitting with. I don't even count the rows anymore on the cuff. I keep knitting until I don't have enough yarn to do any more rows. That's how I know I've got six rows of red garter stitch cuff. Isn't this getting a little ridiculous?

So anyway, instead of coming down 16 from the original 51 stitch cast on I halved the difference — eight — and cast on 43. It was going well. I was past the red garter stitch and 3 rows into the white stockinette and my first increase when I looked down at the red cuff and saw a weird stitch. Right on top of the cuff where I could not help but see it every. time. I wore the sweater. AAAK!

So, yes, I did frog it. On the second go-around after THAT I left too much of a tail on the cast on edge and I ran outta yarn!!! (throws hands in the air.)

When I cast on AGAIN . . . tomorrow, it will be for the OTHER sleeve. I wonder if it's too late to make this into a sleeveless shell or a vest.

blogging to: the sound of chocolate cookies, crunching and cold milk, sipping

reading: When Bobbie Sang the Blues by Peggy Darty

Parting Shot: "If at first you don't succeed, look in the trash for the instructions." ~ unknown

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Wind up the Masquerade

The first sleeve of the Nautical Striped sweater and are having issues. I cast on, knit the red garter stitch band and 10 rows of white stockinette. I curled the cuff around my wrist and decided it was way to big. I have narrow wrists. So I decided how much too bit and frogged it. And that's apparently where the problems began.

All day playing with this cuff and I just frogged the same three rows of stockinette again. This was after it took say . . . two or was it three tries to get the garter stitch band done properly. Things like dropping an end stitch (haven't figured out how to fix those yet — not a problem knitting in the round), or starting the white stockinette on the wrong end of the garter stitch band. Little teeny problems but that gotta be dealt with and the earlier the better. At least I've down to only frogging the stockinette now and not the whole thing.

The good thing is the cuff (at this point) is only 35 stitches — down from my original cast on of 51 stitches. So in about 3" I've got to increase 16 stitches, actually 18 as on row 3 of the white stockinette you need to officially increase one at each end. That I have got under control, I think.

I've blocked the front and back. Fairly easy, I didn't even have to pin it out, I just ironed it. It cut down on the edges curling and it does look more finished.

I've never done set in sleeves. The shoulders are stepped in the bind off. After you do the neck band it says, "Join side and sleeve seams." Then it says, "Match center of cast off edge to shoulder, set in sleeve". That just seems bass-ackward to me but as this is only my second "real" sweater I'm just going to whine a bit.

I don't have a sleeve done and it's also stepped in the bind off at the top. I'm not sure how much of the shoulder is shoulder seam and how much goes with the sleeve top. I don't have any experience with this type of sleeve. So I'm not going to do the shoulder seams and neckband until I get this one sleeve done so I can see for myself what's going on in that area. Not asking for help just lettin' you know about the slight change in direction. But I still do plan to do the neck band in the round. That part, at least, hasn't changed. So, back to the sleeve war.

blogging to: The Retro Cocktail Hour

reading: When Bobbie Sang the Blues by Peggy Darty

Parting Shot: "The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking places." ~ Unknown

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Say It Ain't So!

I just finished Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince by J K Rowling.

Here be spoilers.








GO BACK NOW if you haven't finished this book or read this book or seen the movie.










I'm warnin' ya.







THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE. If you've not read this or the previous Harry Potter books turn click away now or page down to the next post.














OK. WoW! I had to post about this. And well, vent.

All the time during the confrontation in the Astronomy Tower with Malfoy I kept thinking Dumbledore's fakin' it. He's luring Draco into thinking he's weak. And then when Snape hit him with the curse I still refused to believe right up until the last word on the last page in the book. And I still don't believe it.

With all the talk of Horcruxes I can't believe that not one of the three thought that maybe Dumbledore had one. Yes, I realize you had to have murdered someone but there could have been extenuating circumstances. It's Dumbledore!! And maybe he knew something like this would happen. And there has to have been a reason that Dumbledore trusted Snape like he did — even unto the end (if it really was his end). Nope still don't believe it.

It's a trap to make Lord Voldemort think Harry's now unprotected or no where near as protected.

OMG! I can't imagine reading the book, having the reaction I did and not knowing for TWO YEARS. I'm going to savor the suspense a bit.

I'm going to finish the other five books (non-related — all mysteries) I've checked out of the library. Then I'm going to get the next and final book along with my usual clutch of mysteries and read it LAST!
































the end

Film at Eleven

As you know, Sweetie's Black socks are done. I finally got a halfway decent shot of them and even it's not all that fantastic. Somehow these socks want to be photographed in the snow. All the shots of these socks are in snow so who am I to buck tradition. (Don't answer that!) So here they are. In the snow.

I've also completed the front of my Nautical Striped sweater. Now that the front and back are done I can block them. The directions say to pin the pieces to an ironing board to the measurements given and iron them, wrong side up. I hope they fit on the ironing board. If not, I'll securely pin a heavy towel to my blocking board, pin the pieces to the towel and iron it there.

Until I can get to that mess, I'll cast on for one of the sleeves.

And meanwhile the search for the next sweater project is over almost before it began. I'd written a paragraph here about the search and had stopped waiting for further inspiration. While I was not typing, I was idly leaving through my sweater books — not that many — and came across this in Cotton Knitting edited by Sally Harding. The name of the sweater is Regatta by Hicks & Hobro. Sorry about the blurry photo but you get the idea. Are you completely SHOCKED! that I went for another nautical-themed sweater??!!

I DO plan to make some changes. First off, it's going to be short-sleeved. And I'm going to do the stripes so that they wrap around to the back on that on side. I think that would look cooler than stopping and starting at the side seam. Because. It's all about. The cool.

And since this is for SUMMER! the pattern calls for a medium weight cotton which is fine. Maybe I'll use the Reynolds Saucy again but first I'll see what else is out there. This book was published in 1987 and does have some great '80's sweaters. The yarn, I'm sure is no more. In fact (peering at the pattern) it doesn't even specify a yarn, just says to use "a medium weight cotton yarn". Okay. Whatever gives me gauge would be good. I'll probably change the colors around. I'll have to ponder on that — blue (maybe a crisp navy instead of slate) and white — red and white. Hmmm.

Oh, yes. So exciting.

blogging to: a quiet house

reading: Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince by J K Rowling

Parting Shot: "It makes you wonder, doesn't it? Just how normal are we? Just who are the people we nod our hellos to as we pass on the street? A rather good question to ask — particularly in 'The Twilight Zone'." ~ Rod Serling

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Keep Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

The Nautical Striped sweater is just flowing off the needles. It helps that I had only two tall and one medium stripe to do before I started the armhole decreases. And since I'd already deciphered the pattern I could just knit instead of knit and frog.

There is something about stockinette that is soothing. It's repetitive which means it could also be boring. Maybe it's the stripes that keep it interesting. I know when I've done striped socks and I've put the stripes in an otherwise solid color sock, I look forward to the stripes. The stitch is the same but it's with a different color and you can look back and see progress, even one row's worth.

I'm currently on the narrow stripe section of the front. I've about 10 rows until I start the shoulder shaping for the front, 10 rows before I started it for the back. Now the question's going to be: Do I stay with convention and the directions and do the sleeves next or flaunt it (because sometimes even though I don't have it I think I know where it is)? I may do a fiddley bit next.

I may go ahead and block the front and back. Meanwhile, I'll cast on and at least start a sleeve. When the front and back pieces have been blocked, I'm going to lay down the sleeve, sew the shoulder seams and pick up the neckband stitches. Again, I'm going against the directions. I thought about doing this (after it was too late) on my gray cabled sweater and it was reinforced by Roxie in a comment, I think. (Yes, I really do listen, sometimes.) Instead of doing the left shoulder seam and then picking up the neck stitches I'm going to do both shoulder seams and knit the neckband in the round. No seams. That was such a fiddley mess last time trying to get it looking nice.

This one will show more. The gray cabled sweater had a collar hiding much of the neckband.

Now that I've had multiple WIPs for several months now I don't know if it's for me. I can only work on one project at a time and I tend to tunnel vision (a long time problem) and only work on that one project. True, I've had several projects in a row that needed to be done so I needed to concentrate on them. But now those are all done and the knitting is just for me as my SIL (the intended recipeint of two of them) doesn't know they're for her. As I have them all still out there . . . waiting . . . I'm going to keep this little experiment going.

Which is why I'm already thinking about my next sweater. A cotton one for summer, perhaps. And not really a sweater. More like a knit T with short instead of cap sleeves and a shallow V neck. I'm going to see how this stockinette looks before I commit to another one. I just may dig into my copy of The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns by Ann Bud and see what I come up with.

Once I get another successful sweater under my belt (please note the optimism) I think I'm going to tackle one for Sweetie. The knitting of the sweater doesn't bother me so much as the puzzling out of the directions and the finishing. He's got a couple great cotton fair isle sweaters that I may use for inspiration. I'll do the sweater in a soft merino or something that would feel soft next to the the skin. Life's too short to knit or wear scratchy.

And ya know, I still haven't done anything about the afghans I want to knit. I'm enjoying this Reynolds Saucy so much that I'm going to do the cotton one first. I guess I should think about getting the yarn, huh.

blogging to: cowboy songs on YouTube

reading: Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince by J K Rowling

Parting Shot:
"Bacon's not the only thing
That's cured by hanging from a string."
~ Hugh Kingsmill

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Another Brick in the Wall

The Black socks are done. Even the ends are woven in. I always seems to finish stuff at night in the winter and these were completed Monday evening. Sweetie tried them on and hasn't taken them off. So no FO! photos yet. Each sock took 10 days to knit.

Now I can devote all my time, such as it is, to some of my other knitting projects. It feels strange to be on my intended knitting schedule again, finally. Last night after finishing the socks I could work guilt-free on my sweater. It feels odd not working on a large (boring) sock. I started the Burr Oak socks on Nov 17. By the time they were done on Dec 23. On the 27th I cast on for the first of three watch caps. I finished those on Jan 11. I'd cast on for the scarf on Jan 6 and it was done on the 17th. That same day I cast on for Sweetie's Black socks.

I'd actually cast on for the sweater on Nov 25. I just did the garter stitch bottom border while I waited for the white yarn. I got it on Dec 4 and started the main body of the sweater. I'd knit on it here and there. On Dec 12 I'd made it to the armholes on the back. Four days later I cast on for the front. On Dec 26 I basted the front and back together and tried it on, it fit and the length was perfect. I didn't made much progress between Boxing Day and today.

And now I've finished the back. It is complete, except for the ends. GAAA! I'm not looking forward to weaving in ends on this cotton. Probably the only drawback with this yarn so far.

Monday it was 68°F. / 20°C. The air felt like a caress. Today we have temps of 34°F. / 1°C. and it feels like a smack. It poured at daybreak with lightening and thunder and it''s been drizzling / misting all day. Once the temperature droped to freezing we were treated to freezing rain and sleet and when it got a bit lower, snow. NOW, they're saying 5-7". February really IS the cruelest month. Yesterday it was SPRING! And today we're plunged back into WINTER. Well, at least it's February and not November!

blogging to: classical music on the radio

reading: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J K Rowling

Parting Shot: "Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet." ~ Roger Miller

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Lullaby in Blogland

Those brave bloggers doing the Blog365.Ning thing. These bloggers are blogging every single day in 2008. Though I blog often, I don't think I have it in me to do it every day — especially once Spray's in the water. But it's nice to KNOW that these folks will have fresh stuff every day. I have three (so far) that I'm reading, all knit blogs:

• AmpuTeeHee
• Now Norma Knits
• Sandy's Knitting (This is Saturday Sky Sandy)

I've been reading the AmpuTeeHee for well over a year now. I recently re-discovered Norma and Sandy. Through Norma I've also recently latched onto Zeneedle aka Margene and The Scottish Lamb blog.

Totally unrelated but this is a funny post.

I've also updated the sidebar. I've added a new category for podcasts called You Are There. And, yes, keeping with the theme, it IS a Xena episode. These are the two I've actually listened to that have current episodes. There are a LOT more out there, I just haven't been there yet. I've checked all the links and they all work as of this post. If you find any that don't let me know.

You may (or may not) have noticed that I've started doing the label thing at the bottom of each post. Someday I'll figure out how to do a word cloud in the side bar.

And I've been doing a bang-up job of keeping the On The Needles updated. Yeah, still no fancy progress bars. Oh, well.

I've also been putting links (when I can find them and when appropriate) to the music (or whatever) I'm listening to when I blog and the book I'm currently reading (or slogging through, as the case may be).

blogging to: Nirvana Café by Karunesh

reading: Gatekeeper by Archer Mayor

Parting Shot: "We have a good time together, even when we're not together." ~ Yogi Berra

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And They Said It Wouldn't Last

Sunday is our Twenty-Ninth Wedding Anniversary. We've got dinner out planned at one of our favorite restaurants. Other than that we'll just spend the day like we normally would. And isn't that the best celebration of your life together. To go on.

Knowing that I am always late to the party I found a plethora of free patterns the other day and I've been downloading and copying the non-PFD files into a word processor like mad. It's the Berroro Pattern Library. A lot of relics but some good ones, too.

So not a lot of knittin's been goin' on here but some has. I finally got around to taking an updated photo of my Lorna's Laces Simple Sock in the Mountain Creek colorway. I've been knitting on this sock since last September. It's my stoplight knitting sock and my I don't have to concentrate even if the light's bad sock. So it only gets picked up now and again. I love how the colors came together on the heel flap and where I turned the heel. And what's neat when do the mate, it'll be the same but different depending on what on the yarn. Always interesting with these types of yarn.

I also took an updated shot of my Nautical Striped sweater. It was hard to keep the edges uncurled but that's a pretty good shot of it. That stripe that looks wider than the others isn't. I saw that in the photo and 'bout broke my neck going to see if it was. It must be the way I had it laid out on the swing. When I do work on it, it just flies off the needles. And the front is already done to the armholes so I feel like things are going well with this particular knit.

Since I've been spending most of my knitting time with Sweetie's Black socks everything else has been sorely neglected. I'm over 1/3 of the way done with the foot. It's got 75 rounds and I'm currently knitting on round 30. Then I can revert back to my grand plan. And I'm almost ready to tackle the Paws to Remember shawl again.

blogging to: Space Capades ~ Ultra Lounge Music ~ “Atomic-Age Audities and Hi-Fi Hi-Jinks!”

reading: Gatekeeper by Archer Mayor

Parting Shot: "It's so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life." ~ Rita Rudner

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