Back to The Knitting

I have one month of unemployment in front of me and I am going to enjoy every bit of it. I have started the month off by knitting a baby bog for my nephew. This an Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern from her Knitting Around book.



The yarn is Schachenmayr nomotta Extra Merino Big that I bought from Webs during the Atlanta Stitches event. This is some fantastic yarn. The stitch definition is beautiful and it really have a nice feel to it. It has enough structure to ensure the two year old I’m making it for doesn’t destroy it but soft enough that he should enjoy wearing it.

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Best of all, this yarn is machine washable. I’ve got to get back to the knitting. I hope all you employed people have a great working week.

Stiches Recap

Stitches South in Atlanta was great and I had tons and tons of fun. Mandy and I went down for the entire event, beginning to end and I am thrilled we had that time away. I wasn’t able to blog from the event. Hotel connection was a bit too costly. I decided to spent that money on yarn instead.
Photos aren’t allowed on the market floor but I was able to get some great pictures of the knitted flowers that the Atlanta Knitting Guild provided for the conference dinners. Enjoy. More about my new stash additions later.

Packing For Stitches South

Look for a lot of posts this week. Just think of it as me catching up with all of the time I was away.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​




The first Stitches South starts on Thursday in Atlanta. I will be attending with my friend Mandy and I’m ready to go! One more day of work and I am free. I’m not going to take a lot of ongoing projects with me. I know it looks like a lot in the picture, but really it’s not. I’m taking some cotton with me for some mindless knitting during those times when funny and interesting conversations won’t let you concentrate on a pattern. I’m taking a one skein hat pattern. I hope I can knock that one out pretty quickly. I’m so close to finishing the Manitou scarf so that has to go. The Market Bag at the front has been hibernating for a year. I’m hoping to at least work on it for a few rounds. It’s going to take a little while to get re-aquainted with the pattern. I made a big mistake in stopping in the middle of a round. I know, smart huh? I’m hoping to finally get started on my fuzzy anklet socks. I’ve got two colors of that yarn and since they are both in the same bag, they both get to ride down to Atlanta.

The rest of the yarn is scraps and skeins that I’ve got set aside for my classes. I’ve got three (Armhole Success, A Sampling of Stitches, and Darn It). And I have homework to do for all three. Only one left to go. I hoping to get that one knocked out tomorrow.

For now, I am off to pack. I’ve got the fiber part of my packing done, but I haven’t set out any clothing. Stay tuned to my blog this weekend for posts from ground zero of the south’s first Stitches fiber festival.

Still Testing

I’m determined to get this up and running so I can blog from Stitches South.

Getting Ready For the Road

This weekend I spent some time putting some projects together. I will soon be on the road for a week and a half and want to take some knitting along with me. I bagged up several projects and I as I start packing, I'll decide which go on the trip with me. Setting things out and getting them organized definitely makes me more excited about starting new projects. I've been tempted all day with the cleaning and laundry to just sit down and start one of them. I've held it off and I'll reward myself when I sit down to watch Brothers and Sisters later.

I did start the weekend off with some finishing. I finally bought buttons for my Calorimetries and I finished the socks I was working on. I can't wait to wear them. I also put the tabs on the knitted Swiffer covers so they are ready for use. I'm really excited about making projects that are fully functional that allowed me stress relief when making them. I also finished the skirt I was sewing for my sister. My Bernina is still in the shop but I was able to get it finished in class. As soon as I get it ironed, I will take and post pictures.

This has been a really tough couple of weeks for me but I know that in light of everything that could be, I am truly blessed. A young family member of mine is having a really tough time and it's caused me to reflect on myself quite a bit. I've also been reflecting on the possibility of the people you depend on to be your greatest support turning into your greatest enemies. There's a fine line we all walk and the internal choices we make daily are the only things keeping us on the right side of the line.

Which side are you walking right now?

I Am Serious About This!

I am all about getting yarn out of the stash, especially considering Stitches South is coming up and I know I am going to come home with too much new yarn.  So I am knitting away, determined to get at least half of my stash into projects for me or for the many new babies that keep sprouting up in my life. I track my yarn in Ravelry and right now I have 82 yarns (Some of these yarns consists of several skeins) in my stash. They can only come out of the active stash when they have been completely knit up or given away.  So, the goal for April 20th of this year is to be down to 41 yarns or less.  I encourage you all to do the same.

I was happy to find the Amelia Earhart Cap pattern that I used for the little cap in the last posting. It can be knit using one skein of yarn and is really cute.  Be careful that the yarn you use has at least 140+ yards though. The latest is white and very cute.

 I have already cast on the next project which will allow me to knock one more yarn off my count.  It's knitting up beautifully so I'm looking forward to finishing.  I'll post more about it later.  I have some  knitting time scheduled with friends later so I may just be able to finish it this weekend.

Aside from getting to clear the stash, all of the knitting is giving me some much needed stress relief.  I did so well to make it through the work week and I attribute it to the knitting.

Inside Outside Procrastination

When I am stressed and need to get things done, I tend to procrastinate.  And I'm talking really bad procrastination.  I am so behind on a project at work and this thing is not going away.  It refuses to leave my desk.  I even brought it home tonight to work on it and what have I been doing?  Washing dishes, folding laundry, watching television and knitting.  And don't forget blogging.  But this is my last act of rebellion--okay, next to last.  I'm going to walk on the treadmill before giving in to working.

For the most part, today's procrastination is brought to you by the Inside Outside Scarf which was introduced to me during Stitches East 2008. 

It is a free patten that XRX is giving away to promote the new Knit One Below book.  If you have not yet seen this book, check it out.  It is amazing!  The technique takes a little thought but once you get it, it's super easy.  For this first project I've decided to use two completely contrasting yarns as it's a little difficult to see the pattern with just the gray yarn pulled from the inside and outside of the ball.  Here's a close up of the pattern.

 It makes a really nice and impressive looking color-work fabric.  the back also looks nice.

Okay, I'm off to the treadmill now.  Good night.

Nanowrimo

No, I didn't finish or win Nanowrimo by writing a 50,000 word novel, but I made a good stab at it.  It was my first year participating and between the business travel, Stitiches, and Thanksgiving, I was lucky to get out as many words as I did.  I finished with a total of 14,443 words.  I didn't do the standard novel.  Instead I decided to do a memoir and it was the best thing I could have done for myself.  It really does help to write things out even if you never intend anyone to read it.  And who knows, my secrets just may become public one day.  But the experience has gotten me off to a good start on my writing and I hope to get some personal, fictional and professional writing published in the next year.

To that end, I will be participating in National Novel Writing Year (www.wriye.co.nr).  Since it started, they have dropped the national as it is more like international and also dropped the novel since people are interested in writing all sorts of things.  So, you set a goal and work on it throughout the year.  I will be working on a series of short stories and engineering/project management papers.  I have no idea just yet what my word count goal will be for the year, but I will not be waiting until next year to start as I've already got plenty of ideas.

And just to give you a bit of visual stimulation, I am including a picture of my niece and nephew who I adore greatly when they are not being bratty as both are prone to being at times. :)  She is 17 and he is 1.  Also by different siblings.

Thanksgiving 2008

Hello all.  I know it's been quite some time (a month!) since I've blogged.  November was a very busy month.  I was on business travel in the Pittsburgh area for the first half of the month and I attended Stitches East in Baltimore and I participated in Nanowrimo and I hosted the family at my home for Thanksgiving.  That was a lot people!

Stitches East was fabulous but I didn't take any pictures so I can't show you any of the greatness.  I took two classes--one on I-cord edging and one on color/texture combining of yarns.  I enjoyed them a lot.  I went with my friend Mandy and we have already reserved our hotel room for Stitches South 2009 in Atlanta.  And because I have so many points from all the business travel I've been doing, I was able to get our room free so we have more budget for classes and yarn, although I'm looking to spend on the classes.  I bought way too much yarn during Stitches, but most of it was spent at 2 of the local shops rather than at Stitches itself.  But there was one vendor at Stitches that had a $15 bag special.  You are given a paper bag of good size--it was by no means a small bag.  You could fill the bag up with as much yarn as you wanted and it was only $15.  I got so much yarn in that bag!  And nothing was single skeins.  I was on a mission to get 2+ skeins of anything I purchased and for the most part I stuck with that.  I did buy single skeins of two colors of Valley Yarns Northhampton from Webs but that was just because there is so much yardage in a ball.

A lot of the knitting I've been doing during November was swatches of stuff I learned during Stitches but I did manage to get some felted boxes done.  They are more bowl shaped because I left them in the washer for a full cycle and just threw them in the dryer to dry.  I didn't bother trying to shape them.  And actually I like them better this way.  The fabric is much more stiff than if I had shaped it like I did a box I made some time back.

I did a three box/bowl set and will take two to work to contain all my paper and binder clips. The goal was to get rid of the 100% felting wool in my stash.  For the most part I achieved that.  I still have a little bit left from which I'll probably knit and felt a coaster for my bed side table.  I hate putting a glass of ice next to my bed at night and waking up to a puddle of water under the glass.

Before the family arrived, I spent some time knitting up some chenille hand towels.  Mandy had given me four skeins of Lion Brand Chenille and having no idea what to do with it, I went on a search in Ravelry and found a pattern for washcloths that I

thought would work well since I had two contrasting colors.  I've done three of them so far and I'm working on the fourth but I still have enough yarn left over to do at least 1 to 2 more.  

Upon seeing the felted boxes/bowls, hand towels and all the burp and wash cloths I knitted up for my friend Ching Sia's baby, my mother decided she wanted to re-learn to knit.  Now she is the one that taught me to knit so it was a bit of an adjustment to teach the teacher.  I gave her a set of needles and some cotton and walked her through the pattern and she picked it up rather quickly, finishing two wash cloths before leaving.  I'm so proud as I've been pushing her to pick back up a hobby in her old age (okay she's not that old but I want her to have something better to do in her free time than shopping).  She's off to a running start.  

I sent her home with another skein of cotton and some 100% Vintage Fisherman's wool all of which I got at Stitches East.  She is going to do more wash cloths and also the Felted Boxes from the first Mason Dixon book.  She wrote the pattern down but I went and bought her a copy of it at the fabulous Thanksgiving sale at Krazy Knitz in Dalton, GA.  I just need to get the book in the mail to her.  Okay more to come later.  This post is already long enough.

Too Much Going On

There has been a lot going on in my world the last couple of weeks. The main thing is that I am gearing up for Nanowrimo 2008. I will be attempting to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. It's going to be a push considering I'm starting the month off with Stitches 2008 and ending with hosting the family for Thanksgiving. But I will be writing and I will be striving for that goal. You'll see additional changes to the blog as we approach the start so check back often.