An impressive site to visit

If you want to be totally blown away by what can be done with knitting, check out this:

http://mygreenweddingdress.blogspot.com/. A bride is knitting an incredible lace train for the wedding dress she designed. I've been enjoying watching her progress since seeing her mentioned on the Mason Dixon site. When I think a project is too huge, I think about what she's doing. I was a crazy bride - I made my own dress and all the bouquets - but never in a million years would I have taken on this project. (Maybe that's not true - I didn't know how to knit back then).

Water fun

A little bit of coolness for your hot day.

This is what summer should be about! (I say as I dash off to a meeting - inside)

May your days be filled with lots of summer

A walk in the woods

Leave it to my Springer to find the only water around - never mind that there was just enough to make a mud pool - he was just thrilled to be "swimming." Can you believe I had to let that into my car? I thought seriously about tying him to the roof, but DH nixed that idea.

I will say this - at least a dirty dog is a happy dog!

Sew it's done

One day several months ago, I mentioned to my good blogging friend Bonnie how much I loved the skirt she made. She kindly offered me her extra fabric.

Apparently, I've been watching a few too many Project Runways. Who needs a pattern? I had a vision - a side slit skirt with buttons to hold it together. I've sewn enough to know the basic principles, but there was still the little matter of figuring out what pieces at what sizes. The mock up came out great. So the skirt should have been a pice of cake, right? Well, not so much. It didn't help that I stopped in the middle for a few weeks and forgot what I meant to do with all the pieces.

I discovered that I have achieved a new found patience from knitting. I was okay with undoing things to fix them - mostly because it's so much faster to redo them than in knitting!

Mostly I'm glad I finished before the end of summer!

Run baby Run

No knitting last night - just a lot of running.

DH and I completed a 5k in Marblehead.

It's the race that almost wasn't. The new clerk at the Burger King didn't know she was supposed to get the small coffe I ordered (for DH) and so we were delayed 5, 10 minutes. Which shouldn't have mattered, but we hit traffic (mad traffic, according to DD15). We arrived in Marblehead at 6:18 for a race that started at 6:25. We had to park a 10 minute walk away. Being as capable as anyone of the math, it was clear that we would have to run to the startline! Uphill.

DH ran ahead to get us registered. I realized I had to go to the bathroom - as in I am not going to be able to start let alone finish the race. I was relieved (get it) to see a line of port-o-potties. I formally apologize to all of those in the very long line that I did not see as I dashed into one of said port o-potties when someone popped out. (These were the runners getting ready for the 10K, which started after the 5K).

We heard the gun go off just as a kind woman was instructing us on how to use the new fangled electronic tracking system that attaches to your shoe. We dashed off crossing the start line well past all the other runners.

Thankfully, there were a lot of walkers so I didn't end up at the end of the race for the entire time. I managed to even catch a few (slow) runners.

About half way through, I was ready to join the walkers, but I managed to talk myself into continuing. If I can finish the Secrets of the Stole, I told myself, certainly I can finish this race!

I wasn't even demoralized when the 10K runners came rushing past me at about mile 2, bless their speedy hearts.

In the end, I would call it a success. Of course, my only goal this time was to actually finish the race. Maybe next year I'll try to finish in the top two-thirds!

Yet another obscure knitting reference

I was taking a short knitting break amid a busy Sunday afternoon and catching the tail end of The Wedding Singer (Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore). In nearly the last scene, Sandler is telling the passengers in first class how he is heading to Las Vegas to stop the girl he loves from marrying a jerk. I looked up from my knitting to see one of the passengers knitting!

I think the funny thing is that I've seen that movie probably a dozen times and never caught that detail!

It's a cute movie if you need a quick 80s fix.

Another beach knit

After finishing my niece's hat, I had left overs of a scrumptious cotton yarn, momentum and motivation. A woman who was renting the cottage across the street from us was expecting her first baby in August and she was a knitter. I figured a knitter could appreciate being given a baby hat by someone who was practically a stranger since we had just met that week. By this time it was just two days before she was leaving. Being a journalist, I thrive on deadlines!

This is my go-to baby hat for girls based on a hat someone knit for me when I had my first baby. Basically, you cast on twice as many stitches as you need for the hat, knit one round and then knit two together all the way around. I add a row of eyelets about a half an inch from the bottom for a ribbon or cord. I usually crochet a cord rather than make an eye cord. It's thinner and much, much faster.

For this hat, I started in white, moved to the verigated and then switched back to the white at the very top.

I finished it in one day only by walking and knitting it the whole time. This, not surprisingly, opened me up to much ridicule from my family, but that's okay - it keeps them busy.

I'm adding a few pics just to show that the sun really does exist! We made this lovely lady for the sand castle "contest" - our team name was "Mer Fun" (get it?...more fun...okay, it's corny, we had just 30 seconds to come up with it!)

The little one is running to "win" a Water Olympics race. She doesn't quite understand the concept that everyone wins. The prize is always the same for everyone - two pieces of candy from a bucket.

There was some rain, but both of the big storms were followed by incredible full rainbows. It seems someone already found the pot of gold!

Vacation (not) Knitting

I always have such high hopes to get so much knitting done on vacation but then I find I'm so busy it doesn't happen. Two weeks and just a few rows to show for it.

Except for this hat. It was cold and my little niece's hat was too big. So auntie had to run right out and buy some yarn to fix the problem. It fit exactly when I was done with it, which means she's probably already out grown it! Still, it was fun to make. I improvised on the brim - I cast on 140 stitches and then decreased 7 stitches every row until I had 70 stitches for the hat. The brim is verigated and the hat part is white. I think it's sort of cute - sort of starfishy on the brim. I'm planning to keep my eyes open for other options. I'm absolutely sure the baby is cute. She's actually not as chubby as she looks in this pic.

As much as anything, it was fun to impress my friends and relatives with how quickly it came together. At the beginning of the day, I had a ball of string. At the end of the day, I had a hat. This, of course, gave them plenty of fodder for teasing me. I even got a request for a parka! It was actually cold enough one night to wear one on the beach. Fortunately, we had very little rain at least.

We have a winner

I'm totally lame since I posted a contest and then didn't post a follow up - until now. We were getting ready for vacation but in the midst, we did pick a winner. I was planning on posting these great pics of picking the winner, but didn't.

Still the winner is:



Congratulations Lisa L.!

I have your prize with me and will send from Connecticut.

I will also post pics soon of the baby hat I am working on while on vacation. It wasn't on my to do list, but her sun hat was too big. What else can a knitter do but knit a new one?

Hope everyone is having a great and sunny summer.
.

Butterflies and Birthdays

I'm not quite sure how it happened since it's all a blur but two days ago I had a three year old and now I have a four year old! This required not just one, but two cakes. The tier of cupcakes (designed by ds in the red tshirt) was for the party with her friends (finger foods - no forks required).

What's fun is how excited she is about everything - she asked for a big pillow, a new comforter, sheets and an armoir for her Build-a-Bear. Hmmm, does she have a future as a decorator?

Prior to the celebrations, I got to use my blocking wires again for Knitty's Flit and Float. I love this pattern - it's much fun and so pretty (except that it rolls into the middle). I think if I did it again, I would make it twice as wide. It would be a gorgeous stole. The design is butterflies - perfect for Spring.

Teenagers and Loud music

You are lucky that this site doesn't come with volume. The teenagers are out of school and they're home. That means loud, obnoxious music! I sound like my parents! Aarrgghh! It's not just the music, it's the singing that goes with the music. Still, better to have them here than hanging around somewhere else getting in trouble, right?

Quick, does anyone have a pattern for knitted ear plugs?

Join me in the Happy Dance

(Make sure to check out the contest in the post below if you haven't already!)

I have finally arrived at the end of a long, long, long journey that proves if you keep moving you will get there eventually even if there are several setbacks along the way. I think I spent as much time unknitting this as I did knitting it!

I started it well over a year ago. It was a Secret of the Stole - clues and rows revealed weekly. Somehow, I fell behind - way behind. When everyone else was wrapping themselves up in their lacy beauty to go off to New Year's Eve parties, I was still struggling along - knitting and then unknitting trying to follow the complicated pattern.

Part of the problem was tha I kept getting side tracked by other, simpler projects that I could actually get done in days or weeks, not months or years.

I kept at it, however, sometimes knitting just two rows at a time (one complicated, one straight purl) I thought for sure I'd have it for last New Year's Eve - but no.

I learned so much from this project - like how to read a chart, how to read my knittng and how to correct knitting several rows back. Now I'm going to have to learn how to close up a hole - the one I made months ago during one of those frogging sessions! I found it when I was blocking - actually when I was taking pictures to post. The best I can figure is that it was a failed k2tog or ssk. I think fixing it will involve some sort of duplicating stitch. Well, at least it should be done by this coming New Year's Eve!

It's blocking on a set of my children's foam blocks. How convenient that they just recently dragged them up from the basement to play with!

A riddle and a contest

I have a riddle for all you clever, creative folks (put your funny on):

How many seam rippers/needle guages/row counters does one crafter have to buy before actually having one when needed!?


On June 24th (my birthday) I will randomly pick the name of someone who answers the question. The prize - your choice of a seam ripper, needle guage or row counter (plus a few surprises on the side)

This is my very first contest so please send your friends over so I won't feel like the school yard geek who no one will play with!

what I would have bought

A few posts back, I mentioned a site called futureme.org where you can send an email to yourself to be delivered in the future. I lamented that you can't send one to your past self like this - buy three skeins of the Cascade 200 in green and a few in pink and blue while it's on sale. No, I had no way of knowing then that I might discover a pattern for what is quite possibly the cutest crocodile ever on the Twist Collective!

Perhaps I could send an email to future me - if you find Cascade 220 on sale - remember the crocodile pattern.

Never buy store made pasta salad again

I had obligated myself to bringing pasta salad to the aforementined birthday party. DH kindly said I should give myself a break and just buy it. The selection at the deli counter, however, was so, well, icky is the only word to describe it. One was too globby, one looked just paltry and another was dried out. There wasn't one I wanted to eat let alone serve anyone else! I was stuck in the store with no recipe just hours before the party so I decided to wing it. What should cooking be if not an adventure? I love what I came up with so much that I want to share it. It's more of a formula than a recipe. It should be easy enough for anyone to remember. It's flexible enough that forgetting an ingredient or two won't matter.

Basically it's this: salad dressing, pasta and some veggies. Make it fancier with mozerella cheese, shrimp or cooked chicken.

The one MUST is pasta! I used corkscrew pasta, although I think any of a number of others would be fine.

Next a couple of bottles of really good salad dressing - I used an Italian Vinegrette, Ceaser and Ranch. At home, I combined them in a bowl - I started out with 1/4 cup each and added a little more of my favorite (the Ranch) until it tasted right. I also added 2 tablespoons of mayonaise, which mellowed the flavor quite a bit. I might have added more, but I ran out.

I found that I about a cup of sauce per pound of pasta. You could use more or less depending on how saucy you like it.

Then I added:
Cherry tomatoes cut in half
Cucumbers sliced small
One can of chopped black olives

Toss the sauce and the veggies with the pasta and 1/4 to 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese.

Optional ingredients:

Mozzeralla cheese (cubed would be best but shredded works)
Red onion
broccolli
Peas
shrimp or cooked chicken

A Shout Out to AAA

I just have to say how glad I am that AAA is in service. I was deep into Boston at a baby's birthday party when I realized that my keys weren't in my purse. I remember locking the car but I couldn't remember checking for the keys like I always do. I dumped out the purse (what a mess! Not a good time to discover how badly it needs to be cleaned out!) I searched the kitchen where I'd been unloading things. With that sinking feeling, I went to the car and looked through the windows. On the third seat of our giant van (there are five rows of seats!) were the keys.

We have just one car and DH was several bus transfers and two train stops away from me on a Sunday when all the services are slow.

I was just about to launch into a full blown panic when I remembered that I didn't have to. It's almost like having a Fairy God Mother in your wallet - call them and all will be well. It was a long wait but just as the sun was going down and the cold was settling in, the white knight came riding up on his giant tow truck. We all agreed that we have never been so happy to get into the van!

The only downside to all of this is that the knitting was locked in the van with the keys!

Recycle This

Just as I am learning to let go of things and purge the clutter, the 7yo dd is learning to save the earth through recycling. I see garbage and she sees building blocks.


How could I squash such creativity? She has taken what I would have put into a landfill and turned it into a stuffed animal's delight. The first is a car wash for the animals. They go in "dirty" and come out "clean," she explained. The second is a hutch for a rabbit - the real rabbit she hopes I will buy her this summer! (Not sure where she got that idea - I have no plans for a live bunny)

So what if there are little pieces of cardboard all over the living room. So what if she unpacked a full recycling bin and scattered the contents from one end of the house to another. She is trying in her own little way to save the planet. Messes can be cleaned up but Earth can't be undestroyed, right?


I have to give props to DH! The man who has a to-do list longer than I am tall actually spent an hour - a full hour - untangling a snarled up pile of fingering weight yarn that had reached an epic state of tangliness. It was at least a quarter of the skein and much needed for my Flit and Float. At the end he handed me a tiny ball (it was fingering weight) and said simply, "Please don't do that again." I knew there was a reason I married him other than his good looks, charm and great sense of humor!


In the interest of not testing his love - is there a way of not doing this again? The yarn was wound with a regular ball winder and swift combo. I'm wondering if since I was pulling from the middle the yarn fell into the void and twisted around itself. I haven't had this happen before, but was it a fluke or does this sometimes happen? Should I put something in the middle to hold it open. If I do that, can I still use it as a center pull ball?

tempting friends

The transition from freezing cold weather to just plain chilly but with the promise of warm weather soon sparked a bit of knitting limbo for me. Not quite a knitting slump, but in that direction. For months I'd been driven by a strong desire to knit warm things - hats, scarves, mittens and more scarves. Then suddenly it was gone. I still have two beautiful halfs of a scarf that need to be kitchnered! I've been keeping busy with the Flit and Float, but I had no vision beyond that. Nothing to drive me toward the next project. Until now.

My dear friend Allison, who gets me into all sorts of knitterly trouble has done it again. "We HAVE to knit this..." was the subject of the email with a link to a shawl called Ulmus. That's just what I needed - a good challenge. Step one was to find the right yarn. Perhaps for some this is the easiest part of the project. For me, it is potentially the most difficult. I know that I am going to have to live with this yarn for a very long time. I have a hard time letting go of things, even things I end up not liking all that much. If I get sick of the yarn midway through the project, it will sit unfinished in my drawer for years making me feel guilty every time I see it. Then there is the need to commit to a color. Sometimes, I can't find one I love and then other times I love so many I can't pick!

This time was different. I had just ten minutes to spend in the yarn shop since the rest of the family was waiting in the car after a long drive on our way to a party. It took me less than eight.

I saw the light blue and lavendar and fell in love with the combination. Individually, the yarns are gorgeous. Together, they are spectacular. The hand painted yarn is called Smooshy from dreamincoloryarn.com. It happens to be a superwash, although I didn't pay attention to that until after the purchase.

I can hardly wait to get started! In fact I can't believe I'm spending time posting this instead of casting on. But first, I am going to finish the flit and float. It's a fun pattern and I don't want it to turn into a UFO. Besides, this is probably my second favorite part of the project - that wonderful sense of anticipation when you have the yarn and the pattern but haven't hit the frustration of failing to read it properly. (My favorite part, of course, is when it's successfully done, being worn and winning compliments.)

When I was buying the yarn, I just thought I'd stumbled on a wonderful new combinaiton of colors. When I got, home, I discovered I'd encountered this combination before. It perfectly matches the material for my daughter's dinosaur dress. The too-cute, finally-finished one that she inexplicably won't wear! I added real button holes as she requested and trimmed it with satin, as she requested. It's a lovely addition to her closet, but you will note that this robs my of my favorite part of the project! (I'm not bitter! Much.)

sew frugal? Not sew much

There was a time when I sewed to save money. I was just out of college and had more time than I could even imagine now on my hands and very little scratch. I took my pennies and bought a cheap sewing machine. Then I haunted the fabric sales and put together a stunning wardrobe (at least that's how I remember it).

It seems since then however, the world has gone all topsy turvy and now the price of the fabric alone is higher than the price of a finished garment! Never mind the thread, buttons, ribbons and rick rack to make it extra special.

I suppose it's still cheaper than buying something from a high end designer, but it's way more than the sale rack at Marshalls.

And still, I forge ahead because sewing is no longer just about saving money, I suppose. It's the satisfaction of taking a flat piece of cloth and turning it into a (hopefully) flattering skirt, shirt or dress. It's also about being able to make what I want the way I want, although I'm still working on that aspect of it.

This post is sparked, not surprisingly, by a trip to the fabric store. I'll admit that I'm not a math whiz, and that is part of my problem, but the bill was 30 percent more than I expected!

So here's my commercial:

one yard purple tinker bell fabric: $9 (at 25 percent off)
thread: $2.50
one spool of Bright green ribbon: $3.99
Happy child in swirly new dress: priceless

Too much floating not enough flitting?

The Flit and Float in the latest issue of Knitty grabbed my attention. (So did Shipwreck, but I know better than to go there!) The Flit and Float: So pretty, so light and airy, so intriguing. So complicated. So many charts and new techniques. But with warmer weather coming, I've lost my desire to knit in heavy wool, so this seemed like a good mid-season alternative.

I managed the Open Cast On with remarkable ease on the first try. The ruffles were simple, yet delightful. The picot bind off was a treat. Next came the bottom of the lace pattern, which also proved to be quite simple and very enjoyable. It uses double yarn overs. On the wrong side, you knit into the front of the first one and into the back of the second one. I was 18 rows into before I noticed that something didn't seem quite right. I looked closely to discover that the right side of the lace was the wrong side of the ruffles. I checked my directions - I clearly had started on the right side. I reviewed the charts. I'd followed that correctly as well. I thought perhaps I'd created a short row some where and frogged back to the beginning. I started off again and realized two rows into it as it was turning out what I had done wrong. The pattern says to add a stitch and follow the first row of chart A. It does not say to add a stitch and knit across the first row and then start pattern A!

Take two: I reknit the 18 rows and prepared to start back at the start of the pattern to repeat the chart 6 times, as the pattern says. Except, that's not what the pattern says. After two, three starts and puzzling about why it felt wrong, I read it again. It's possible that the words were changed after I read it the first time. But when I looked this time, it said to repeat rows 1 through 8 six times and then rows 9 through 18 once. Huh. Maybe that's why there is a big black line after row 8? (Duh).

Despite all the false starts and lack of discernable progress, I don't mind too much because the pattern is so gosh darned fun to knit!

The best part is that this pattern is the perfect showcase for some wonderful yarn my friend Holly Jo sent from Alaska. It's sock weight, but it begged to be made into a lace something or other.