Holiday knitting

So what does 10+ hours in the car get you?

pattern: Tang from Custom Knits (this and all other links will be Ravelry links) by Wendy Bernard
yarn: Twist by Laines du Nord

I am loving this pattern. All the sweaters in this book are done from the top down. Some are yoke/raglan type sleeves and some are set-in sleeves but are done by picking up the stitches at the arm holes and knitting down. That’s right! No seaming!! There are so many beautiful sweaters in this book. Its been a LONG time since I have picked up a book and wanted to knit nearly everything in it NOW!! Tang was not going to be my first knit. This was not because I didn’t eventually want to do it but I was just in love with Ingenue (love the shape!), Jewel (yarn in stash), and Slinky Ribs (just love it!). A KAL was started on the Knit and Tonic Knitters Group so I thought this would be a great way to start knitting from this book.

So, I had casted on and gotten part of the back of the top of the sweater done (too much to try to explain here!). In the 10+ hour drive, I got the back and front finished to the armhole and the sweater joined in the round. I would have gotten more done but it got dark and I didn’t bring my reading/knitting light. I put the stitches on scrap yarn and tried it on. It is going to be a great fit! Since then I am now to the waist…finished the decreases and have chosen to add an extra inch to the waist (I’m a little long waisted). I can’t wait to get to the arms!! I am thinking that this technique that she uses might just work for my Minimalist Cardigan, too.

Also finished over the holidays:

pattern: Eyelet Yoke Cardigan by Lionbrand Yarn
yarn: Jeanne by Plymouth
This is the one for my 2 yo niece. I began another that will be identical except that it is ina 4yo size for my other niece.

I feel very productive!!

Inspired 2…Sailboats and Sunsets

Instead of boring us all with the details of when and where, I think I will just share some of the photos from our trip.

Weekend Wedding

I’m writing this while sitting in the RI airport. We attended a dear friend’s wedding in Cambridge, MA. It was the first Jewish wedding I have attended and it was so much fun! Some of that might have been due to the officiate being a friend of the groom. I swear he could be a stand-up comedian! The ceremony wasn’t, I was later told, totally traditional. They did do the 7 blessings, though. For those that don’t know, there are 7 traditional blessings that are read in Hebrew each by a friend or family member. Then they read a blessing in English. They offered to the ones reading the English blessing to make it completely new and made up. I wish I had had a tape recorder because the English “translations” were hilarious!!! Great food and great wine and great people!

The wireless battle continues. It was working fine at the hotel until I sat to make an entry on here. Typical. I was told that if you have a Starbucks card then you can get up to 2 hours of free internet a day. I get here to the airport and find that they don’t sell the cards here…only at regular Starbucks or sometimes at grocery stores. Really? Grocery stores but not an airport Starbucks. Hmmmm. Typical.

Not much knitting done over the weekend, I didn’t expect to. The blanket is too large to carry around so I brought my 2 Entrelac projects instead.

In other news, we have listed our boat for sale. That’s right! But don’t worry…we want to buy a new one!!! Yep! I was keeping it under wraps until we officially got a listing. It all hinges on the sale of INDIGO. If you or anyone you know might be interested go to Anchor Yachts. Spread the word. Momma needs a new boat!!

The knitting portion of the program

My trip to Sweden last week was amazing…in so many ways.  There are so many things to show you that I thought I should divide it into knitting and non-knitting posts.  You’ll see why when you see all the knitting related photos I have!

So I didn’t really go to Stockholm having much planned to do EXCEPT to meet up with my friend, S, for a knitting tour of Stockholm!  Priorities, people, PRIORITIES!!!

Our first stop is Nysta. 

 

Great selection of beautiful yarns.  I am totally overcome from yarn fumes and somehow only walk out with Kalinka linen yarn. 

Never fear!  I clear my head by the time we pull up in front of Wincent.  There I find Regia Kaffe Fassett sock yarn in a color that S recommends and a Swedish bamboo sock yarn.  On the way out I see the prettiest little buttons…mother of pearl with this scroll-y pattern on them.  I wish I could show you an up close picture but I don’t have that feature on my camera.

Then just around the corner is Ljungqvists Garn.  I am just going to get the book of Norwegian patterns (hats, mittens and socks) but decide to buy some souvenir yarn, too, to make some mittens.  Now I just have to learn Norwegian…or bug S to death to help with the translation.

After lunch, we go to Garnverket.  There I pick up 2 skeins of Visjo ombre from the Ostgoterlands Ullspinneriet (course this doesn’t have all the accents over the letters so that is why I put the links).

In one of the oldest parts of the city, Gamla Stan, behind the Royal Palace, is a beautiful part of the city made all that much more interesting by the TWO yarn shops located there!!!

Anntorps Vav is our first stop.  This lady does a beautiful job dying her yarn!

I fall in love with a little sweater in the window and buy the yarn to make it.  Again, must learn Swedish but it will be so worth it!!!  (HELP S!!!)

Yarn shop #6!  WHEW!  Tired yet?!?

By this time I am starting to worry about what the credit card bill will look like when I get home, not to mention will I be able to get all this into my suitcase?  Sticka has gorgeous yarn so make sure you put them on your list of places to visit but I decide to start thinking small.  I saw these clasps (?) and think they would finish off a vest I started FOREVER AGO perfectly.   

And S tells me that she is saving the best for last (not to mention that it is on the way to her house)…Maria’s Garn.  As you can see, I can NOT resist the handdyed (by Maria) 75% wool, 25% bamboo sock yarn.  Could you?

S ends her tour of Stockholm’s finest yarn shops with a private tour of her yarn room!    I didn’t take pictures but I wish I had!  Amazing!  And what a house, too.  Sure, she was in the middle of remodeling but who isn’t!!  When I visit next time is will all be done, right?

A couple of days later I am shopping around Stockholm and we go into a mall.  As we are taking the escalator down, imagine my surprise to see this… 

I swear my heart skips a beat!  Well, once I regain my composer I realize that it is a restaurant!!!  Can you believe it?!?  That is just so cruel!

And this was what I worked on while in Sweden.  I started them the day we left which was the first day of the Summer of Socks 08 KAL.

Pattern: Bellatrix by Monkeytoes (free download on Ravelry)

yarn: Lang Jawoll Cotton 

I’m on the heel flap now.

So that is it!  My knitting adventure in Stockholm.  I’ll get around to the non-knitting post ASAP.  Thanks!

Ciao Bella!

Ah, Italy!  That’s right!  I was lucky enough to tag along on a whirlwind business trip to Italy about a week ago! Era splendido!  ( I do not speak Italian so any attempts of Italian you see here are courtesy of Babel Fish).

We arrived in Milano at the crack of dawn.  Anyone that knows Italy will know that there isn’t much open at this ungodly hour.  However, my sweetie, in an attempt to make up for the fact that we couldn’t get early check-in, walked blocks and blocks of Milano with me looking for yarn shops!  This is what we found after walking in circles for what seemed like a lifetime…

Do you see the look on my face?  Well, it was 8:30am.  Even my LYS isn’t open that early!  It didn’t have store hours posted so I decided to try another place. 

I didn’t get a picture of this one but it is called Nera Toffito and is located at Piazza San Materno, 16
20131.  I didn’t find this website until I got back but it gives you an idea of what it looks like inside.  Yes, it is located at the back of a lingerie shop. 

The lady who helped me initially was the only one that spoke broken English but she got tied up with another customer so her father (I assume) came over to help me.  I had asked for sock wool (lane per i calzini) so he pulled down sample cards.  He kept speaking to me like I understood him and I would speak to him as if he understood me and in the end this is what I took home…

Then on the way back to the hotel we stopped back by La Bottega della Lana (Via Giovan Battista Pergolesi, 1) and they were open!  Again, no English spoken but there is that international language of wool, and I took these home…

The shop lady was so sweet and we “talked” about places in the US where friends or family live (at least I think that is what she said )

We stopped by a little cafe for lunch and enjoyed our first taste of Italy.  This was the start of a beautiful gastronomic adventure!

That night we went to a terrific restaurant that I highly recommend if you are in Milano anytime…

Casa Lucia (2 Via Carlo Ravissa 20149).  We had the best gnocchi and Florentine (yes, I know, we were in Milano) steak was to die for!!!  And the atmosphere!!! which is really what Italy is all about!

The next day we took the train to Parma.

This was the first time I had ridden in a train in first class and all I could think about was Harry Potter!  I loved the little compartments!  The countryside was beautiful!  We really lucked out on the weather while we were there.  We were told that it had pretty much been raining non-stop for 3 weeks before we arrived…on the train trip we could see the overflowing rivers…and it didn’t really rain on us again until the evening before we left.  Not too bad!

We got checked into our rooms and then taken on a walking tour of Parma.

Ah!  The stone streets!  I just love the them!

Chiesa di S. Giovanni Evangelista    There is a great gelato place just to the right.

This is the Cathedral.

This is the Baptistery.

A street in Parma showing the famous “Parma yellow” color of the buildings.  I tried to find a website talking about it but there wasn’t one in particular that covered it.  Basically, if I understand it right, Napoleon’s second wife, Marie Louise was the Duchess of Parma and wanted to bring a little Versailles to Parma with the yellow paint.   Or something like that.  Please correct me if I am wrong.  Anyway, I thought it was beautiful…my den is very close to this color.

Lookiewhat I found!!

They were closed on Sunday and Monday (FESTIVAL OF THE REPUBLIC June 2nd marks the day in 1946 when Italy voted in a referendum to abolish the monarchy and become a republic. Support for the monarchy had plunged because the king of Italy had supported Mussolini. So hostile was the public, that the royal family was exiled from Italy forever as punishment. per  http://www.lifeinitaly.com/potpourri/holidays.asp)

I did get to go back on Tuesday and do a little shopping…those pictures will follow.

That night even though we didn’t think we could eat another bite, we did…of course!!

OMG!!!  The food, the atmosphere, the company.  THE TORTA FRITTA!!!  We chose to eat lunch on Tuesday here, too, just because of those wonderful Torta Frittas!!

Again, Monday was a holiday so we were taken to a castle for lunch…

Forgive me for having a brain lapse here but I THINK is was Castello di Torrechiara.  Unfortunately, the castle itself was closed but we had a terrific lunch at the restaurant on the premises.  After we walked around the castle grounds and I got these amazing shots….

 

Prosciutto di Parma (pictured above) and Parmesan-Reggiano are the 2 claims to fame of this region, of course.  Basically, this trip has ruined Italian food for me…that is, eating it anywhere else, anyway!

Introducing my “European Vacation Bolero” knitted especially for this trip to be worn especially with that top you see me in.  Its the Debbie Bliss Fiery Bolero pattern that is in Interweave Knits Summer 05.  I used Plymouth Jeanne.  I see getting a lot of use out of this but maybe not for a couple of more months.  We came home to some really hot weather.

Parma was so quiet on Sunday and Monday.  Our host said that everyone was at the coast.  The picture above was of the downtown area on Tuesday when life was back to normal.  Check out that huge basket!!

A picture of Teatro Farnese that J kinneared because you weren’t suppose to take photos.  This is what you walk into when you first enter the Galleria Nazionale.

This is the yarn I bought at Zuccheri.  Not pictured is the cotton I picked up for Margaret (my boss).  It was a very nice shop and the first one that seemed to be completely devoted to yarn.  They almost exclusively had their cottons out for summer and I noticed that the shop seemed to cater more to crochet, though that might have been a summer thing also.  The guy had to run down to the basement to bring me up this wool.

Super cool tourist bag I picked up in Parma.

These are their “area codes.”

This is funny…I saw this bag in a shop and immediately thought…SOCKS, of course.  The girl I was shopping with then says that this would be the perfect gift to get for the girlfriend and daughter of one of the guys on the trip (we somehow became their personal shoppers…hee).  I stopped and looked at her funny and asked, “what would you use this bag for?”  She said something like a travel makeup bag or something of that nature.  Glad to know that things have multiple uses and aren’t only for holding travel knitting projects!!!

Our last night in Milano we went to Trattoria Giannino (via Vittor Pisani 6, 20124) for dinner.  I’m going to be honest with you, by this time we had almost had our fill of prosciutto and Parmesan and this place offered up some great seafood options!!  Please don’t ask me to tell you what all that is, though.  No clue!

What was so amazing about all the food and all the wine (OH!  The WINE!!!) was that we never really felt full and we never really felt drunk (tipsy, yes, but no hangovers!) because the dinners (and some of the lunches) were HOURS long!  Sure, 5 courses but over 3 hours!  And we had the tendency to almost order family style…between the 6 of use we would order 3-4 plates and share.  It was the only way to get a wide variety of food experiences into 4 days.

Saw this on the way to the terminal in the Milano airport.  Don’t know if you can tell but he is made of Legos!  The picture definitely doesn’t do it justice!

Finally, on the way out I decided to chance taking my knitting through security.  I didn’t see anything that specifically said no knitting needles on the posted list of prohibited items.  I got through no problem but I think it helped that the girl in front of me was carrying a knife in her purse and didn’t remember.  I got very little knitting done in Italy but can you blame me.  There was so much to see and we were taken all over the place by our wonderful hosts that I really didn’t have the time.  Besides, I was hanging out with a non-knitter so there wasn’t that inclination to want to sit and knit.

So, we are back home and getting settled back into the routine.  Hope you enjoyed my little tour of Italy.  Thanks for sticking it out to the end.  I know it was long!

Starstuck!

How I spent my Sunday….

Yep, that’s the Yarn Harlot.  She made an appearance at the Philadelphia Book Festival and Jackie and I took a road trip to attend.  She is as great as everyone says and seeing all the excited knitters was so much fun!  Of course we stood in line to get our books signed and hold the sock.

Jackie and I knew we were both being knitting dorks (note: knit t-shirt, needle gauge necklace and goofy grin) but we were having a great time! 

Oh, and the sock I took with me was one I started the night before so I would have something a little more mindless to work on while in line for the Harlot:

Pattern:  Show-off Stranded Socks by Anne Campbell

Yarn: JL Salvia in colorway 25

only mod was starting with a picot edge.

Really loving them.

While we stood in line we started talking to a fellow knitter behind us, Rosie.  We all went out to lunch together at Sabrina’s Cafe and Spencer’s, Too (located on Callowhill behind the Free Library).  Excellent food…really hard to decide what you want.

Continuing our knitter dorkiness we had to take pics out in front…

Notice how we look a little wet?  Yeah, not a banner day for weather.  But we didn’t care.  We were still high on the Harlot!

Oh, we decided to check out Loop while we were there.  I wasn’t really interested in getting anything until I saw the Schaefer Heather.

The tax free status on yarn aways helps, too!  And it was a good end to a great day!

 

February…cont.

So, as I was saying, I came home.  Did laundry.  Reconnected with the cats.  Developed one heck of a cold, TYVM!! 

And packed.  See, my friend, Jennifer, had been accepted into the Philadelphia Buyers Market of American Craft as an exhibitor.  She is a jeweler.  She lives in California and when she does east coast shows I try to help.  I picked her up on Tuesday the 12th in one heck of a winter storm moving through our area.  People, I don’t drive in this kind of stuff!!!  Course, Jennifer thought I was a wimp…she lived in OR for 8 years or so. 

 Anyhoo, we began our whirlwind, crazy week.  Wednesday and Thursday was set up.  You just never can predict how much time this sort of thing takes!  But we did it and got the booth done in time for the Thursday night Jewelry Preview.

I think Jennifer did a terrific job with the visual concept of her booth.  She wanted it to feel more like a gallery and less like a jewelry store.  I say she accomplished that!!

One of the highlights of our week was our proximity to Reading Terminal Market.  What a great place!  We got terrific lunches and these great flowers that Jennifer picked up on Thursday afternoon right before the Preview.  Now, if you remember, Thursday was Valentine’s Day.  Do you know how hard it is to find flowers on Valentine’s Day?!?  Luckily, white, apple green and orange are not the colors of love.

Not the best picture of some of her work but you can find that here.  She started with a line of rings and has added the necklaces and earrings in the last couple of years.  She does really unique, beautiful work!  And she picked up 5 shops/galleries while we were at this market.  Seeing as it is her first year, everyone said this was really good.  Something about how the shops like to see you come back year after year before most will pay attention to you.

There she is…the artist!

No knitting was done during all of this…surprise!  However, I did see lots of knitted, crocheted and woven items while at the show.  Along with jewelry, glass, and ceramics, there was a large fiber area.  We were right on the edge between the two so you can guess where I was when I took a break.  People are really so amazingly creative and talented!!  I just loved walking around.  Sorry I don’t have pictures but you weren’t allowed to take them.  Understandable.  I also saw many of the exhibitors knitting away in their booths.  All said it was a bit of a slow year.

Great fun spending time with Jennifer (and her mom, who visited a couple of days).  We really didn’t get much a chance to explore the city but we knew that this was a business trip, not a social one.  We hope it can be a little more social when she is back in August.

Since I’ve been home in a self-imposed quarantine (I have got to get better, dang-it!), I’ve gotten a little knitting done.
 

These are my Feb socks for SAM5.  I really wanted to finish either the Summer Of Love Lace Socks or another pair but with all that has gone on…it just wasn’t going to happen.  These will go in the baby gift closet to be given to all those babies coming down the pipeline (other people, NOT me!!).

Pattern: Little Sky Socks from New Pathways for Sock Knitters (C. Bordhi)

Yarn: kool-aid dyed (by me) worsted weight yarn

needle: 40″ Inox US7

Enjoyed this new way of knitting socks and learned a lot that I think will translate into other sock patterns.  I’m looking forward to making more from this book.

I also frogged the Dublin Bay socks and re-casted on that yarn to make Belle Epoque socks from 2-at-a-Time Socks (Melissa Morgan-Oakes).  These have been fun, too, and I hope to catch up on all my picture taking soon.

February…where to begin?!?

Yes, I am still alive.  Exhausted but recovering.  For a homebody such as myself, February was extremely tiring.

You probably won’t feel too sorry for me when I show you where I began the month.

Yep, I was in The Abacos, Bahamas. Its a dirty job…etc.

I am lucky enough to have in-laws that like to spend their winter in the Bahamas and take their boat over every year to do so. For the last couple of years they have chosen Hope Town as their homeport.  We pretty much just set out from there for short cruises up and down the chain.

We arrived a couple of days before the Super Bowl and, therefore, had been invited to a Super Bowl Party being thrown by some of the local yacht club people.  Not being a football fan, I just enjoyed the people and the food!  I did try to do a bit of knitting but found that even I got a little caught up in the last inning…I mean, quarter (hee!  I KNEW that!).

Our first cruise out of the harbour (formerly a British colony) was to Great Gauna Cay. There we began our quest for the best rum drinks in the Abacos with a Grabbers (very tasty–lots of grapefruit juice–and very potent!) and we experienced our first unobstructed sunset.

From there we ventured south making our way to Little Harbour.  On the way, we visited an old friend of the family’s that resides on Tilloo Cay (if I remember that correctly).  He is an artist that built his own house on the island.  I found some of his work featured here (click on the gallery button).  We had a great visit and we bought a couple of his pieces. 

 

I have a habit of “collecting” cats on my journeys and Frenchie nearly ended up in my bag on the way off the island.  Isn’t she beautiful!  Bill said she adopted him shortly after one of the hurricanes that came through.  She had me at “meow.”

Onto Little Harbour where we visited Pete’s Pub and sampled another rum drink.  Another potent drink.  After only ONE my world looked like this:

…disturbing in so many ways!

Oh!  You probably want to see the boat we were cruising around in, right?

Its the Kadey Krogen 42 trawler which, btw, is on the market so you can see inside since I didn’t take any pictures.  Its a very roomy and comfortable boat, should anyone be looking for their next boat.

Oh, but I do have one picture.  I like to take pictures of my gifts in their native environment once they are given.  Take a look:

And didn’t she just give it the loveliest view, too!  I can’t believe how well it goes with the curtains!

Must show you a picture of my sweetie having a good time:

Our little dinghy doesn’t go this fast so he enjoys it while he can!

So, next we decided to stop off at Tahiti Beach at the southern end of Elbow Cay.  On the plane on the way over while filling out the entry forms, we suddenly realize that the last time we were in the Abacos was a little over 10 years ago!  And what happened 10 years ago?  We got engaged!  And where did he pop the question?  On Tahiti Beach!  Well, you can see why we stopped off there.

We were dinghied ashore by our Captain and photographer (father-in-law).  I just think that is such a beautiful picture!  Very little had changed about the beach but, to be honest, I don’t remember a whole lot about the beach itself, you know! 

It was very special to visit that place again…and on such an accidentally significant time! 

On the evening he proposed, right after I said yes, a little octopus (I kid you not!) was on the edge of the water and squirted water into the air!  Well, we didn’t spot an octopuses (I looked that up) but we did spot this on the way back to the dinghy:

It didn’t comment on our celebration.

I did get a little knitting done there…very little.  But I’m sure you understand why.  Anyway, here is proof that not only did I take my knitting…I even picked the needles up once or twice!

Note the sun poison.  Me, sun, saltwater and sunscreen just don’t play well together.  This is why I like sailing in the Northeast better.

This is what I woke to the last morning that we were in Hope Town:

AH!

So we get back home and ….

ugh!  This took me a lot longer than I expected and you are probably tired of it all (if you are even still reading this).  I have more to share and it was fun and important so I don’t want to just tack it on at the end.  Stay tuned.

3 hour tour

I recently joined a forum on Ravelry called Sailors (if you are a member of Ravelry and a sailor, check us out and join!).  I’ve met some very nice knitting sailors and it has been fun to visit their blogs.  Made me feel a little guilty, though, that I don’t post more about our sailing on the C-Bay.  So….

Ever really needed to get some knitting done but you just feel like you don’t have time or other things seem to keep distracting you?  Well, all you need is a sailboat and a stormy couple of days and you will be amazed what you accomplish!

We left Thursday afternoon fully aware of the forecast.  In fact, we left the dock knowing exactly where we were going to anchor to ride out the front that was on its way.   Our sail down was gorgeous! 

Here we are in the Elk River heading southwest.

Capt. J manning the helm

Beautiful enough to make me put down my knitting.

That night we stayed in Still Pond, this wonderful little, well, sort of a pond just off the shipping channel. The weather was behaving but it was certainly building.

The next morning I casted on for sock #1 of the pedicure socks I planned to make for my sister-in-laws for Christmas. We weighed anchor and had every intention to head down to Rock Hall. When we rounded the point out of Still Pond we couldn’t believe the wind! It had shifted to the Southwest and was blowing 15-20 steady. Our boat handles these winds well. In fact, she preforms best in these winds. I knitted the whole way down only being interrupted when I had to help tack the jib. We felt that the wind was too on the nose and decided to take the bailout point at Fairlee Creek, which is a great little isolated river with the most interesting dog-leg at the entrance. You feel you can reach out and touch the sandy beach but you are in 10 feet of water. Scary and fascinating at the same time.  I’m glad I don’t steer.

Now, we don’t normally drop anchor so early in the day (this was around lunch time) but with the impending weather and it just not being that much fun to be out there…well…. I was surprised that J was OK with all of this. He usually likes to stay on the go, but he actually RELAXED! I was so proud. I continued to knit on the sock stopping only to make food or open another drink.

My favorite way to relax on the boat!

And by 4pm that afternoon:

One finished pedicure sock!  And that was all the wine I drank, too!  RIGHT!

pattern: Ann Norling’s Adult Socks Pebbled Rib
yarn: Mirasol Hacho #300 (DK weight yarn)
needle: 3.5 mm Inox express 40″
mods: just stopped about an inch before the bottom of the big toe and knitted that last inch K3, P1 and bound off. I knitted the cuff 4.5″ using only one skein of the yarn (137 yds) with 10g left over. I guess I should have done these “toe”-up!

I usually pack way more projects than I would ever knit but for some reason I didn’t bring the second skein of this yarn. I would have had one Christmas present out of the way!

That night the front rolled through at the predicted time (way to go, NOAA!).  We were sleeping soundly when our boat rolled to its port-side.  See, with the wind from the south, our bow was pointing south.  When the front hit from the west the boat couldn’t correct fast enough.  The winds were 20 knots steady and I saw gusts to 25-28!  The rain was so loud!!  We got out of bed (duh!) and sat in the cockpit for an hour or so.  We were so tired that we eventually crawled back into bed and tried to sleep through the rest of it.  We woke the next morning to blue skies and a very clean boat!

I also brought a hat I am working on for my nephew. I’m about 4″ into the 6″ that I have to knit before starting the decreases at the crown and I HATE how the cast on edge looks. I followed the instructions as written even though I knew it would do this. UGH! Why didn’t I listen to my inner voice. So now I am contemplating pulling it all out!!! I know that is crazy and obsessive but I HATE the way it looks. For some reason, the designer has you begin with a long-tail cast-on and then you knit across the ear-flaps (previously knitted and held on dpns) and then BACKWARD LOOP cast-on all the rest of the stitches. First, I do not like BL cast-on and, secondly, it looks completely different from LT cast-on! IF I were to do it again, I think I would Cable cast-on the whole thing. I tried to get pictures but my camera wouldn’t show what I could see. I’m going to get a few people’s opinions before I eventually rip it out. I just know I will.

Never say never

This is what I love about knitting.  You might think that you will NEVER have the need for a certain technique or that you will NEVER want to make a certain item and then something triggers a second look and you are suddenly obsessed with this thing that you thought you would NEVER do! 

When I first started knitting I never thought I would want to make socks.  Well, nuff said, right?  It was so much fun to go back to all my old knitting books and magazines to see all the sock patterns I already owned.  Course, that didn’t stop me from buying more.

NOW I think I am in love with colorwork…something I thought that I would, yes, NEVER want to do.  A couple of years ago I did draw someone’s name in a handmade item Christmas exchange and I made a fair-isle golf club cover.  I can’t really say I enjoyed it but I was happy with the finished project (more like, happy it was finished).

So what has changed my tune?  I signed up for a Ukrainian Christmas Stocking class at my LYS.

It took a little while but I finally got the rhythm of it and fell in love with seeing all the motifs develop. This week we put the toe and afterthought heel in.

A few months ago I signed up for Seamless Argyle Socks class at Stitches East in Baltimore. So that was this past weekend.

I certainly didn’t think about this actually being colorwork at the time I signed up…it was just one of the only sock classes offered, but I learned A LOT! I will certainly be finishing this one and knitting another to make a pair but not right now cause I am a little obsessed with this:

The pattern is from the Kauni Cardigan pattern that it seems everyone is doing in the internet knitting community. I wanted to try it but 1) wasn’t sure I could do it and 2) wasn’t sure I would have the patience for a cardigan. Oh, and 3) was too impatient to order and wait for the yarn. My LYS owner suggested Noro Silk Garden Lite. I LOVE it! This is my “swatch” which is ~16″ around which I think I will make into a project bag.

 Also, while in the Stitches East class, I met an internet friend, The_ADD_Knitter.  It was so neat meeting someone for real that you have been corresponding with on Ravelry.  Gotta love Ravelry!

In other news, I have finished my Hogwarts Sock Swap II sock.  I would rather not post a picture just yet.  I am finishing up the bookmark and then I just have to put the package together and send it off.  So, Holly Heathertoes, never fear, I have not forgotten you!