Pomatomus problems & Olympics

At my work, the week we fondly call “Hell week” is over. I survived. Actually, it was much calmer than usual. It’s the week we set aside to do mass enrolling of preschool applicants, scheduling about a dozen parents each half hour to interview. Chaos usually ensues but this year, it was frighteningly quiet. Which means there is still a lot to do to be fully enrolled within a few months before Sept. It may sound like a long while away for some, but for us, summer is never very quiet. The office staff and management staff are busy throughout the summer preparing for a new year.

At the end of each day, I looked forward to coming home and taking up my needles to relax. I’ve been plugging away at the Pomatomus sock. Yes, I’m still on sock one, but I’m now on the home stretch. The first part seemed to go so smoothly and then I hit the gusset. OMG! I must have ripped it out several times. Changing from the all around lace pattern to Chart B (half pattern, half stockinette) proved to be more of a challenge than I thought. I kept ending up with the wrong number of stitches every few rows. I had to “tink”(aka knitting back) so many times. I finally learned my lesson and started counting the pattern stitches after every row. What a bore! It took me 3-4 days to get through the gusset. Then throughout the foot, I again had counting challenges on the pattern and tinked often. For me, I did 2 ½ repeats of the chart pattern and started the toe, but now I find I have some extra number of stitches on one side. I’m going to have to rip back to the start of the toe and redo it. This is just the first sock! I don’t know if I will have the courage to start the other. I have been fighting the need for finishing something, but have succumbed to seek gratification and started a quick hat with chunky yarn so I could satisfy my need to finish something. I saw that the new Summer issue of Knitty is posted. There are many great articles. I especially enjoyed the one of Fiber reactive dyeing. This summer, I want to do some more dyeing with my Procion MX dyes on Cotton. I have been trying to think of what to do with the cotton I dyed in the Spring and ran into a cool hat pattern called Couvercle. I plan to try this pattern this summer, as knitting with wool does not appeal to me in the increasing heat.

I am still trying to decide whether I want to join the Ravelry Olympic Trials knitalong, knitting a new project during the August Olympics or the UFO Olympics knitalong, which is finishing a UFO. I have in mind either to finish a Cotton Sampler Vest from the Leisure Arts booklet Summer Chic or a Cotton Flag Sweater from a Berroco pattern I started several years ago. I doubt either of these will fit me now, but I have invested so much knitting in both of these projects, I just don’t have the heart to rip them out. Stay tuned to “THE DECISION”.

Heavenly knitting

Last weekend it was daylight savings time. We turned our clocks forward and lost an hour. This was supposed to give us an extra hour of daylight. I don’t know about you, but this yearly transition is always difficult for me. I’m thinking “oh my gosh, I lost an hour!” “Horrors!”. “Is this some joke?” “Lord have mercy, I don’t have enough hours in a day to get all I want to done, and now I’ve lost an HOUR!”. Contemplating this is mentally and physically exhausting. Even my body seems to be exhausted. Of course, it doesn’t help, when I have a cold that has now turned into bronchitis. However, I’m feeling on the mend.

As I get older, I feel that life is getting shorter. It’s not fair that just when I have renewed my interest in NeedleCrafts, I feel I need to squeeze every chance I have into my hobby. There is just “not enough hours in a day” to do it all. Even when I try to do that, there still isn’t enough time. If one could imagine Heaven, and what it would be like, I can see myself knitting, happily enjoying all the time praising God in music and knitting. Perhaps there will be a big knitting and spinning circle among the angels happily knitting “Socks for Jesus”. Did he ever wear socks?!

In thinking about it, what would we need to knit? There would be no cold weather in Heaven, so no hats, shawls, gloves, etc. would be needed. We will already have enough adornments, so no purses, sweaters, etc., would not be needed. Perhaps we can knit up some angel wings? Maybe some lace things to outfit our “mansion”? Or perhaps some nice washcloths to shine up the streets of gold? Even better, wouldn’t it be cool to spin gold fiber into thread or yarn like in Rumplestilskin? We could add some diamond and ruby beads to embellish it. How cool is that?!!!

Over this weekend I have focusing on the Baby Sweater and the French Market Bag. I noticed that at the end of the sweater, Elizabeth’s directions say to decrease 10% of the stitches before garterstitching a 1” borderband. I am looking closer at the cuffs of the sleeves, which are gigantic. Was I supposed to decrease 10% for the cuffs, too? Perhaps. I guess I will be ripping and redoing the cuffs.

The French Market Bag is almost done. I am on the handles. Yes, it IS Ginormous (is that how you say it, gigantic and enourmous=ginourmous ;0). Of course, it is intended to be felted and will shrink. I might have to lengthen the handles, if this is the case. Wow! I cannot believe I will have two things off my needles! My mind is already contemplating what I will doing next. I am so bad!

A New Grandbaby to Knit for

With something off my needles, my brain is wanting to start something new. The smart thing to do is wait to finish my other unfinished objects, but I have been bombarded with so many new magazines and ideas from listening to podcasts, this feat will be impossible. I guess I won’t earn the “Resisting the Dreaded Cast On” XP points this time in Knit Wars.


I have been trying to figure out something to do with a crayon variegated yarn from my stash. I had almost forgotten that this month (February) was Baby Things month in the Knit Picks Knitalong which I joined last July. What good timing for the news that I am going to be a grandmother to a new baby in August. I cast on for the Baby Sweater on Two Needles from the book Knitter’s Almanac. I didn’t like how the beautiful lace pattern was coming out with the variegated. The multiple colors hid the pattern, so I ripped it back and found a yarn, LionBrand Microspun of a solid lime color which is found in the variegated yarn.

So far it is coming out fine. The Harmony needles which are very pointy, makes it very easy to work with this yarn that is low twist and tends to split into 4 plies. I once threw a whole skein of this away because I was so frustrated with snagging and the yarn splitting. I promised myself I would never buy this yarn again. Nevertheless, it was the only yarn I could find close to sport weight that was the right color.