The 4th of July

The 4th of July is a special day at our house. Not only is it the birthday of America, it’s my husband’s birthday too. How fortunate was he to be born on a day every American celebrates.

I enjoyed seeing my granddaughter again. She has been away from El Salvador for a month with her other grandmother. She will be 2 years old in a few weeks. It is so amazing to see how she is learning to speak both English and Spanish. She is more understandable now. It is lovely to hear her call me “Gamma”. I am seeing wonderful things in my eldest son’s parenting skills. It so lovely to see him and his daughter interact. It warms my heart to see the bond they have developed. He truly loves and cares for her. Even “Abuelita”, the other grandma, calls for his intervention when C. does not cooperate.. The word “No” is clearly in her vocabulary. When dad intervenes she pays attention and easily defers to him and his opinion. When her daddy says no, she knows he means it and is deeply affected to have disappointed him. How can one resist but to love her and comfort her which her dad doesn’t hesitate to do to reassure her of his love regardless of her disobedience or refusals to do something. This is so gratifying to witness this in my son. It makes all of my trials, worth every blood, sweat, tear and heartbreak ever experienced raising him. It leaves me with a sense of peace that he will be OK, being a father and raising his children.

Actually, I am at a point in my life that all my children have achieved some sort of independence and maturity to carry on when I am gone. I still pray for their wisdom and good judgment. However, I am feeling my life being fulfilled in them.

June 6, 2008
Reflecting on the weekend.

I finished sewing up the Monkey Socks and the quick Charity hat this weekend. Yea! I finished something.

I wanted to learn a new skill this weekend. I researched some direction for toe-up socks using July Becker’s cast on. There were many false starts. I must have restarted about 4 or 5 times. On size one needles it was quite a challenge to increase. I possibly should have used a thinker yarn and bigger needle but I’ve been wanting to use the Knit Picks Felicini yarn I ordered and this was as good an excuse as any. The self striping yarns seems to be easy to knit in stockinette.

Summer makes me think of taking inventory of my fiber. I thought I’d start with my UFO’s. I created a database and after much trial and error, I figured out how to add pictures of the projects. I am getting the itch to attempt to finish some of them. Perhaps I can work on some of these this summer. I probably should rip out the ones that will no longer fit. I am clearly a process knitter. I enjoy learn how to do something. Once I learn it, finishing it is not very important. This is the issue with socks and bigger projects like sweater. I hope someday to settle down and knit straight through a sweater that fits well. I have yet to find the perfect pattern.

Monkey Socks and Summer thoughts

Can you believe it? I finished one sock and am half way to the other! What a miracle! The amazing Monkey socks are a big success. I would never have imagined it. I started the Monkey socks more for the challenge in learning the process rather than the product . I also wanted to try to knit them using the magic loop method with I found nicer than the dpn, but a little slower. I initially started them on dpns, and changed to a 40 in circular. The pattern was actually easier to do since it was a 4-16 st patterns that divided more easily on two needles than 3. Even the heel was easier and since I take my knitting in my purse, kept from dropping stitches off the short dpns. I did however switch to dpns for the gusset in the beginning but I raise up my courage to transfer them back to circulars and this worked well. Then again for the home stretch knitting the foot and toes and grafting and Voila! Done! Here you can see the pattern......

About a week ago I finished my Branching out scarf. I still have yet to block it but here is a picture of it. It is made with Handspun Wool/Mohair. A very lovely scarf.

Summer project thoughts.

We are about to enter into Summer. With warmer weather, I am trying to think about my knitting projects. Should I join the UFO Olympics? This is making a goal of finishing your designated unfinished objects during the time of the Olympics. Or should I participate in the Ravelry Olympic trials?

Since the Official Knitting Olympics is actually in the Winter, someone thought renaming this similar event to be a practice run or trials for the “Real” Knitting Olympics which Stephanie Pearl McFee promotes in winter. I prefer participating in the Summer Olympics because I have a short break from work then and I can concentrate on knitting among other things that get neglected when I am working.

Other summer projects I’ve been thinking about is inventorying my stash and fiber, …….again. This is a never ending job. I think my stash is growing. Can I help it?….NO!
I really need to knit it up. My family is starting to look at me funny. In the words of Stephanie Pearl-McFee….”Yarn?…..What yarn?……………..These are my kittens!!!!!” I just can’t seem to knit charity hats fast enough. I’m thinking that perhaps I should double strand the yarn so I can use it up faster. I’m also wishing to experiment with making small sweaters from the top, inspired by Barbara Walker’s “Knitting from the Top”. I thought I might knit several small teddy bear sweaters to practice the techniques and then perhaps for the fall, commit to knit a human-sized sweater. Now….where do I get a bear?

Computer Crashes, Birthday presents and Socks

Shortly after my last blog entry, I turned on my computer. I soon got an ominous screen saying “Operating System not found”. My frustration and anger started a slow boil. “Oh no, what happened?” I tried re-booting…..Same error. Now panic was starting to set in. “Did I back up enough, if I can’t recover this?” I had backed up all my pictures and purchased knitting patterns but had not finished copying other important things. I turned it off.

The next morning I tried again to no avail. It was Tuesday. I asked my husband to help me but I thought that perhaps we should wait for the weekend when our minds were rested and thinking clearly. I just could not afford a wipe out of my harddrive at this point, even by mistake. I grieved and prayed the remainder of the week,
hoping to recover at the very least the data on my hard drive.

Saturday was a busy day, so we could not get to the task of fixing my computer until the next day. So on Sunday, my husband sat down and turns my computer on and…….it boots up Windows like nothing happened! I tell my husband, “You’re a genius!!! You have the magic touch!”. I don’t know what it was, perhaps the prayer helped too. Thank you, Lord, for the miracle!.

During the week, I comforted myself doing….what else,….knitting! I worked on the Monkey socks and was finished with the heel flap, ready to work on the gusset, when I discovered the wrong count of stitches. I discovered my mistake and had to rip back to the start of the heel. Today I’ve finished the gusset and am starting on the rest of the foot. The sock is not just a sock, but a “work of art”! Cookie A. made a very inspiring and simple pattern. I’m not sure I like the thickness of the sock, but it is very interesting to make. I prefer to wear thin socks but they are so boring to make and do not wear well through washings.

I also started the Bears and Babies Sweater. It’s June and I thought I might as well start that sweater before my grandson is born in August. The first sleeve portion is done.

June is a very busy month in my family for birthdays. My birthday is this month. I thought I would give myself a birthday present by ordering some books and other knitting things. My husband got home and I said “ I picked out and ordered my birthday present from you this year! He said, “ Well, wasn’t that ingenious of me?!” When the order arrived by mail this week, I gave him a Big Hug and shouted “You are so good. It’s just what I wanted!!!” This is what I got: Books: “No Idle Hands: the Social History of American Knitting by Anne Macdonald, Knitting from the Top, by Barbara G. Walker, Knitting in the Old Way, by Pricilla Gibson Roberts. Enjoying making the Monkey Socks has inspired me to make more socks so I ordered 3 colors of Felici Sock yarn from Knit Picks, the set of metal double points needles, Size 1 and Size 2 wooden double point needles and some Harmony Cable needles.

Another reason I chose the above because of “Sock Wars”. Have you heard about it? What an intriguing idea? To fake assassinate people by knitting and sending them a pair of handknit socks. This week, the video podcast, Let’s Knit Together, shows the process Cat went to make and send her socks in the War. I can’t wait for Part II. It amazes me that people actually are loosing sleep to dedicate themselves to make socks as fast as they can in order to assassinate before they get assassinated!

Wicked weather and project update

It has been awhile since I’ve posted to this blog. This is because my computer has been responding so slowly making me so frustrated. I’ve downloaded a program that should make it more efficient and organized but I don’t think this is helping much. I haven’t wanted to deal with it and avoid the frustration. I feared that I may eventually throw it across the room to deal with it.

Soo…I’ve taken a break and now feel the pressure to come back to update on what I’ve been doing……

Projects still on my needles….

Swallowtail shawl: I’ve enjoyed working on this up till now. My handspun merino is making it so soft but a little springy. I think perhaps this yarn would have been better suited for a baby sweater, but I am determined to use it for the shawl. I keep wondering if it will block correctly when finished because of its springyness.
I’ve finished the budding lace pattern adding 5 pattern repeats to make it larger. And now I move on to the Lily of the Valley lace pattern and I hit a wall! The purl 5 tog are so difficult and somewhere I ended up at the end with the wrong stitch count! I’ve frogged it back to the beg of this pattern and haven’t had the courage or concentration to attempt this part again. I’m trying to think of an easier way to do this stitch. Perhaps with a crochet hook?

Pinwheel baby blanket in seafoam green: This is my TV knitting that doesn’t need a lot of concentration. It’s about 18” in diameter so far. I’m using Lion Brand Pound of Love which is a very soft acylic. It will be perfect for my grandson to be born in August.
Socks: I started some socks but after knitting about 5 inches of the calf, I realized it was turning out too big! The pattern I’m using, Flip Flop Socks from Knitted Socks, called for Size 2 needles and sock yarn that matched the gauge. I only had Size 1’s and Size 3 dpns available, so I decided to use the Size 3 and came down one size in the pattern. I realize now that I should have come down two sizes. And so I ripped it out and started over. After several unsuccessful restarts I decided to bite the bullet, change to Size 1's and attempt the Monkey Socks by Cookie A.
My current UFO’s: Woodland Shawl, Celtic tote, Bell Curve Skirt, Tofustsies socks, Candlelight Scarf in doubled lace wt, Adult Surprise Sweater, and Walters Sweater. These have been languishing from neglect for a few weeks.

I am feeling the need to finish something again. So I dug out my Branching Out scarf I’m knitting in handspun Mohair/Wool. I have about 10 more inches to go. This is the project that is closest to being finished.

Wicked Weather

Warmer weather is coming, although one would think California has been a bit schitzophrenic lately. Over the past two weeks, the weather has changed from hot (over 100 degrees) to 60-70s about 3 or 4 times. We had a downpour the other day, which flooded my office building. Itd rained 4 inches of peasized hail and generated a couple of tornados in the area. The picture below shows our feable attempts to dam to water with a blanket, but it kept raining and water continued to seep under the doors. I heard Baldwin Park, which south of us, looked like a winter wonderland in May! Can you believe it?!!! Stranger weather has not happened in my lifetime. This can’t be good for our health! Soo….. among this resurgence of winterlike weather, I’ve been getting the itch to spin again.
Looking over my stash I found some Romney Roving. It seemed a little dry and rough so I spun it very fine in a lace wt. I also found a box of white mohair in locks of 4-5 inches. I think it is time I did something with it, so I decided to spin it fine and ply it with the Romney to soften the yarn. It came out very nice. The mohair gives it a wonderful shiny sheen. The first skein about 180 yds. I want to try to make another skein, enough for a scarf or shawl. I wonder how it would look dyed? Stay tuned…….