Eastburn Adventures

It's been a while since any of the Springfield knit-bloggers have been able to get together, so we decided to try this weekend. Zarah and I were going to hang out yesterday, but the sirens started going off and we had tornado warnings in the area for over three hours. We rescheduled for this afternoon, and Brianne was able to join us, too! We are all really sick of the rain.

Zarah helped me out in my quest for organization by giving me this cool little notions case, first discovered from Grumperina. It's so perfect for stitch markers and other little knitting gizmos and gadgets. (It's actually a bead organizer from Wal-Mart.) I'm still searching for the perfect bag, so let me know if you have any thoughts.

Brianne also surprised me with a gift! I had commented on how much I loved the Handpainted Yarn she had posted about and she gave me 3 balls of her leftovers! (That's a good knitting friend!) I shared the love by giving one ball to Zarah and promised her the leftover from my project (which I'm still deciding on).

Zarah, Brianne, Kathy and I are all going to be regulars at Kate's knitting circle where she's going to teach us how to knit toe-up socks, two at once, using Magic Loop. It will be so nice to get together with the girls on a more consistent basis. I still sometimes can't believe how something so simple as learning how to knit has brought three new friends into my life. Knitting rocks!

I've realized that when the only things one has on her needles is large projects, like sweaters, scarves, etc., it's too long between finished objects! I love Ravelry, but it was a little depressing to mark My So-Called Scarf finished and see that I started it in May! I'm thinking the Irish Hiking Scarf may go on hiatus while I start some new (smaller) projects! Anyway, I'm really pleased with how MSCS turned out.

I used slightly more than one hank of Lorna's Laces Worsted in the Gold Hill colorway. I think it's been discontinued, but I found it on eBay and am so glad I did. This yarn is perfect for this scarf. One hank was really enough - I may have used 1 additional yard from the 2nd hank to finish it off (which means that the remainder of the ball is headed for Brianne's stash).
Now, on to socks!

Am I nuts? Crazy? Insane? Loopy? Or just extremely optimistic?

My Christmas knitting list is as follows:

1. Gentlemen's Fancy Socks from Nancy Bush's "Knitting Vintage Socks"
2. Basket Weave socks from Charlene Schurch's "Sensational Knitted Socks"
3. Two pair of Fetching from Knitty, Summer 2006
4. Eleanor socks by Gigi Silva
5. Short-Row Hat by Veronik Avery
6. Ten Ball-band dishcloths from Mason Dixon Knitting
7. Monkey socks from Knitty, Winter 2006
8. Side Cable Slippers from Free Patterns
9. Another HP scarf

That's 19 knitted items (and 7 of them come in pairs)! Plus, I still have my Resolutions to complete, which includes my sweater, Lizard Ridge, shawl, Moss Grid Hand Towel, and a few more things!

Forget insanity - I think I'm delusional! Anyway, I have a plan.

I hope everyone had a Happy Independence Day yesterday. Robert and I were honored to attend the semi-secret wedding of a dear friend of ours in Eureka Springs, AR. Congratulations, Judy and Daniel! We pray God's richest blessings on your life together!

There were a couple of wedding crashers:

After the wedding, we made a brief stop at the Crescent Hotel, where their gardens were absolutely gorgeous.

Besides the wedding, the best part of the day? 4+ hours in the car and the Irish Hiking Scarf is finished! FREEDOM!!

Stats: Blue Sky Alpaca in Paprika, Size 8 Denise needles. This is a great beginner cabling project and I was very excited to realize that I could "read" the pattern in stitches I'd already knit, making it go very fast once I dedicated some time to it.

I have a history of not falling prey to much hyped events. Even though "Star Wars" came out when I was in elementary school, I never watched the movies until I was in college. (Yes, I do believe that Darth Vader was framed.) "Grease" came out when I was in junior high. I refused to see it and didn't watch it until after college. Now I watch it every time it's on TV and sing along to Zarah's favorite "Beauty School Dropout" and my favorite "There are Worse Things I Could Do." Then there were these books about a boy wizard - what's his name? Oh, yeah, Harry Potter. I didn't start reading them until "Goblet of Fire" was out. Yes, I'm hooked. Yes, it's 5 days until the movie comes out, and I'm counting down until July 21 when "Deathly Hallows" comes out.

So what does this have to do with knitting? First off, I finished one of Fetching wristlets tonight. I've made so many of these I honestly think I could knit them in my sleep.

So what's new about this one? Okay, I've joined the bandwagon - late as usual. Thanks to the clear and concise instructions from Grumperina, I am now cabling without a cable needle. (Yes, Kate, you told me so.)

The first pair of Fetching are completed! Cross one item off of the Christmas knitting.

This is how much yarn I had left over.

Next pair - Knit Picks Ambrosia in Petal with a Telemark Drift stripe.

I am not a fan of blocking. There, I admit it. Still, sometimes it is a necessary evil. Like with the Dream Swatch. First of all, Yippee!, it's finished. This has been my albatross project. I think I started it because I wanted something to work on in between larger projects, but I quickly became bored with it. Then Lizard Ridge became my in between project, because even though it's a large project, it comes in small bites. But this past week I've been on a mission to finish up the things I've been working on for so long. So now, even though it's blocking, I hereby declare Dream Swatch finito.

Details: Size 5 needles, Plymouth Royal Bamboo yarn.
And, since I was blocking it, and I needed to block the Irish Hiking Scarf, I figured I'd throw a few Lizard Ridge squares on the board, too. I think that's a good plan - I can't imagine trying to block 30 of those squares at once!

And, I've also started on the second pair of Fetching from my Christmas list. I hope I can keep up this level of intensity. Robert says that I'm back in my "knitting sweatshop" mode!

Man, I was doing so good staying on top of my knitting and blogging! Then, life happened. Somehow, though, I managed to start and finish the second pair of Fetching.

But when you've made as many pair as I have, sometimes you have to do something different to break the monotony.

Monday night at the Sit-N-Knit, Kate taught a bunch of us Magic Loop. I do not like the Figure 8 cast on, but once I got going, I'm really kind of diggin' Magic Loop. We'll see what happens when I get to the heel. I was lazy, though, and decided I didn't want to try to match up the repeat of the Knit Picks Felici yarn. So these socks aren't going to match the stripes. Hmmm. I was thinking of making these as Monkey socks for a Christmas gift (yes, to everyone who knows me well - I'm freaking out because they're called Monkeys, and I don't like monkeys! The sock pattern is still cool). What do I do? Frog them and start over (did I mention I don't like the Figure 8 cast on?), or let them have their own character of being slightly mismatched. Once I start the pattern on the leg, maybe it won't be so obvious? Tell me now, before I get too much further.

(I'm afraid I already know the answer.)

It's been a week since I posted last? What happened? I remember starting the toe-up socks a week ago Monday; the stripes didn't match, and despite Lola's encouragement to keep going, I ripped them out. I have been working on them, but I've apparently forgotten I'm supposed to take pictures to show you my progress.

So here they are: Two at a time, toe-up, Monkey socks. Three repeats down. Or up. Whatever. I'm a little concerned that they're still too big, at least for the recipient I was first thinking of giving these to, so they may be someone else's Christmas gift. We'll see.

I'm hoping to be ready to do the heels by next Monday so Kate can teach me at the Sit-n-Knit, because the following Friday I'm leaving for a week for a business trip. More about that later. But I'll be trying to squeeze in knitting between devouring the seventh and final Harry Potter book. I think I probably will be buying it at midnight tomorrow and reading until I'm done on Saturday.

It's going to be a long weekend.

Nope, not with a knitting project, but with my first reading of "Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows." Robert, Steve, Ginger, and I went to Wal-Mart last night at 12:01 a.m. to get our copies, after having dinner and visiting downtown Springfield's transformation into Diagon Alley (which was kind of a disappointment).

Overall, I'm saddened that the series is finished, but I'm in awe of J.K. Rowling's written creation. No spoilers, but this book was definitely one of my favorites in the series.

I'm going to go take a nap now.

It's been another crazy week that's kept me from updating the blog. I've been trying to keep up and get ahead at work in anticipation of a work-related trip. I flew out today to Boston - my first time here. I'm going to be spending a week in Cannon Trust School's Fiduciary and Investment Risk Management course. And even though it's so hard to be away from the love of my life, Robert agreed that I should take a couple of extra days for sightseeing. He's the best!

I'm staying in the Student Village at Boston University. This is my dorm room.

Better yet, this is the view from my dorm room. That's the Charles River.

After I got settled, I hopped on the T, and headed to Harvard Square. After buying the obligatory Harvard t-shirt (which I really wanted because I've been watching the "Dharma & Greg" reruns lately), I scoped out the nearest LYS, Woolcott's. It was okay, nothing special. But that may be because Grumperina and Jess have gotten my hopes up for Mecca - more about that next week - I'm going to try to get there on Saturday. I did buy a couple of balls of Noro Kureyon for Lizard Ridge, though. It was only $8.50/ball, which is a little less expensive than other places I've been buying it.

And, since I had two plane rides this morning, I made some progress on the Monkey socks.

If you've checked my Ravelry projects, I've put a few more things on as WIP's. I'm optimistic about 10 days here with no TV. We'll see what happens.

Tomorrow, I'm taking a tour to New Hampshire and Maine. I'll try to be more current with my posts. See ya!

So here I am, in my room, minding my own business and knitting, when, BOOM!

That's a bad way to start a weekend.

Okay, I'm really tired tonight, and more sightseeing tomorrow, so here's just a few photos I took today.

I also had some authentic New England Clam Chow-dah for lunch. Yum. And, since I spent all day on a bus today, here's Lizard Ridge number 13 (I think).

I did pay attention to the sights - more photos are on my Flickr page - my user id is Darth Knitter.