Eastburn Adventures

I decided at the first of the year that I would have specific knitting goals for 2008. Although Ravelry's queue function is awesome, it can get overwhelming to see all of the projects I've marked that I want to make someday. So a while back, I started moving items from my queue to favorites, and I'm leaving the queue for projects I want to be immediately on my radar. That wasn't quite enough organization for me, so I created a Google Document that listed projects by month. It's a work in progress, but it's helping me to stay on track.

In January, my goal was to knit a pair of socks (I'm counting Robert's Earl Grey's since most of the knitting was done in January), the Clapotis, the Baby Matinee Coat, the Koolhaas Hat, finish knitting the Lizard Ridge blanket, and a pair of mittens for myself. We all know now the story of Lizard Ridge and Clapotis. I didn't finish Koolhaas, but it's about 1/2 done and I should finish it this weekend.

Last night, I finished the Baby Matinee Coat, and for good measure whipped up a pair of Saartje's booties. These are so cute, quick to knit, and I highly recommend both of these patterns for a quick baby gift. I just need to find some cute buttons, and then I'm delivering these today to my SIL.

Up next for February? I've got Knit Together's KAL of Child's First Socks, and then I'm wanting to make my mittens, a pair of Monkey's for myself, and the last of my Christmas knitting, the Pink Ribbon socks. Thank goodness it's leap year and there's 29 days this month!

Last Saturday the girls surprised me with a wonderful birthday present, which is now proudly displayed in what is affectionately known as The Stash. (Yes, "stash" is now a location as well as an object.) It's the lovely mirror with pegs, now displaying some of my favorite Dream in Color Smooshy yarn!

Thanks again, girls! You're the best!

Since finishing up Clapotis and making a monthly plan, I've been cruising along on my knitting and finishing up some of my WIP's. Tonight I finished my Koolhaas hat - yay! Zarah gave me her leftovers of the yummiest Tess Superwash yarn and it is gorgeous! I've got to get my hands on some more of this fiber. The only bad thing about it is that the color really bleeds. My hands turned blue every time I picked up the project to work on it.

Anyway, I started this hat back in November, and then got distracted with Christmas knitting and then the Clap. Once I started focusing on the hat, it really was a quick knit. It's not perfect, but I'm pretty pleased with it! Somehow my stitch count got (way) off, but the pattern worked. The hat came out a little bigger than it was supposed to, but I actually like it that way - now it won't squash and mess up my hair so much! I kind of like it turned up at the brim, too.

I also finished weaving in all the ends of my Lizard Ridge Blanket. Brianne knitted the border on one of the short ends, and Kate did a long side and the other short end, as well as starting to pick up stitches on the last long side. But no worries, Zarah, you still get your opportunity to finish it! You can see a picture of it on Kate's Flickr page. Her Chihuahua, Lucy, really likes the blanket (and from the teeth marks I found tonight, she also likes to chew on stitch markers)!

I'm excited about my knitting plan for this year, because I'm going to try to focus on knitting at least one thing for myself each month. Thursday at Knit Together we started the Child's First Socks in Shell Pattern from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks. I'm using the Tess Sock Yarn that I found at One City Market (and that Zarah tried to steal). If you're thinking that I've recently used Tess, you're right. That's what I made my Koolhaas Hat out of, except it was a dk/worsted weight.

I am so in love with this sock yarn. Looking at the cake, it seems to be a fairly solid red orange. But as I'm knitting it, the subtle color variations are absolutely stunning. I'm just so excited about the yarn and the pattern, too. I can't wait to have another pair of socks for me! And as fast as these are going, I'm hoping to have the pair finished by the end of the week. I'm already ready for the heel on the first sock, and since I don't like really tall socks, I should finish the first one today, especially since I'll have 4 hours this afternoon at Simply fibers Summer in February this afternoon, and Zarah no longer has any reason to distract me!

It's been a little over a year since we had the horrible ice storm that knocked out power in the area for several days for a lot of people. Today we had a reminder of that event with another "small" ice storm, complete with thundersleet! It was crazy - it sounded this morning as if we were in the middle of a big thunderstorm, yet instead of rain it was ice pellets. All the schools and several businesses were closed, and I ended up staying home because I feared I was coming down with strep throat. Poor Robert had to get out in the mess and go to work, though. And we're supposed to get a second round of ice and sleet again tonight.

After several doses of TheraFlu and sleeping for hours on the sofa, I finally woke up and felt good enough to finish the first of my Child's First Socks. I haven't worked non-stop on these like I have other projects, but it still seemed to go pretty fast. This is the first time since I learned Magic Loop that I haven't knit my socks two at a time, so I was a little disappointed when I did the EZ sewn bind off that I didn't already have a pair! I need to cast on for the second sock fast!

If I can stay awake and if Dish doesn't go out (like it does every time it rains), maybe I can work on Sock #2 while watching one of my favorite annual events on television tonight - the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show!

As Valentine's Days go, I think 2008 is not going to live up to the hype. I have been sick all week, and finally went to Urgent Care this morning, where the doctor said that if I hadn't already been on antibiotics that my regular doctor called in for me, I'd probably have pneumonia right now. No wonder I haven't been myself. The one good thing about being home sick, is that when I have felt like being upright, as opposed to curled up on the couch watching Ellen Degeneres and reruns of 7th Heaven, is that one can finish a pair of socks in a week. Eight days technically, but since I didn't knit at all yesterday, I'm saying I finished the Child's First Socks in 7 days. That beats my previous record of 9 Days.

Stats: Child's First Socks in Shell Pattern (Ravelry link)
Needles: Size 1 1/2 Addi Turbos (2.50mm)
Yarn: Tess Designer Yarns Super Socks

Love, love, love the yarn. Love, love, love the pattern. Love, love, love the finished socks. And. . . love, love, love the Robert. All you need is love. Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

So, like I've mentioned before, I have a knitting plan for 2008 to work in conjunction with my Ravelry queue so that I'm focused, challenged, and efficient. The plan gives me focus so that I don't look at my queue and get overwhelmed - I know what I want or need to knit in a certain month. I want the plan to challenge me, both in improving my knitting skills as well as learning new techniques or trying projects that I've not done before. Although the plan started January 1st, I still have 2 projects that I've not started that I wanted to finish in January, including a Christmas gift for 2007. Oops. The other project is a pair of mittens, which I plan to start today and hopefully finish in a couple of days. The only things left on my February list are another pair of mittens, and a pair of Monkey socks for me (although I've got to change the name because I hate monkeys and it's freakin' me out). Maybe by March I'll be caught up.

One of the projects on my January list was the Baby Matinee Coat and Saartje's Booties for my SIL who is due in March. That gift was finished and delivered, at which time my SIL said, "oh, that's so cute - could you make me another sweater in white and another pair of booties to match?" Uh, yeah. Sure. Why not? How could I say that it's not part of my plan? Nope. I couldn't bring myself to turn her down - especially in front of Robert's entire family. So while I've been home sick this past week, I finished my Child's First Socks and as an incentive to move on to something else I want to knit for me, I made myself start the new baby project first. So Thursday night while watching "Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's End" (don't waste your time on this one), I made the booties. Friday I cast on for the Baby Bolero/Shrug from Debbie Bliss, and I finished it up this morning and gave to my MIL for delivery. I think it turned out pretty cute, and since it was so fast to make, it will stay on my list of baby gift options.

I used Knit Picks Swish DK, and have to say this is a fabulous, inexpensive, soft, and washable yarn perfect for baby gifts. And since I had to place a KP order, I also threw in some more Essential in Pumpkin and Shine Worsted in Terra Cotta. Yeah, I'm on an orange kick.

And now, back to the plan. I've got some mittens to make!

It's finished. Completely finished. I love it. 30 squares, 27 balls of Noro Kureyon, 3 skeins of Cascade 220, 13 months, and 4 knitters later, I have a Lizard Ridge Blanket. If it weren't for Zarah, I wouldn't have been inspired to knit this mammoth project, and if it weren't for Zarah, I'd still be seaming it together - probably for several months. If it weren't for Kate and Brianne and Zarah, I wouldn't have the border done, either. I therefore dub thee, Lizard Ridge Blanket, henceforth and forevermore - the Sisterhood of the Traveling Blanket. Poor Zarah had to make hers all by herself, but now that Kate's starting her own, I'm sure we'll all be doing our parts to help out. That's what a knitting sisterhood is for, right?

Oh, Sammy and Wally like it, too.

The Plan is working. At least it is with my knitting, but I apparently forgot to include blogging in The Plan. Because somehow I managed to knit an entire pair of socks in a week - yep, 7 days (my best time ever - so far - and theoretically, I could have finished them in 4 days because I cast on for the second sock yesterday and finished this afternoon) - and completely failed to take a single in progress photo or dedicate a blog post to them.

Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A.
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in Chinatown Apple
Needles: Addi Turbo 32" circular size 1 1/2

My love affair with Smooshy continues. Everyone is so hyped up over the ever-elusive Wollmeise (and I do have one skein of it as well), but Smooshy is in my mind just as gorgeous, soft and well, smooshy, and the colors are well, dreamy. And best of all? It's accessible and available.

Next up on The Plan? I'm determined to make a pair of mittens before winter is over! I've been fighting with the oh, so yummy Mirasol Miski baby llama yarn that Spunky sent me for Christmas - and the problem is the patterns I'm choosing, not the yarn. I think Zarah found the right pattern for me, though, so I'm trying again. I also am resurrecting the Pink Ribbon Socks which were supposed to be Angie's Christmas socks (plus, she's holding my birthday present hostage until she gets them). I wonder if I can get both of these done this week?